Helen Quilley

Helen Quilley is the lead character in the 1998 film Sliding Doors. She is portrayed By Gwenyth Paltrow. She is the center of the film, and you follow her life and how it changes if she catches one tube or not after being fired from her PR job.

In the first sequence (when she catches the tube) she walks in on her boyfriend Gerry (John Lynch) cheating on her with Lydia (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and soon falls for chatty friend James Templeton (John Hannah) who convinces her to start up a PR company.

In the second sequence (missed the train) she gets mugged and has stitches, she comes home after Lydia has left. She gets two part time jobs and remains frustratingly unaware of her boyfriend's affair.

At the end of the film both Helens, who is pregnant in both situations, ends up in hospital with major operations. The Helen who caught the tube does not survive but dies in James' arms, and The Helen who does survive, having found out her boyfriend was cheating on her, starts her life afresh and meets James in the lift of the hospital where he was visiting his mother leaving the viewer guessing about her future.