Background
Shaver was born and raised, with five sisters, in Saint Thomas, Ontario, Canada, a small city located near London, Ontario.
Shaver was born and raised, with five sisters, in Saint Thomas, Ontario, Canada, a small city located near London, Ontario.
She attended the Banff School of Fine Arts as a teenager and studied acting at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
As a child, she suffered from chronic rheumatic fever and, between the ages of five and twelve, was forced to spend six months of each year in bed or in hospitals, which she said fostered her introspective side. After roles in such Canadian features as Outrageous! In 1985, Shaver appeared in the film Desert Hearts as a 1950s university professor who falls in love with another woman. Another prominent film performance during that time came in 1986 as the love interest of Paul Newman in his Oscar-winning portrayal of "Fast Eddie Felson" in Scorsese"s The Color of Money, a sequel to 1961"s The Hustler.
In 1980, Shaver starred with Beau Bridges in the short-lived National Broadcasting Company television series United States developed by Larry Gelbart.
A year later she starred in the short-lived drama series Jessica Novak. She subsequently appeared on such television shows as Hill Street Blues and T. J. Hooker.
In 1990, she guest-starred as the murderer in Columbo: Rest In Peace, Mistress Columbo, and later that year co-starred on the short-lived series WIOU, playing a television journalist (as she also did on Jessica Novak).
From 1996-1999, Shaver co-starred on the television series Poltergeist: The Legacy, playing Doctor Rachel Corrigan, a widowed psychiatrist with an 8-year-old daughter who is helped by the Legacy in the pilot episode.
Her performance earned a Saturn Award nomination. Shaver has also directed a number of television shows and cable movies, including The Outer Limits, Judging Amy, Joan of Arcadia, Medium, The OC, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The L Word, Jericho, Journeyman, Private Practice, The Unit, Crusoe and Orphan Black. In 2004, Helen Shaver was inducted into Canada"s Walk of Fame.