Henny Backus
American actress (1911–2004)
title: "Henny Backus" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1911-births", "2004-deaths", "american-stage-actresses", "american-humorists", "20th-century-american-memoirists", "burials-at-westwood-village-memorial-park-cemetery", "federal-theatre-project-people", "american-women-memoirists", "20th-century-american-actresses", "20th-century-american-women-writers"] description: "American actress (1911–2004)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Backus" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American actress (1911–2004) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Henny Backus |
| image | Henny Backus (1969).jpg |
| caption | Henny Backus in 1969 |
| birth_name | Henrietta Kaye |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| other_names | Henriette Kaye |
| resting_place | Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery |
| occupation | Actress |
| years_active | 1936–1981 |
| spouse | {{plainlist |
| * {{marriage | Jim Backus |
| :: |
| name = Henny Backus | image = Henny Backus (1969).jpg
| caption = Henny Backus in 1969
| birth_name = Henrietta Kaye | birth_date = | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | other_names = Henriette Kaye | resting_place = Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1936–1981 | spouse = {{plainlist|
- Nat Karson
Henny Backus (born Henrietta Kaye, March 21, 1911 – December 9, 2004) was a Broadway showgirl in the 1930s whose stage credits include Orson Welles's Horse Eats Hat. She was the wife of actor and comedian Jim Backus.
Career
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Horse-Eats-Hat-04.jpg" caption="Henriette Kaye in [[Orson Welles]]'s surrealistic farce ''[[Horse Eats Hat]]'' (1936)"] ::
She had the role of Bee in the Broadway play Chrysalis (1932). Working as Henriette Kaye, she was a member of the Federal Theatre Project. Described by The New York Times as "a leggy redhead with a droll sense of humor", she appeared in Orson Welles's Project 891 production Horse Eats Hat (1936), a surrealistic farce co-starring Welles, Joseph Cotten, Hiram Sherman and Arlene Francis. Her husband, Nat Karson, designed the sets and costumes.
Kaye married actor and comedian Jim Backus in 1943. The couple co-starred in the 1960s television series Blondie, and they performed together once on Gilligan's Island, in the sitcom's second-season episode "Gilligan's Mother-In-Law" (1965). She appeared too with her husband in a season-five episode of The Love Boat.
Henny and Jim Backus co-authored several humorous books, including What Are You Doing After the Orgy? (1962), Only When I Laugh (1965), Backus Strikes Back (1984), and Forgive Us Our Digressions (1988). Henny also wrote Care for the Caretaker (1999), documenting her husband's battle with Parkinson's disease and offering practical solutions for those facing such dilemmas.
References
References
- "Henrietta Kaye". The Broadway League.
- Bayot, Jennifer. (December 17, 2004). "Henny Backus, 93, an Actress and Author With Husband Jim, Dies". [[The New York Times]].
- [[Richard France (writer). France, Richard]], ''The Theatre of Orson Welles''. Cranbury, New Jersey: [[Associated University Presses]], Inc. 1977 {{ISBN. 0-8387-1972-4
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