page_title: Helen Gahagan Douglas
section_title: Later life
hierarchical_section_title: Helen Gahagan Douglas / Later life
caption_attribution_description: English: Helen Gahagan,
context_page_description: Helen Gahagan Douglas was an American actress and politician. Her career included success on Broadway, as a touring opera singer, and the starring role in the 1935 movie She, in which her portrayal of the villain inspired Disney's Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
  In politics, she was the third woman and first Democratic woman elected to Congress from California; her election made California one of the first two states to elect female members to the House from both parties. In 1950, she unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate, losing to Republican Richard Nixon. The campaign became symbolic of modern political vitriol, as both Gahagan's primary opponent Manchester Boddy and Nixon referred to her as "pink right down to her underwear", suggesting Communist sympathies.
  She was married to fellow actor Melvyn Douglas.
context_section_description: It was rumored that Douglas would have been given a political appointment in the Truman administration, but that the Nixon-Douglas race had made such an appointment too controversial for Truman. According to Democratic National Committee vice-chair India Edwards, a Douglas supporter, Douglas could not have been appointed dogcatcher.
  She returned to acting in 1952, and later campaigned for John F. Kennedy, who ran successfully against Nixon in the 1960 presidential race. Kennedy's successor Lyndon Johnson appointed her to be "Special Ambassador" to the inauguration of Liberian President William Tubman. However, Douglas's subsequent opposition to the Vietnam War angered Johnson, estranging him from her. She also campaigned for George McGovern in his unsuccessful bid to prevent Nixon's 1972 re-election, and she called for Nixon's removal from office during the Watergate scandal.
  During and after the Watergate scandal, bumper stickers featuring the legend "Don't blame me, I voted for Helen Gahagan Douglas" cropped up on cars in California. At its 1979 commencement ceremonies, Barnard College awarded Gahagan Douglas its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction. She died the following year from breast and lung cancer, with her husband Melvyn by her side.
caption: Helen Gahagan
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