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Virginia Weidler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Virginia Weidler | |
|---|---|
 From the trailer for Best Foot Forward (1943) |
|
| Born | March 21, 1927 Eagle Rock, California, U.S. |
| Died | July 1, 1968 (aged 42) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Virginia Weidler (March 21, 1926 – July 1, 1968) was an American child actor, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.
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Born in Eagle Rock, California, Weidler made her first film appearance in 1933. Over the next few years, she played minor roles in films for RKO and Paramount Studios. Neither studio made full use of her abilities and when Paramount did not extend her contract, she was signed by MGM in 1938.[1]
Her first film for MGM was opposite their leading male star Mickey Rooney in Love Is a Headache (1938). The film was a success and over the next few years, Weidler was regularly employed by the studio, usually playing precocious tom-boys. She was one of the all-female cast of the 1939 film The Women, as Norma Shearer's daughter, a role that was uncharacteristically sentimental for her.
Her next major success, and the film for which she is perhaps best remembered, was The Philadelphia Story (1940) in which she played Dinah Lord, the wise-cracking younger sister of Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn). She continued acting but by this time was maturing, and as a teenager was less popular with audiences. After a string of box-office disappointments, her film career ended with her final performance in the 1943 film Best Foot Forward. Her career at MGM was stymied by Louis Mayer who refused to renew her contract. In the revealing biography "PIcture Perfect" cameraman John Slokum revealed that Louis B. Mayer said Virginia's breasts looked like a couple of prunes and she would never have a career as an adult at MGM because of that.
By her retirement at the age of 17, she had appeared in more than forty films, and had acted with some of the biggest stars of her era, including Clark Gable and Myrna Loy in Too Hot to Handle, Bette Davis in All This and Heaven Too, and Judy Garland in Babes on Broadway.
After her retirement, Weidler married and had two sons. She reportedly refused to do interviews about her Hollywood career.[1]
On July 1, 1968, Weidler suffered a heart attack in Los Angeles, California and died. She was 42 years old.[1]
- Surrender (Uncredited, 1941)
- After Tonight (Uncredited, 1933)
- Long Lost Father (Uncredited, 1934)
- Stamboul Quest (Uncredited, 1934)
- Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934)
- Laddie (1935)
- Freckles (1935)
- The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935)
- Peter Ibbetson (1935)
- Timothy's Quest (1936)
- Trouble for Two (1936)
- Girl of the Ozarks (1936)
- The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936)
- Maid of Salem (1937)
- The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1937)
- Souls at Sea (1937)
- Love Is a Headache (1938)
- Scandal Street (1938)
- Men with Wings (1938)
- Mother Carey's Chickens (1938)
- Too Hot to Handle (1938)
- Out West with the Hardys (1938)
- The Great Man Votes (1939)
- The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939)
- Fixer Dugan (1939)
- The Rookie Cop (1939)
- Outside These Walls (1939)
- The Women (1939)
- The Under-Pup (1939)
- Bad Little Angel (1939)
- Henry Goes Arizona (1939)
- Young Tom Edison (1940)
- All This and Heaven Too (1940)
- Gold Rush Maisie (1940)
- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
- Keeping Company (1940)
- Barnacle Bill (1941)
- I'll Wait for You (1941)
- Babes on Broadway (1941)
- Born to Sing (1942)
- This Time for Keeps aka Over the Waves (1942)
- The Affairs of Martha (1942)
- The Youngest Profession (1943)
- Best Foot Forward (1943)
