Actress Virginia Mayo, 84, who died of pneumonia Jan. 17 at a nursing home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., had a peaches-and-cream beauty that helped her thrive in Hollywood musicals and comedies of the 1940s.
The sultan of Morocco, smitten with her appearance, was said to have written Ms. Mayo a fan letter in which he called her "tangible proof of the existence of God."
Virginia Mayo once said her favorite of her films was "She's Working Her Way Through College," in which she played a burlesque artiste who enrolls in college. Ronald Reagan was her love interest.
(AP)
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Looks aside, she had little chance to exploit a deeper dramatic talent. She was very sequined and usually, she said, "just standing around" in Technicolor pictures that showcased her flawless complexion. Slightly cross-eyed, though, she had to be photographed gingerly.
In short time, she surged from obscurity -- she was in a vaudeville act featuring a fake horse -- to starring film roles opposite Bob Hope ("The Princess and the Pirate") and Danny Kaye ("Wonder Man," "The Kid from Brooklyn," "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and "A Song Is Born").
A handful of dramatic roles, in which she earned some critical approval, did little to change her career. She was the faithless wife of returning war veteran Dana Andrews in "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946); the much-abused moll of the Oedipal gangster James Cagney in "White Heat" (1949); and a half-breed in the fatalistic Joel McCrea western "Colorado Territory" (1949).
She once said her favorite of her films was "She's Working Her Way Through College" (1952), in which she played Angela "Hot Garters Gertie" Gardner, a burlesque artiste who enrolls in college.
Ronald Reagan, as a professor, was her love interest.
"It isn't a famous movie, but I have a special feeling for it because I got to dance in it," she said. "After all those years as a young girl dancing, this was the only movie where I really got to dance."
Virginia Clara Jones was born Nov. 30, 1920, in St. Louis. Her aunt, who ran a talent school, guided her early career.
She became part of a vaudeville revue called "Pansy the Horse" in which she was "ring mistress" to two men writhing comically in a horse's outfit. "Pansy the Horse" won a spot on Broadway in the 1941 Eddie Cantor musical "Banjo Eyes."
Film producer Samuel Goldwyn spotted her and cast her in films. Among her first was "Jack London" (1943), starring her future husband, Michael O'Shea.
"He just sat there watching me," she once said of their courtship, "and then he walked right up and kissed me." They were married from 1947 -- after he divorced his first wife -- until his death in 1973. Survivors include a daughter and three grandchildren.
Goldwyn seemed to hit a surefire formula when he teamed the glamorous Mayo with the frenetic Kaye. The film considered by many to be their finest was "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1947), based on James Thurber's classic story of a henpecked man's active fantasy life.
She had little praise for the manic Kaye -- "he was all right" was the most she said in later years. She was far more enthusiastic about Cagney, especially about their physically difficult scenes in "White Heat."
"Mister dynamite," she told an interviewer. "As far as acting goes, you just follow him and you can't fail."
As Ms. Mayo's roles diminished, she described herself in interviews as a loner perfectly content to stay at the 60,000-acre cattle ranch she owned with her husband in New Mexico. There, she said, she spent her time alternately "reading books on philosophy" and "roughing it."
She painted and accepted the odd television role but was happy to leave the past alone. She turned off her old films when they ran on television and gave away many of her movie possessions because "I just couldn't stand the clutter."
