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Virginia Bruce

Virginia Bruce

Birthday: 1910-09-29 | Place of Birth: Minneapolis - Minnesota - USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Virginia Bruce (September 29, 1910 – February 24, 1982) was an American actress and singer. Born Helen Virginia Briggs in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1928, she moved with her family to Los Angeles intending to enroll in the University of California, Los Angeles when a friendly wager sent her seeking film work. She got it as an extra in Why Bring That Up?. In 1930 she appeared on Broadway in the musical Smiles, followed by America's Sweetheart in 1931. She returned to Hollywood in 1932, where on August 10, 1932, she married John Gilbert, her co-star in the film Downstairs. She retired briefly after the birth of their daughter Susan Ann Gilbert. The couple divorced in 1934, and Virginia returned to a hectic schedule of film appearances. Gilbert died two years later in 1936. Bruce introduced the Cole Porter standard "I've Got You Under My Skin" in the film Born to Dance and co-starred in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical The Great Ziegfeld. One of her final film appearances was in Strangers When We Meet. In 1949, Bruce starred in a daily 30-minute radio drama. Make Believe Town was an afternoon program on CBS. Bruce married her second husband, film director J. Walter Ruben, in 1937, making the Wallace Beery western The Bad Man of Brimstone with him that year. Together they had a son named Christopher (b. 1941), before Ruben's death in 1942. In 1946, Bruce married Ali Ipar. They divorced in 1951 in order for him to receive a commission in the Turkish Military (which forbade promotions of men married to foreigners), but remarried in 1952 before divorcing again in 1964. Bruce died of cancer on February 24, 1982, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. She was 71.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1960
Strangers When We Meet

as    Mrs. Wagner

1948
Night Has a Thousand Eyes

as    Jenny

1945
Love, Honor and Goodbye

as    Roberta Baxter

1944
Brazil

as    Nicky Henderson

1944
Action in Arabia

as    Yvonne Danesco

1942
Careful, Soft Shoulders

as    Connie Mathers

1942
Pardon My Sarong

as    Joan Marshall

1940
The Invisible Woman

as    Kitty Carroll

1940
Flight Angels

as    Mary Norvell

1939
Let Freedom Ring

as    Maggie Adams

1939
Hollywood Hobbies

as    Self (uncredited)

1938
There Goes My Heart

as    Joan Butterfield

1938
Arsène Lupin Returns

as    Lorraine de Grissac

1938
Woman Against Woman

as    Maris Kent

1936
The Great Ziegfeld

as    Audrey Dane

1936
The Garden Murder Case

as    Zalia Graem

1935
Metropolitan

as    Anne Merrill

1935
Let 'em Have It

as    Eleanor Spencer

1935
Escapade

as    Gerta

1935
A Dream Comes True

as    Herself (uncredited)

1935
Here Comes the Band

as    Margaret

1935
The Murder Man

as    Mary Shannon

1935
Times Square Lady

as    Toni Bradley

1935
Shadow of Doubt

as    Trenna

1934
Dangerous Corner

as    Ann Beale

1934
The Mighty Barnum

as    Jenny Lind

1930
Raffles

as    Gwen's Friend (uncredited)

1930
The Love Parade

as    Lady-in-Waiting

1929
Pointed Heels

as    Chorus Girl (uncredited)