Virginia Mayo

Virginia Mayo
in 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(2005-01-17) (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Years active	1939–1997
Spouse	Michael O'Shea (1947–1973) (his death) 1 child
Website
http://www.virginiamayo.com/

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).

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).

At the zenith of her career, Mayo was seen as the quintessential voluptuous Hollywood beauty. It was said that she "looked like a pinup painting come to life," and she played just such a role in the 1949 film comedy, The Girl from Jones Beach. According to widely published reports from the late 1940s, the Sultan of Morocco declared her beauty to be proof of the existence of God.

In 1949's White Heat she took on the unsympathetic role of the cold and treacherous "Verna Jarrett", opposite James Cagney. She was also cast against type as a shallow golddigger in The Best Years of Our Lives. Her career continued strong through the 50s, frequently in B-movie westerns and adventure films. By the start of the 60s, the pace of her work slowed, but she continued occasional film appearances in the following decades, her last role being in The Man Next Door (1997). While she also appeared in musicals, Mayo's singing voice was always dubbed.

Mayo and her husband, actor Michael O'Shea (of Jack London film fame) co-starred in such stage productions as Tunnel of Love, Fiorello, and George Washington Slept Here. She also starred in stage productions of 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 1953). The O'Shea family lived for several decades in Thousand Oaks, California.

A lifelong Republican, she endorsed Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972 and longtime friend Ronald Reagan in 1981.

She died of congestive heart failure on January 17, 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)
• 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

• Virginia Mayo at the Internet Movie Database
• Virginia Mayo at AllRovi
• Virginia Mayo at the TCM Movie Database
• Virginia Mayo at the Internet Broadway Database