Recent progress in the semiclassical description of two-electron atoms is reported herein. It is shown that the classical dynamics for the helium atom is of mixed phase space structure, i.e., regular and chaotic motion coexists. Semiclassically, both types of motion require separate treatment. Stability islands are quantized via a torus–quantization-type procedure, whereas a periodic-orbit cycle expansion approach accounts for the states associated with hyperbolic electron pair motion. The results are compared with highly accurate ab initio quantum calculations, most of which are reported here for the first time. The results are discussed with an emphasis on previous interpretations of doubly excited electron states Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics.