Helen Shaver (born February 24, 1951) is a Canadian actress and film and television director. She has received Emmy and Saturn Award nominations, among other honours.

Early life

Shaver was born and raised, with five sisters, in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, a small city located near London, Ontario. As a child, she suffered from chronic rheumatic fever and, between the ages of five and twelve, was forced to spend six months of each year in bed or in hospitals, which she said fostered her introspective side. She attended the Banff School of Fine Arts as a teenager and studied acting at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

Career

After roles in such Canadian features as Outrageous! (1977), Starship Invasions (1977), Who Has Seen the Wind (1977) and High Ballin’ (1978), Shaver won a Canadian Film Award as Best Lead Actress opposite Tom Berenger (for her performance as "Ann MacDonald") in In Praise of Older Women (1978).

In 1985, Shaver appeared in the film Desert Hearts as a 1950s university professor who falls in love with another woman. Her performance, with co-star Patricia Charbonneau, drew critical praise and Shaver won the Bronze Leopard Award at the Locarno International Film Festival. Another prominent film performance during that time came in 1986 as the love interest of Paul Newman in his Oscar-winning portrayal of "Fast Eddie Felson" in Scorsese's The Color of Money, a sequel to 1961's The Hustler.