Helene Costello

By the mid-1920s, she had reached the peak of her popularity, earning a reported $3,000 a week. In 1927, she was selected as a WAMPAS Baby Star, a promotional honor for up-and-coming actresses. The following year, she co-starred in Lights of New York, the first all-talking full-length feature. Later that year, she was released from her Warner Bros. contract after refusing to star opposite Rin Tin Tin again, having previously appeared with the canine star in While London Sleeps (1926). Her final substantial role was in The Show of Shows (1929), where she performed a musical number with her sister Dolores.

After the onset of sound films, her career declined, reportedly because her voice did not record well. She also faced personal struggles, including illness, addiction, and financial difficulties. She took a break from film from 1930 to 1934, returning in a supporting role in Riffraff (1936). Her last role was a bit part in The Black Swan (1942), after which she filed for bankruptcy.

Costello was married four times, each ending in divorce. Her first husband was football player John W. Regan, whom she married in 1927. Her second was actor-director Lowell Sherman, married in 1930. Her third was Dr. Arturo de Barrio, a lawyer from a prominent Cuban family, whom she married in 1933; the marriage was briefly considered invalid due to a divorce technicality. Her fourth husband was artist George Lee Le Blanc, whom she married in 1940. They had a daughter, Diedre, born in 1941. The couple divorced in 1948 after a custody battle over Diedre, during which her father and Lionel Barrymore testified on her behalf. In 1957, she was admitted to a hospital under an assumed name for addiction treatment, but she died two days later of pneumonia at age 50.