Helen Slayton-Hughes, a prolific character actress with small roles in numerous television shows and films, but best known for her recurring role as court stenographer Ethel Beavers on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, died. She was 92.
Her family announced her death on Facebook yesterday, writing: “Helen passed away last night. Her pain is gone, but her wild spirit lives on. Thank you for the love and support of her and her work. rest sweetie -With love: The Hughes family”
Further details were not immediately available.
Slayton-Hughes came to professional television and film acting late in life – she had been a frequent performer on stage in the San Francisco area and elsewhere for many years – Slayton-Hughes earned her first film and television credits by performing in the early 1980s in the Albert Finney-Diane Keaton function Shoot at the moon and the TV movie Valerie Bertinelli The Princess and the Taxi Driver.
In the early 2000s she turned to more serious acting, with roles as older women Nash Bridges, The Drew Carey Show, Judging Amy, The West Wing, NYPD Blue, Malcolm in the Middle, Arrested Development, My Name is Earl, True Blood, Veronica Mars, The Middle and degrees off the boat.
Her signature role came in 2011 when she joined Parks and Recreation. For the next four seasons and 11 episodes, she played Ethel Beavers, the dead, no-nonsense stenographer surrounded by the eccentrics of Pawnee’s local government offices. In a memorable episode of Season 3, high-spirited ladies’ man Tom (played by Aziz Ansari) tries to charm Ethel, who doesn’t want any of it. In a Season 5 episode, April (Aubrey Plaza) and Andy (Chris Pratt) show up at Ethel’s late one night to get her signature on a marriage certificate, only to find that the stenographer is otherwise busy with a date that went well.
When asked by April and Andy if Ethel would agree to be their adoptive grandmother — typical TV sitcom sentimentalism — Ethel shrugged with an unenthusiastic, “Fine.”
Last year after being cast on the sitcom Ed Helms Peacock Rutherford FallsSlayton-Hughes tweeted, “I’m thrilled and honored to have even the smallest role (albeit that of a great woman on her birthday) included Rutherford Falls – on Peacock in April!…the show is SO special! Don’t miss it!”