Virginia Grey
Virginia Grey was an American actress who appeared in over 100 films and a number of radio and television shows from the 1930s to the early 1980s.
Biography
Born in Edendale, California, on March 22, 1917, Grey was the youngest of three daughters of the director Ray Grey. One of her early babysitters was movie star Gloria Swanson. Grey debuted at the age of 10 in the silent film Uncle Tom's Cabin as Little Eva. She continued acting for a few more years, but then left movies for three years to finish her education.Grey gave up on training to be a nurse and returned to films in the 1930s with bit parts and work as an extra. She eventually signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and appeared in several films, including The Hardys Ride High, Another Thin Man, Hullabaloo, and The Big Store.
She left MGM in 1942, and worked steadily for several studios over subsequent years. During the 1950s and 1960s, producer Ross Hunter frequently included Grey in his popular soap melodramas such as All That Heaven Allows, Back Street and Madame X.
Grey had an on again/off again relationship with Clark Gable in the 1940s. After Gable's wife Carole Lombard died and he returned from military service, Gable and Grey were often seen at restaurants and nightclubs. Many, including Virginia herself, expected Gable to marry her, and tabloids often speculated on a wedding announcement. It was a great surprise when Gable hastily married Lady Sylvia Ashley in 1949, leaving Grey heartbroken. Gable divorced Ashley in 1952; however, he never rekindled his romance with Grey, and Grey's friends say that her hoping and waiting for Gable was the reason she never married. She was also a staunch conservative Republican.
Grey was a member of the Latter Day Saints. She said: "I am a Mormon. Dad was, and I was, raised in that religion and during the '30s and '40s, I strayed and got into other things. I drank, I smoked, and did things totally opposite, not even thinking of what I had known during childhood. I remember in 1958, two elders came to my door and I began to think about my upbringing and what I learned, and then I started to meditate on that and I found solace once again and realized what I had been neglecting, if not forgetting, all those years when I was out of circulation. I returned to my Mormon roots around Christmastime that year and became very active in the church again. I'm glad those young men dropped in and reminded me about what I'd been missing because if not, I would've missed out on what the true 'big picture' is".
In 1951, Grey portrayed Blanche Bickerson on the syndicated comedy TV series The Bickersons. She was a regular on television in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing on Playhouse 90, U.S. Marshal, General Electric Theater, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, Your Show of Shows, Red Skelton, Wagon Train, Bonanza, Marcus Welby, M.D., Love, American Style, Burke's Law, The Virginian, Peter Gunn, Ironside and many others.
Grey died on July 31, 2004, age 87, in Woodland Hills, California, at The Motion Picture Home where she was a resident. She was cremated, and her ashes scattered at sea on August 6, 2004, off the Los Angeles coast.
She was portrayed by Anna Torv in the HBO Mini-series The Pacific.
Filmography
- Uncle Tom's Cabin as Eva
- The Michigan Kid as Rose, as a child
- Heart to Heart as Hazel Boyd
- Jazz Mad
- Misbehaving Ladies as Hazel Boyd
- Palmy Days as Goldwyn Girl
- Secrets as Audrey Carlton as a Child
- Dames as Chorus Girl
- The St. Louis Kid as Second Girl
- The Firebird as Autograph Seeker
- Gold Diggers of 1935 as Chorus Girl
- Don't Bet on Blondes as Girl with Henry
- She Gets Her Man as Club Woman
- The Great Ziegfeld as Ziegfeld Girl
- Old Hutch as Pirate's Club Customer
- Our Relations as Ethel, Girl with Dave in Drugstore
- Secret Valley as Joan Carlo
- Bad Guy as Kitty
- Rosalie as Mary Callahan
- The Canary Comes Across as Ann Clayton
- Test Pilot as Sarah
- Billy Rose's Casa Mañana Revue as Virginia Mason
- Snow Gets in Your Eyes as June
- Ladies in Distress as Sally
- The Shopworn Angel as Chorus Girl #1
- Rich Man, Poor Girl as Miss Selma Willis
- Youth Takes a Fling as Madge
- Dramatic School as Simone
- Idiot's Delight as Shirley Laughlin
- Broadway Serenade as Pearl
- The Hardys Ride High as Consuela MacNish
- The Women as Pat
- Thunder Afloat as Susan Thorson
- Another Thin Man as Lois MacFay
- Three Cheers for the Irish as Patricia Casey
- The Captain Is a Lady as Mary Peabody
- The Golden Fleecing as Lila Hanley
- Hullabaloo as Laura Merriweather
- Keeping Company as Anastasia Atherton
- Blonde Inspiration as Margie Blake
- Washington Melodrama as Teddy Carlyle
- The Big Store as Joan Sutton
- Whistling in the Dark as 'Fran' Post
- Mr. and Mrs. North as Jane Wilson
- Tarzan's New York Adventure as Connie Beach
- Grand Central Murder as Sue Custer
- Bells of Capistrano as Jennifer Benton
- Tish as Katherine 'Kit' Bowser Sands
- Secrets of the Underground as Terry Parker
- Idaho as Terry Grey
- Stage Door Canteen as Virginia Grey
- Sweet Rosie O'Grady as Edna Van Dyke
- Strangers in the Night as Dr. Leslie Ross
- Grissly's Millions as Katherine Palmor Bentley
- Blonde Ransom as Vicki Morrison
- Flame of Barbary Coast as Rita Dane
- Men in Her Diary as Diana Lee
- Smooth as Silk as Paula Marlowe
- House of Horrors as Joan Medford
- Swamp Fire as Janet Hilton
- Wyoming as Lila Regan
- Unconquered as Diana
- Glamour Girl as Lorraine Royle
- Who Killed Doc Robbin as Ann Loring
- So This Is New York as Ella Goff Finch
- Miraculous Journey as Patricia
- Unknown Island as Carole Lane
- Leather Gloves as Jane Gilbert
- Mexican Hayride as Montana
- Jungle Jim as Dr. Hilary Parker
- The Threat as Carol
- Highway 301 as Mary Simms
- Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill as Janet Smedley Adams
- Three Desperate Men as Laura Brock
- Bullfighter and the Lady as Lisbeth Flood
- Slaughter Trail as Lorabelle Larkin
- Desert Pursuit as Mary Smith
- A Perilous Journey as Abby
- The Fighting Lawman as Raquel Jackson
- Captain Scarface as Elsa
- The Forty-Niners as Stella Walker
- Target Earth as Vicki Harris
- The Eternal Sea as Dorothy Buracker
- The Last Command as Mrs. Dickinson
- All That Heaven Allows as Alida Anderson
- The Rose Tattoo as Estelle Hohengarten
- Accused of Murder as Sandra Lamoreaux
- Crime of Passion as Sara Alidos
- Jeanne Eagels as Elsie Desmond
- The Restless Years as Miss Robeson
- No Name on the Bullet as Roseanne Fraden
- Portrait in Black as Miss Lee
- Tammy Tell Me True as Miss Jenks
- Back Street as Janey née Smith
- Bachelor in Paradise as Camille Quinlaw
- Flower Drum Song as Rosalind
- Black Zoo as Jenny Brooks
- The Naked Kiss as Candy
- Love Has Many Faces as Irene Talbot
- Madame X as Mimsy
- Rosie! as Mrs. Peters
- Airport as Mrs. Schultz
- The Lives of Jenny Dolan as Landlady
- The Moneychangers as Miss Callahan