Helen Gallagher, Star ofRyan’s Hopeand Two-Time Tony Winner, Dies at 98

Mar. 15, 2025

Helen Gallagher in 1975.Photo:ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Helen Gallagher has died.

Gallagher, a Broadway star who found wider fame playing Maeve Ryan on the ABC soap operaRyan’s Hopefrom 1975 to 1989, died at the age of 98. Playbill announced the news in anInstagramtribute.

“We are saddened to report that two-time Tony winner Helen Gallagher has passed away at the age of 98,” the post read. “Our condolences go out to her family, friends, and fans.”

Edith Meeks, executive and artistic director at New York’s Herbert Berghof Studio,toldThe Washington Postthe actress died on Sunday, Nov. 24 at a New York City hospital.

Helen Gallagher in 1954.Eliot Elisofon/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Eliot Elisofon/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dancing was her first love. She made her Broadway debut in 1944 in the musical revueSeven Lively Artsafter landing the gig becauseof her dancing prowess. Her first major breakthrough came in the 1952 revival ofPal Joey,for which she won her first Tony Award, for best featured actress in a musical.

She had her first starring role in 1953’sHazel Flaggas the title character. “I was petrified the first week of rehearsals,” she toldThe New York Timesin 1953. “After three days, I told my agent to get me out. I couldn’t do the role.”

Helen Gallagher performing at the 1972 Tony Awards.Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

“What do you do? You keep working. You work hard with the director and then you hit on something and you say, ‘Ah yes, this is good,’ and you’re started.”

She continued to work on Broadway for decades, in shows includingMake a Wish,Portofino,High Button ShoesandSweet Charity, for which she received another Tony nomination. When Gwen Verdon left the production, Gallagher stepped in as the title character.

From Left: Bernard Barrow, Helen Gallagher and Daniel Hugh Kelly in ‘Ryan’s Hope.'.ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

In 1975, she joined the soap operaRyan’s Hopefor its first season, playing Irish-American matriarch Maeve.Ryan’s Hopewas unlike other soap operas in that it was set in a real place and real city — New York — and shied away from the more fantastical, over-the-top plots of other daytime dramas.

‘‘The studio head thinks soap operas fulfill escapist fantasies of romance and glamor, but my theory is that a show like ours feeds other fantasies — about family closeness,” Gallagher toldThe New York Timesin 1983. ‘‘Maeve is caring, the mother figure who’s in there pitching on the side of the kids. In the soap, I’m a friend, I’m family.’’

Gallagher stayed with the show until it was canceled in 1989 and won three Daytime Emmys for her role.

Helen Gallagher in 1993.Alamy

Alamy

Gallagher also appeared in the 1977 filmRoselandwith Christopher Walken. In the 1990s, she appeared on two other soap operas,One Life to LiveandAll My Children.

But she considered herself a character actress and didn’t want to be a star. “I could have had a more high-powered career, but I never wanted to be anyone’s commodity,” she toldThe New York Times.

“HB Studio is my home, and teaching there has been one of the greatest joys of my life,” she said at the time, perthe school’s website.

Helen Gallagher in 1973.Dave Buresh/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Dave Buresh/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Gallagher married Frank Wise in 1956. Per their wedding announcement inThe New York Times, they met when he was a stagehand forThePajama Game.

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Remembering their courtship in 1971, she toldthe Times, “He never spoke to me. Finally one night he said hello. I said, ‘My God, it talks!’ Well, that shut him up about a week, till one matinee he said, ‘You ever been to Versailles, the restaurant?’ I said, ‘No, you got any ideas who could take me?’ He said, ‘What are the qualifications?’ I said, ‘Oh, somebody who speaks English, somebody like you.’” That’s the kind of relationship it is, not made in heaven.”

Gallagher and Wise divorced in 1972.

source: people.com