Helen Hanft (April 4, 1934 – May 30, 2013) was an American actress.
Hanft was born in the Bronx, the eldest of three daughters born to Esther and Benjamin Hanft. Her father was a prominent public relations executive for several national Jewish organizations. Her father persuaded her to audition for the High School of Performing Arts, now part of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, and she was admitted.
Hanft started her theatrical career in the early 1960s in the experimental theater movement at Off-Off-Broadway venues like La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and Caffe Cino. She quickly became known as "the Ethel Merman of off-off-Broadway" for her comedic performances. Hanft often played eccentric, raunchy characters, and was featured in many plays by Tom Eyen, including:
My Next Husband Will Be a Beauty! (1964)
The Demented World of Tom Eyen (1965)
Why Hanna's Skirt Won't Stay Down (1965, 1971, 1981)
The White Whore and the Bit Player (1965; she also appeared in the Cannon Films adaptation)
Who Killed My Bald Sister Sophie? (1969)
What is Making Gilda So Gray? (1970)
The Neon Woman (1978; co-starring Divine)
Give My Regards to Off Off Broadway (1987)
She performed in David Rabe's In the Boom Boom Room at Joseph Papp's Public Theater, John Patrick Shanley's Italian American Reconciliation, and multiple plays by Stephen Holt, including Reety in Hell. Hanft also appeared in the following productions at La MaMa during the 1960s and 1970s:
Merrill Williams' At the Corner of Popcorn Alley and the 21st of September Street (1965)
H.M. Koutoukas' Omy Queen of the Fairies and Tidy Passions, or, Kill Kaleidascope Kill (1965)
Paul Foster's The Madonna in the Orchard (1966) directed by Tom O'Horgan
Howard Greenberger and Robert Reinhold's Our Play on the Future Has No Name (1970)
Stephen Holt's The Kitty Glitter Story (1974)
Jeff Klayman's Density 1.33 (1976)