Virginia Mayo

Virginia Mayo
from the trailer for the film The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
Born	Virginia Clara Jones November 30, 1920(1920-11-30) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Died	January 17, 2005 (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Years active	1939–1997
Spouse(s)	Michael O'Shea (1947–1973)
Official website

Virginia Mayo (November 30, 1920 – January 17, 2005) was an American film actress.

After a short career in vaudeville, Mayo progressed to films and during the 1940s established herself as a supporting player in such films as The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and White Heat (1949).

She worked extensively during the 1950s, but after this her appearances were fewer. She worked occasionally until her final performance in 1997.

Early life

Born Virginia Clara Jones in St. Louis, Missouri. Tutored by a series of dancing instructors engaged by her aunt, she appeared in the St. Louis Municipal Opera chorus and then appeared with six other girls at an act at the Jefferson Hotel. There she was recruited by vaudeville performer Andy Mayo to appear in his act (as ringmaster for two men in a horse suit), taking his surname as her stage name. She appeared in vaudeville for three years in the act, appearing with Eddie Cantor on Broadway in 1941's Banjo Eyes.

Hollywood

Mayo continued her career as a dancer, then signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn and appeared in several of Goldwyn's movies. With Danny Kaye she played the dream-girl heroine in comedies including Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946) and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947).

In 1949's White Heat she took on the unsympathetic role of the cold and treacherous "Verna Jarrett," opposite James Cagney. Mayo later claimed in interviews that she was occasionally genuinely frightened by Cagney during the filming of the picture, because Cagney's acting was so realistic and natural.^{[citation needed]}

She was also cast against type as a shallow golddigger in The Best Years of Our Lives, in which she gave a performance that garnered much acclaim.^{[citation needed]}

Her film career continued through the 1950s and 1960s, frequently in B-movie westerns and adventure films. While she also appeared in musicals, Mayo's singing voice was always dubbed.

Virginia and her husband , actor Michael O'Shea (of Jack London film fame) co-starred in such hits as Tunnel of Love, Ficrello, and George Washington Slept Here. She has also starred in Cactus Flower, How the Other Half Loves, and the musical comedy, Good News.

Mayo has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine.

In 1996 she received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Personal life

In 1947, she married actor Michael O'Shea, who died in 1973. They had one child, Mary Catherine O'Shea (born in 1953). The O'Shea family lived for several decades in Thousand Oaks, California.

In the 1990s, Mayo donated her extensive collection of Hollywood memorabilia to the Thousand Oaks Library. She died of natural causes in Los Angeles in 2005 at the age of 84.

Filmography

Features:

• Follies Girl (1943)
• Jack London (1943)
• Up in Arms (1944)
• Seven Days Ashore (1944)
• The Princess and the Pirate (1944)
• Wonder Man (1945)
• State Fair (1945)
• The Kid from Brooklyn (1946)
• The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
• Out of the Blue (1947)
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
• Smart Girls Don't Talk (1948)
• A Song Is Born (1948)
• Flaxy Martin (1949)
• Colorado Territory (1949)
• The Girl from Jones Beach (1949)
• White Heat (1949)
• Red Light (1949)
• Always Leave Them Laughing (1949)
• Backfire (1950)
• The Flame and the Arrow (1950)
• The West Point Story (1950)
• Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
• Along the Great Divide (1951)
• Painting the Clouds with Sunshine (1951)
• Starlift (1951)
• She's Working Her Way Through College (1952)
• The Iron Mistress (1952)
• She's Back on Broadway (1953)
• South Sea Woman (1953)
• Devil's Canyon (1953)
• King Richard and the Crusaders (1954)
• The Silver Chalice (1954)
• Pearl of the South Pacific (1955)
• Great Day in the Morning (1956)
• The Proud Ones (1956)
• Congo Crossing (1956)
• The Big Land (1957)
• The Story of Mankind (1957)
• The Tall Stranger (1957)
• Fort Dobbs (1958)
• Westbound (1959)
• Jet Over the Atlantic (1959)
• Revolt of the Mercenaries (1961)
• Young Fury (1965)
• Castle of Evil (1966)
• Fort Utah (1967)
• Fugitive Lovers (1975)
• Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
• French Quarter (1977)
• The Haunted (1979)
• Evil Spirits (1990)
• Midnight Witness (1993)
• The Man Next Door (1997)

Short Subjects:

• Gals and Gallons (1939)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Night Life (1952)
• Screen Snapshots: Salute to Hollywood (1958)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Virginia Mayo

• Virginia Mayo at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website
• Denny Jackson's Virginia Mayo page
• Brian's Drive-In Theater
• St. Louis Walk of Fame
• Virginia Mayo at Find A Grave