
Helle Genie Lotinga was born in Aarhus to Jewish rentier Moritz Lotinga and Ellen Larsine (née Rasmussen). Her parents divorced when she was 5, at which point she moved with her mother from Old Rye to Copenhagen. Her paternal family escaped to Sweden doing the occupation of Denmark in 1943. Helle changed her last name from Lotinga to Virkner in 1944.
Helle Virkner was married three times. First to actor William Rosenberg (1944–1949), then to actor Ebbe Rode (1949–1958), and her third marriage was to the then Foreign Minister of Denmark and later Prime Minister Jens Otto Krag (1914–1978), with whom she had one child, daughter Astrid Helene 'Søsser' Krag, a journalist and former model. Krag also had a soon from a previous relationship named Jens Christian Stephan Krag. Helle and Søsser lived together in sheltered housing in Charlottenlund in the last years of Helle's life.

Flickering Lights
2000 · as Tante Beate

Kassen stemmer
1976

The Kingdom II
1998 · as Emma Mortensen

Den kære familie
1962 · as Emilie

Topsy Turvy
1983

The Kingdom
1994 · as Emma Mogensen

Tjærehandleren
1971 · as Elna, Verners kone

Old Maids
1966 · as Bettina Eriksen

Dust on the Brain
1961 · as Fru Bodil Henriksen

Cirkus Buster
1961

The Only Way
1970 · as Ruth Stein

The Olsen Gang's Big Score
1972 · as Fru des Staranwalts

På tro og love
1955 · as Vera Gimmer

3 må man være
1959 · as Elisabeth Halling

Sunstroke
1953 · as Mona Miller - Mannequin

The Olsen Gang Runs Amok
1973 · as Hallandsens sekretær

We Meet at Tove's
1946

The Olsen Gang in Jutland
1971 · as Karen