Virginia Bruce (born Helen Virginia Briggs; September 29, 1910 – February 24, 1982) was an American actress and singer.

Early life Bruce was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As an infant she moved with her parents, Earil and Margaret Briggs, to Fargo, North Dakota. The city directory of Fargo documents that the Briggs family lived there at 421 14th Street South. After Bruce graduated from Fargo Central High School in 1928, she moved with her family to Los Angeles intending to enroll at the University of California, Los Angeles when a friendly wager sent her seeking film work.

Career Bruce's first screen work was in 1929 as an extra for Paramount in Why Bring That Up? In 1930, she appeared on Broadway in the musical Smiles at the Ziegfeld Theatre, followed by the Broadway production America's Sweetheart in 1931.

Bruce returned to Hollywood in 1932, where she began work in early August at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on the film Kongo starring Walter Huston. During production on that project, on August 10, she married John Gilbert (her first, his fourth) with whom she recently costarred in Downstairs. "GILBERT'S QUICK MARRIAGE", news item, The Film Daily [New York, N.Y. (West Coast Bureau)], August 12, 1932, page 4. Internet Archive, San Francisco, California. Retrieved August 18, 2018. The Film Daily reported that the couple's "quick" wedding was held in Gilbert's dressing room on the studio lot. Among the people attending the small ceremony were the head of MGM production Irving Thalberg, who served as the groom's best man; screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart, whose wife Beatrice acted as matron of honor; MGM art director and set designer Cedric Gibbons; and his wife, actress Dolores del Río.

Bruce retired briefly from acting after the birth of their daughter Susan Ann, although she returned to film appearances after her divorce from Gilbert (caused by his alcoholism) in May 1934. Gilbert died of a heart attack in 1936.

Bruce is credited with introducing the Cole Porter standard "I've Got You Under My Skin" in the 1936 film Born to Dance. The same year, she costarred in the MGM musical The Great Ziegfeld. She also performed periodically on radio. In 1949, for example, Bruce starred in Make Believe Town, a 30-minute afternoon drama broadcast daily on CBS Radio. In the early 1960s, she retired from films.

Personal life

Bruce married American film director J. Walter Ruben in 1937."Virginia Bruce: Biography", Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Turner Broadcasting System, a subsidiary of Time Warner, Inc., New York, N.Y. Retrieved August 18, 2018. She had two children.

Bruce died of cancer at age 71 on February 24, 1982, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes1929 Fugitives Bit Part Uncredited Blue Skies Party guest Uncredited River of Romance Southern Belle Uncredited Fashions in Love Uncredited Hard to Get Young woman Uncredited Illusion Party Guest Uncredited Woman Trap Nurse Why Bring That Up? Chorus Girl Uncredited The Love Parade Lady-in-Waiting Uncredited Pointed Heels Chorus Girl Uncredited1930 Lilies of the Field Doris Slightly Scarlet Enid Corbett Only the Brave Elizabeth Young Eagles Florence Welford Paramount on Parade Chorus Girl Uncredited Safety in Numbers Alma McGregor The Social Lion Society Girl Uncredited Raffles Gwen's Friend Uncredited Let's Go Native Wendell Sr.'s Secretary Uncredited Follow Thru Bit in Ladies Locker Room Uncredited Whoopee! Goldwyn Girl Uncredited 1931 Hell Divers Girl (scenes deleted)1932 The Miracle Man Margaret Thornton Sky Bride Ruth Dunning Winner Take All Joan Gibson Downstairs Anna Kongo Ann Whitehall1934 Jane Eyre Jane Eyre Dangerous Corner Ann Peel The Mighty Barnum Jenny Lind1935 Society Doctor Madge Shadow of Doubt Trenna Plaice Times Square Lady Toni Bradley Let 'Em Have It Eleanor Spencer Escapade Gerta The Murder Man Mary Shannon Here Comes the Band Margaret Jones Metropolitan Anne Merrill1936 The Garden Murder Case Zalia Graem The Great Ziegfeld Audrey Dane Born to Dance Lucy James1937 Women of Glamour Gloria Hudson When Love Is Young Wanda Werner Between Two Women Patricia Sloan Wife, Doctor and Nurse Steve aka Miss Stephens The Bad Man of Brimstone Loretta Douglas1938 Arsène Lupin Returns Lorraine de Grissac The First Hundred Years Lynn Conway Yellow Jack Frances Blake Woman Against Woman Maris Kent There Goes My Heart Joan Butterfield There's That Woman Again Sally Reardon1939 Let Freedom Ring Maggie Adams Society Lawyer Pat Abbott Stronger Than Desire Elizabeth Flagg1940 Flight Angels Mary Norvell The Man Who Talked Too Much Joan Reed Hired Wife Phyllis Walden The Invisible Woman Kitty Carroll 1941 Adventure in Washington Jane Scott Alternative title: Female Correspondent1942 Butch Minds the Baby Susie O'Neill Pardon My Sarong Joan Marshall Careful, Soft Shoulder Connie Mathers1944 Action in Arabia Yvonne Danesco Brazil Nicky Henderson Alternative title: Stars and Guitars 1945 Love, Honor and Goodbye Roberta Baxter 1948 Night Has a Thousand Eyes Jenny Courtland 1949 State Department: File 649 Margaret "Marge" Weldon Alternative title: Assignment in China 1954 Salgin Nurse Alternative titles: EpidemicIstanbul 1955 Reluctant Bride Laura Weeks Alternative title: Two Grooms for a Bride 1960 Strangers When We Meet Mrs. Wagner 1981Madame Wang's Madame Wang

Partial TV credits Year Title Role Episode(s) 1953 General Electric Theater Adele 1 episode1955 Letter to Loretta Dee Norman 1 episode Science Fiction Theatre Dr. Myrna GriffinJean Gordon 2 episodes 1957 The Ford Television Theatre Ruth Crest 1 episode

References

Virginia Bruce: Under My Skin, 2008. (Biography by Scott O'Brien)

External links

Photographs of Virginia Bruce