Virginia Christine

Virginia Christine
Virginia Christine, pictured in 1979 with her husband, Fritz Feld.
Born	Virginia Christine Kraft March 5, 1920 Stanton, Iowa, U.S.
Died	July 24, 1996, (aged 76) Brentwood, California, U.S.
Years active	1943–1979
Spouse	Fritz Feld (1940–1993; his death); 2 children

Virginia Christine (March 5, 1920 – July 24, 1996) was an American film and television actress and voice artist.^[1] Christine had a long career as a character actress in film and television. She played "Mrs. Olsen" (or the "Folgers Coffee Woman") in a number of television commercials for Folgers.

Biography

Born as Virginia Christine Ricketts in Stanton, Iowa. Her name later changed to Virginia Christine Kraft when her mother remarried. She attended kindergarten and early elementary classes at Elmwood Elementary School. She graduated high school at Mediapolis High School in 1937 with a dream of becoming a concert pianist.^[2] She began working in radio while attending UCLA. She was trained for a theatrical career by actor/director Fritz Feld, whom she married in 1940. In 1942, she signed a contract with Warner Bros., and started appearing in various films. Her first film was Edge of Darkness (1942), in which she played a Norwegian peasant girl. In 1946 she played a notable supporting role in the film noir classic The Killers (1946 film). Also in 1946 she appeared in The Scarlet Horseman a 13 chapter Universal serial playing Carla Marquette aka Matosca.

She was adept at imitating foreign accents when the role required it. In "The Lady in Black", a 1953 episode of Adventures of Superman, she appears as the title character, affecting a stereotypically mysterious eastern-European accent. She guest starred in two 1950s Rod Cameron series, State Trooper and COronado 9 as well as the anthology series, The DuPont Show with June Allyson and Behind Closed Doors, and the syndicated sitcom How to Marry a Millionaire.

Virginia Christine, Burt Lancaster, and Ava Gardner in The Killers (1946)

She also appeared in the first Brian Keith series, Crusader, a Cold War drama, on Jeannie Carson's short-lived CBS sitcom, Hey, Jeannie!, and in the syndicated western series Frontier Doctor, with Rex Allen. In the episode, she played a deranged woman who blamed the murders she had committed on her younger brother played by Robert Vaughn. In 1960 she appeared as Sarah Tenney in the Rawhide episode "Incident of the 100 Amulets". In 1961-1962, she appeared occasionally in the role of Ovie in the NBC western Tales of Wells Fargo, starring Dale Robertson. In 1965, she appeared in The Virginian a long running TV western. She appeared in "The Awakening" which was a farewell episode for Roberta Shore.

Over the years she appeared in prestigious films such as High Noon (1952) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), as well as horror films such as The Mummy's Curse (1944) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). She was a favorite of director Stanley Kramer, appearing in a number of his films. One of her most notable roles was as Hilary St. George, the bigoted co-worker of the Katharine Hepburn character in the film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).

Her greatest fame came in 1965 when she started her 21-year stint as the matronly Mrs. Olsen, who always had comforting words for young married couples while pouring Folgers Coffee in the TV commercials.^[1] In 1971, Christine's hometown honored her by transforming the city water tower to resemble a giant coffeepot.

She died in 1996, aged 76, from heart disease.^[1] Her interment was in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Virginia Christine

• Virginia Christine at Find a Grave
• Virginia Christine at the Internet Movie Database
• Virginia Christine at the TCM Movie Database

References