Helene Stanley

Stanley was born in Gary, Indiana. Her parents were Michael Freymouth, who was an acrobat who worked in Europe, and Gerty Freymouth (née Seigert).^{[citation needed]} She spent most of her childhood in southern California. ^[1]

At the age of four, she won the World’s Fair Contests of Contests in Chicago as an acrobatic dancer, winning a $25 prize. ^[2]

Stanley used the stage name "Dolores Diane." In 1946, she received a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and began to use the stage name "Helene Stanley,"^[3] with one of her most notable appearances being a brief role in John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950).

Her collaboration with Disney started around 1948. She became the live-action model for both the main character and one of the stepsisters Anastasia Tremaine in Cinderella,^[4] Aurora in Sleeping Beauty,^[5][6] and Anita Radcliffe in One Hundred and One Dalmatians.^[7][8] In the season three episode of Walt Disney's Disneyland (1957), Tricks of Our Trade, Stanley appears as herself performing a ballet routine for several studio animation directors animating scenes from the Dance of the Hours segment of Fantasia.

Helene Stanley was married to Johnny Stompanato^[9][10][11] on January 17, 1953, with their divorce dated February 10, 1955.^[12]

After Stompanato, Stanley married a physician from Beverly Hills, David Niemetz. They had a son, David Niemetz Jr., in 1961.^[13] After they were married, Stanley formally retired from show business in 1962, one year after the birth of her son.^[14]

Stanley died on December 27, 1990, in Los Angeles of ovarian cancer.^{[citation needed]}