Discover the Life and Career of the Glamorous 1940s Starlet

There’s something to be said about the glitz and glamor of 1940s Hollywood, specifically, the actresses who dominated the screen during the time. One of the leading ladies who made her presence known film after film was Virginia Mayo, the Missouri-born starlet known for movies such as The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), A Song Is Born (1948), White Heat (1949), Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) and many more. It’s little wonder she was once called “tangible proof of God’s existence” by the Sultan of Morocco.

The actress’ all-American appeal allowed her to embody a leading lady opposite famed actors of the era like Danny Kaye and Bob Hope, but the blonde beauty got her start in front of an audience first on the stage as a dancer.

Mayo danced under the supervision of her aunt throughout her youth, and it was as a member of the St. Louis Municipal Opera corps-de-ballet that she was able to showcase her talent and potential before pursuing other stage acts that led her to a career on Broadway and the screen.

A contract with Samuel Goldwyn would prove to be pivotal in her career, and it was in 1943 that she would appear with a speaking part in one of his films, Jack London. Not long after that, Mayo appeared alongside Bob Hope in The Princess and The Pirate, followed by Up in Arms in 1944 with Danny Kaye.

The on-screen pairing of Virginia Mayo and Danny Kaye was a match made in heaven. After Up in Arms came four additional films that the duo starred beside each other in. In 1945’s Wonder Man, Mayo played librarian Ellen Shanley while Kaye was doing double duty, playing twins, and then the ghost of his twin.

In The Kid From Brooklyn (1946), Kaye is a milkman turned boxer who hopes to impress a woman named Polly, played by Mayo. After that came The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). The actor brings to life the title character, a daydreamer caught up in the day-to-day of his mundane life who is swept away by an intriguing woman (Virginia Mayo) in the adventure of a lifetime. Their final film together was A Song Is Born (1948), where Mayo is a singer on the run and Kaye is a music professor.

Virginia Mayo still enjoyed a successful career throughout the 50s, acting in films like The Flame and the Arrow (1950), Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951), Along The Great Divide (1951) and plenty of other pictures across various genres, opposite some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

Over the decades that followed, the actress made her presence known in films like French Quarter (1978) and Evil Spirits (1991). You could have even caught her in popular series such as Remington Steele, Murder, She Wrote and Santa Barbara.

Retiring in 1997, Mayo surely made a splash on the screen. Sadly, she passed away in 2005.

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