page_title: Helen Bonfils
section_title: Marriages
hierarchical_section_title: Helen Bonfils / Marriages
caption_attribution_description: The Wood-Morris-Bonfils House, located at 707 Washington Street in Denver, Colorado
context_page_description: Helen Gilmer Bonfils was an American heiress, actress, theatrical producer, newspaper executive, and philanthropist. She acted in local theatre in Denver, Colorado, and on Broadway, and also co-produced plays in Denver, New York City, and London. She succeeded her father, Frederick Gilmer Bonfils, as manager of The Denver Post in 1933, and eventually became president of the company. Lacking heirs, she invested her fortune into providing for the city of Denver and the state of Colorado, supporting the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank, the Bonfils Memorial Theatre, the University of Denver, the Denver Zoo, the Dumb Friends League, churches, and synagogues. Her estate endowed the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. She was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Colorado Performing Arts Hall of Fame in 1999.
context_section_description: Bonfils met English actor and theatrical producer George Somnes when he was hired by the Elitch Theatre in 1936. They married that year, when Bonfils was 47. The couple – always referred to as "Helen Bonfils and George Somnes" – bought a condominium at River House in New York City and resided in Denver at the Humboldt Street mansion. In 1948 Helen sold the mansion to the Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary and purchased the Wood–Morris–Bonfils House, a French Mediterranean Revival mansion at 707 Washington Street in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver. The couple's amicable personal and professional partnership ended with Somnes' death in February 1956 due to liver failure.
  Craving companionship, Helen turned to her chauffeur, Edward Michael "Tiger Mike" Davis. She married him in April 1959 at the age of 69; he was 28. Bonfils sued for divorce in December 1971 after 12 years of marriage, possibly to preempt any claim Davis might have to her estate. The divorce was granted on the grounds of cruelty. Bonfils retained the rights to her name, and Davis received the Wood–Morris–Bonfils House, $1.6 million in promissory notes, and $50,000 cash.
caption: Wood–Morris–Bonfils House in 2009
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