Virginia Patton, who performed Jimmy Stewart’s sister-in-law, Ruth Dakin Bailey, within the traditional movie It is a Great Life has died. She was 97.
The actress was born in Cleveland, Ohio June 25, 1925 and was a niece of Normal George S. Patton. Her household relocated to her father’s hometown of Portland, Oregon when she was nonetheless an toddler and the longer term actress stayed there till she graduated highschool and moved to Los Angeles to check on the College of Southern California.
Whereas there, she collaborated with playwright turned display author William C. deMille, who helped discovered the USC movie college. He was the older brother of director Cecil B. DeMille. It was this connection that led to an introduction between Patton and director Frank Capra.
R.I.P.: Actress Virginia Patton, the final surviving grownup actor from the 1946 vacation traditional It is a Great Life has died. She was 97
The fledgling actress signed a contract with Warner Brothers and made her massive display debut in 1943’s Thank Your Fortunate Stars. She went on to have small roles in Janie, Hollywood Canteen and The Horn Blows at Midnight.
The Warner participant’s contract had expired by then and when Capra was searching for actors for the Christmas movie below his new Liberty Movies banner, she auditioned for the director.
‘I learn for him, and he signed me, she advised the Nationwide Catholic Register in 2013, and because of the manner the studio system labored again then, ‘I used to be the one lady he ever signed in his complete profession.’ Stewart, Donna Reed and the opposite forged members had been below contract to different studios and on mortgage for the venture.
Patton performed Ruth Dakin who married George Bailey’s brother Harry – stunning George (Jimmy Stewart) and Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) after they arrived in Bedford Falls
Basic movie: The Cleveland, Ohio native, born in 1925, was a niece of Normal George S. Patton and the position of Ruth Dakin was the most important of her Hollywood roles
The viewers was first launched to Patton’s character when George Bailey’s brother Harry arrived with a shock – his spouse. The couple had been greeted on the prepare platform by George and Uncle Billy, performed by Thomas Mitchell.
Her greatest concern in regards to the scene was the way to eat buttered popcorn whereas sporting white gloves. ‘I used to be dressed as a younger matron. I had a hat, a swimsuit and white gloves, I used to be coming to satisfy my new in-laws,’ she advised the St. Nicholas Institute in in 2016. And I used to be going to eat buttered popcorn with white gloves?’
‘We rehearsed it, and Frank didn’t say something about it, his assistant didn’t say something about it, the cameraman didn’t say something about it. I used to be sitting there, ‘What am I going to do? I’m going to get the popcorn throughout these gloves.’ … I assumed, “Effectively, I’ll simply faux all people eats buttered popcorn with their gloves on, they usually all get butter on them.”’
Tough: Patton mentioned the most important concern she had when capturing this scene wherein she’s launched to her husband’s brother was the way to eat buttered popcorn with white gloves
She went on to make a couple of extra movies, together with 1948’s Black Eagle, earlier than retiring from present enterprise following a small half in 1949’s The Fortunate Stiff.
Patton married automotive government Cruse W. Moss in 1949, they usually had three youngsters. They had been married for 69 years till his loss of life in 2018. The previous actress served as a docent on the College of Michigan’s Museum of Artwork and president and director of the Patton Corp., an funding and actual property holding firm.
In a 2012 interview for Patch.com, Patton famous that Capra requested her to suppose twice about giving up present enterprise, however she mentioned she was snug together with her resolution. ‘I’ve a stupendous letter that [Capra] wrote me as a result of I stored in contact with him,” she mentioned. ‘He wrote, “I simply knew you’d be a beautiful mom with three little bambinos and a beautiful husband.”
Patton spent her last years at an assisted residing facility in Albany, Georgia, the place she died Thursday. She was the final surviving grownup actor from the vacation traditional. Carol Coombs, Karolyn Grimes and Jimmy Hawkins, who performed Janie, Zuzu and Tommy Bailey look like the final remaining actors from the movie.
Retired: Patton retired from Hollywood in 1949, married an automotive government and has three youngsters. Seen right here within the 1948 film Black Eagle
