Virginia Bruce
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Virginia Bruce (September 29, 1910 – February 24, 1982) was an American actress and singer.
Born Helen Virginia Briggs in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1928, she moved with her family to Los Angeles intending to enroll in the University of California, Los Angeles when a friendly wager sent her seeking film work. She got it as an extra in Why Bring That Up?. In 1930 she appeared on Broadway in the musical Smiles, followed by America's Sweetheart in 1931.
She returned to Hollywood in 1932, where on August 10, 1932, she married John Gilbert, her co-star in the film Downstairs. She retired briefly after the birth of their daughter Susan Ann Gilbert. The couple divorced in 1934, and Virginia returned to a hectic schedule of film appearances. Gilbert died two years later in 1936.
Bruce introduced the Cole Porter standard "I've Got You Under My Skin" in the film Born to Dance and co-starred in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical The Great Ziegfeld. One of her final film appearances was in Strangers When We Meet.
In 1949, Bruce starred in a daily 30-minute radio drama. Make Believe Town was an afternoon program on CBS.
Bruce married her second husband, film director J. Walter Ruben, in 1937, making the Wallace Beery western The Bad Man of Brimstone with him that year. Together they had a son named Christopher (b. 1941), before Ruben's death in 1942. In 1946, Bruce married Ali Ipar. They divorced in 1951 in order for him to receive a commission in the Turkish Military (which forbade promotions of men married to foreigners), but remarried in 1952 before divorcing again in 1964.
Bruce died of cancer on February 24, 1982, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. She was 71.
Known for
Matinee Theater
Lux Video Theatre
Pauline Travis
Lux Video Theatre
Mildred Pierce
Lux Video Theatre
Jo Cathcart Archer
Letter to Loretta
Dee Norman
General Electric Theater
Adele
The Invisible Woman
Kitty Carroll
The Great Ziegfeld
Audrey Dane
That's Entertainment!
(archive footage)
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Self (archive footage)
Night Has a Thousand Eyes
Jenny
Born to Dance
Lucy James
Complicated Women
Self (archive footage)
Times Square Lady
Toni Bradley
Strangers When We Meet
Mrs. Wagner
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
Self
Paramount on Parade
Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Action in Arabia
Yvonne
There Goes My Heart
Joan Butterfield
Let Freedom Ring
Maggie Adams
Hired Wife
Phyllis Walden
Whoopee!
Goldwyn Girl (uncredited)
Kongo
Ann
Pardon My Sarong
Joan Marshall
The Murder Man
Mary Shannon
The Man Who Talked Too Much
Joan Reed
Stronger Than Desire
Elizabeth Flagg
Woman Against Woman
Maris Kent
State Department: File 649
Marge
Downstairs
Anna
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
Between Two Women
Patricia Sloan
Woman Trap
Nurse
Brazil
Nicky Henderson
Here Comes the Band
Margaret
Flight Angels
Mary Norvell
Shadow of Doubt
Trenna
Hollywood Hobbies
Self (uncredited)
Let's Go Native
Wendell Sr.'s Secretary (uncredited)
The First Hundred Years
Lynn Conway
The Love Parade
Lady-in-Waiting
Slightly Scarlet
Enid Corbett
Hollywood Goes to Town
Self
The Garden Murder Case
Zalia Graem
Land of Liberty
(archive footage)
Yellow Jack
Frances Blake
Pirate Party on Catalina Isle
Virginia Bruce (uncredited)
The Bad Man of Brimstone
Loretta Douglas
A Dream Comes True
Herself (uncredited)
The River of Romance
Southern Belle
Let 'em Have It
Eleanor Spencer
Escapade
Gerta
When Love Is Young
Wanda Werner
Arsène Lupin Returns
Lorraine de Grissac
The Mighty Barnum
Jenny Lind
Follow Thru
Woman in Ladies' Locker Room (uncredited)
Society Doctor
Madge
Safety in Numbers
Alma McGregor
Society Lawyer
Pat Abbott
Adventure in Washington
Jane Scott
Metropolitan
Anne Merrill
Pointed Heels
Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Only the Brave
Elizabeth
Raffles
Gwen's Friend (uncredited)
Wife, Doctor and Nurse
Nurse Stephens
There's That Woman Again
Sally Reardon
Butch Minds the Baby
Susie O'Neill
The Reluctant Bride
Laura Weeks
Winner Take All
Joan Gibson
Dangerous Corner
Ann Beale
Women of Glamour
Gloria Hudson
Sky Bride
Ruth Dunning
The Social Lion
Society Girl
Careful, Soft Shoulders
Connie Mathers
Love, Honor and Goodbye
Roberta Baxter
The Miracle Man
Margaret Thornton
Hard to Get
Young Woman (uncredited)
Young Eagles
Florence Welford
Fugitives
Extra (uncredited)
Lilies of the Field
Doris
The Plague
Nurse