Background
Henrietta Kaye was born in Brooklyn March 21, 1911.
Henrietta Kaye was born in Brooklyn March 21, 1911.
She studied sculpture at Cooper Union, but she preferred working in the theater and appeared in Broadway musicals during the 1930s.
She was the wife of actor and comedian Jim. Described by The New York Times as "a leggy redead with a droll sense f humor", she appeared in Orson Welles"s Project 891 production, Horse Eats Hat (1936), a surrealistic farce co-starring Welles, Joseph Cotten, Hiram Sherman and Arlene Francis. Her husband, National Karson, designed the sets and costumes.
Kaye married actor and comedian Jim Backus in 1943.
Henny and Jim Backus also co-wrote several humorous books, including What Are You Doing After the Orgy? (1962), Only When I Laugh (1965), Backus Strikes Back (1984) and Forgive Us Our Digressions (1988). Henny wrote Care for the Caretaker (1999), documenting her husband"s battle with Parkinson"s Disease and offering practical solutions for those facing such dilemmas.
In 1989, Jim Backus died from complications of pneumonia. Upon her own death at age 93, following a series of strokes, Henny was buried next to her husband in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Los Angeles
Woking as Henriette Kaye, she was a member of the Federal Theatre Project.