In Remembrance: Virginia Mayo

     Virginia Mayo, the blond actress who was adept at both comedic and dramatic roles in films of the 1940s to the 1950s and known for her ‘peaches and cream’ complexion, has passed away in Thousand Oaks, California on Monday, January 18, 2005. She was 84.

     Born Virginia Clara Jones in St. Louis, MO on November 30, 1920, Mayo expressed an early interest in show business, learning drama and dance at an acting school run by her aunt, Alice Wientge. Graduating high school in 1937, she landed a job as a dancer with the St Louis Municipal Opera Company. When the Vaudeville act “Pansy the Horse,” actually comics Andy Mayo and Nomi Morton in a horse costume, played St Louis, she was hired on to act as a comic foil. After touring for a few years, the act joined Eddie Cantor’s show Banjo Eyes on Broadway. Eventually an MGM talent scout brought Mayo to the attention of producer Samuel Goldwyn, who signed her to a seven-year contract with a starting salary of $100.00 per week. Ironically, although she sang in the Vaudeville act, any time she sang on film, someone else dubbed her voice.

     Even among the Hollywood studio system of the time, Goldwyn was known for the attention he gave to his actresses, carefully molding his “Goldwyn Girls” into film stars. Under the supervision of Goldwyn, Mayo was cast in 1943’s Jack London, which starred future husband Michael O’Shea. (They would marry in 1947.) She next appeared billed as a Goldwyn Girl in Up In Arms (1944). After a small role in the musical Seven Days Ashore (1944), Goldwyn moved her up to leading lady status for The Princess and the Pirate opposite Bob Hope. Mayo demonstrated a flair for comedy and was paired with comic Danny Kaye for a series of four pictures- Wonder Man (1945), The Kid From Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (1947) and A Song Is Born (1948). In 1946, Mayo convinced Goldwyn to cast her against her dream girl image as the two-timing wife of returning war veteran Dana Andrews in The Best Years Of Our Lives.

Virginia Mayo with James Cagney in 1949's White Heat.

     In 1948, May moved to Warner Brothers, where she headlined a series of crime films including Smart Girls Don’t Talk (1948) with Bruce Bennett, Flaxy Martin (1949) and Red Light (1949) with George Raft. The best of these crime films was White Heat (1949) in which she starred as the wife of crime boss James Cagney. Mayo was confined to just hardboiled crime dramas by Warners. She played comedy in The Girl From Jones Beach, in a role initially intended for Lauren Bacall, opposite Ronald Reagan and Always Leave Them Laughing (both 1949) with Milton Berle. She appeared in swashbucklers like The Flame And The Arrow (1950) with Burt Lancaster, Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) with Gregory Peck and King Richard And The Crusaders (1954) with Rex Harrison and westerns like Colorado Territory (1949, a remake of High Sierra (1941)) with Joel McCrea and Along The Great Divide (1951) with Kurt Douglas. She made six musicals at Warners including Painting The Clouds With Sunshine (1952), a remake of Gold Diggers Of 1933 and She’s Working Her Way Through College (1952) again paired with Reagan.

     Although her age barely showed in her face, Mayo found the number of films she would do each year dwindling as the 1950s drew to a close so she went into semi-retirement. Her last film at Warner Brothers was the western Westbound with Randolph Scott in 1959. She would only take sporadic roles over the next four decades. Her last film was the 1997 thriller The Man Next Door.