Helen Reddy, born in Melbourne, Australia, to show business parents, is a singer and actress best known for her 1972 Grammy-winning song “I Am Woman.” She continued to have hit songs in the 1970s and also appeared in Broadway theater and on television. Reddy retired from show business in 2002 and is now a clinical hypnotherapist in Australia.
Helen Reddy has found fame and success as a singer and actress. She is best known for her 1972 Grammy-winning song “I Am Woman.” She was born on October 25, 1941 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to show business parents. Her mother, Shelly Lamond, was a soap opera actress and singer, and her father, Max Reddy, was an actor, writer and producer. Helen Reddy has been performing on stage in Australia since the age of three. When she was 25, she left Australia for New York after winning an Australian Bandstand International competition.
While in New York, Reddy met and married William Morris talent agency manager Jeff Wald and appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Shortly after that appearance, Helen Reddy had her first hit song, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” But it would be “I Am Woman,” which reached number one on the Billboard music charts in October 1972, that would become Helen Reddy’s signature song and also a song associated with feminism in the 1970s. Reddy created controversy when she accepted her Grammy Award for Best Female Performance for “I Am Woman” not by thanking God, but by referring to God as “She.”
Helen Reddy was signed to Capitol Records and continued to churn out hit songs into the 1970s with “Delta Dawn” in 1973 and “Angie Baby” in 1974. She played concerts and was also headlined in dance clubs and cabarets. Helen Reddy has also performed in Broadway theater and performed with symphony orchestras.
Reddy hosted The Midnight Special in 1972 and had her own variety show in 1973. She also appeared as a nun in the film Airport 1975 and guest-starred on such television shows as The Love Boat and Diagnosis Murder. She retired from show business in 2002.
Helen Reddy married her third husband, a drummer named Milton Ruth, in 1982. She has two children from her first and second marriages. Reddy gives motivational speeches, and her varied career path includes three years as California Parks and Recreation Commissioner. She is a clinical hypnotherapist in Australia and is the patron of the Australian Society of Clinical Hypntherapists.
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