Helene Stanley

Helene Stanley (born Dolores Diane Freymouth, July 17, 1929 – December 27, 1990) was an American actress and pioneering live‑action model for Walt Disney Studios, best known for providing the physical reference for iconic animated heroines such as Cinderella, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, and Anita Radcliffe in One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Born in Gary, Indiana to acrobat Michael Freymouth and Gerty Freymouth (née Seigert), she spent much of her childhood in Southern California, where she displayed extraordinary physical talent, winning the World’s Fair Contest of Contests in Chicago at the age of four. After early uncredited film appearances in the 1940s, she signed a contract with Metro‑Goldwyn‑Mayer in 1946 and adopted the stage name Helene Stanley, which she used throughout her brief but varied on‑screen career that included roles in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952).

Her collaboration with Disney began around 1948 when the studio sought live models to guide animators; Stanley’s elegant poise and graceful movement became the blueprint for Cinderella’s iconic ballroom dance, Aurora’s serene awakening, and Anita’s mischievous charm. In 1957 she appeared as herself on the Walt Disney’s Disneyland episode “Tricks of Our Trade,” demonstrating a ballet routine for animators. Off‑camera, Stanley married notorious gangster Johnny Stompanato in 1953, divorcing in 1955, and later married physician David Niemetz in 1959, with whom she had a son in 1961. Following her son’s birth, she retired from the entertainment industry in 1962 and later succumbed to ovarian cancer in Los Angeles on December 27, 1990.