Follow Us
Like Us
Historical records matching Helen Maxine Reddy
view all
Immediate Family
-
Privateex-spouse -
ex-husband -
Privateex-spouse
-
Privatechild
-
Privateparent
-
father
-
stepfather
-
Privatehalf sibling
About Helen Maxine Reddy
She was the Candle on the Water. She was a Brazzle-Dazzle Day. She was strong. She was invincible. She was all Woman.
Helen Reddy (born October 25, 1941) is an Australian-American singer and actress. In the 1970s, she enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed fifteen singles in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Three of those fifteen songs reached #1, including her signature hit "I Am Woman."
Reddy was born into a well-known Australian show business family in Melbourne, where she attended Tintern Girls Grammar School. Her mother, Stella Campbell (née Lamond), was an actress, and her father, Maxwell David "Max" Reddy, was a writer, producer and actor. Her half-sister, Toni Lamond, and her nephew, Tony Sheldon, are actor-singers. Reddy is of part Irish descent on her father's side. Her maternal grandfather, Colin Lamond, was a one-time mayor of Waterloo, New South Wales, and her maternal grandmother was actress Stella Coffey.
At age four, Reddy joined her parents on the Australian vaudeville circuit, singing and dancing; she'd recall: "It was instilled in me: You will be a star. So between the ages of 12 and 17 I got rebellious and decided this was not for me. I was going to be a housewife and mother." Reddy's teenage rebellion in favor of domesticity manifested as marriage to Kenneth Claude Weate, a considerably older musician and family friend; divorce ensued within a few months, and to support herself as a single mother – daughter Traci having been born several months after the divorce – Reddy resumed her performing career, concentrating on singing, as health problems precluded dancing (Reddy had a kidney removed at age 17). Reddy sang on radio and television, eventually winning a talent contest on the Australian pop music TV show Bandstand, the prize ostensibly being a trip to New York City to cut a single for Mercury Records. After arriving in New York in 1966, Reddy was informed by Mercury that her prize was only the chance to audition for the label, and that Mercury considered the Bandstand footage to constitute her audition, which was deemed unsuccessful. Despite possessing only $200 and a return ticket to Australia, Reddy elected to remain in the US with three-year-old Traci and pursue a singing career. ( Wikipedia ).
The Official Helen Reddy Website
Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World"
Helen Reddy: "I Am Woman", from "The Midnight Special", 1975
view all
Helen Maxine Reddy's Timeline
| 1941 |
October 25, 1941
|
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
|
|
| 2020 |
September 29, 2020
Age 78
|
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA, United States
|