Founder of Irish Players Helena Carroll Passes Away at 84

Stage and screen actress Helena Carroll passed away due to heart failure on March 31. She was 84.

Daughter of playwright Paul Vincent Carroll, Helena moved to the U.S. from Glasgow in the '50s. She appeared on the Broadway stage in Waiting in the Wings, Design For Living, Private Lives, Borstal Boy, Georgy, Something Different, Pickwick, Oliver!, Separate Tables, Little Moon of Alban and more, and also played roles onstage in Dublin and London, often in works by her father.

Carroll founded The Irish Players, popular in the mid-1950s and '60s. The company presented works by notable Irish playwrights, including John Millington Synge, Donagh McDonagh, her father, and more.

Carroll's film credits include Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Jerk, The Dead, The Mambo Kings, Rocky and Love Affair. She also appeared on television in Ironside, Kojak, Murder, She Wrote, Touched by an Angel and several soap operas.