It's a Wonderful Life actress Virginia Patton dies at age 97

It’s a Wonderful Life actress Virginia Patton dies at age 97

Virginia Patton, who played Jimmy Stewart’s sister-in-law, Ruth Dakin Bailey, in the classic film It’s a Wonderful Life has died. She was 97.

The actress was born in Cleveland, Ohio June 25, 1925 and was a niece of General George S. Patton. Her family relocated to her father’s hometown of Portland, Oregon when she was still an infant and the future actress stayed there until she graduated high school and moved to Los Angeles to study at the University of Southern California. 

While there, she collaborated with playwright turned screen writer William C. deMille, who helped found the USC film school. 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 last surviving adult actor from the 1946 holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life has died. She was 97 

The fledgling actress signed a contract with Warner Brothers and made her big screen debut in 1943’s Thank Your Lucky Stars.  She went on to have small roles in Janie, Hollywood Canteen and The Horn Blows at Midnight. 

The Warner player’s contract had expired by then and when Capra was looking for actors for the Christmas film under his new Liberty Films banner, she auditioned for the director. 

‘I read for him, and he signed me, she told the National Catholic Register in 2013, and due to the way the studio system worked back then, ‘I was the only girl he ever signed in his whole career.’  Stewart, Donna Reed and the other cast members were under contract to other studios and on loan for the project. 

Patton played Ruth Dakin who married George Bailey’s brother Harry – surprising George (Jimmy Stewart) and Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) when they arrived in Bedford Falls

Classic film: The Cleveland, Ohio native, born in 1925, was a niece of General George S. Patton and the role of Ruth Dakin was the biggest of her Hollywood roles

The audience was first introduced to Patton’s character when George Bailey’s brother Harry arrived with a surprise – his wife. The couple were greeted at the train platform by George and Uncle Billy, played by Thomas Mitchell.

Her biggest concern about the scene was how to eat buttered popcorn while wearing white gloves. ‘I was dressed as a young matron. I had a hat, a suit and white gloves, I was coming to meet my new in-laws,’ she told the St. Nicholas Institute in in 2016.  And I was going to eat buttered popcorn with white gloves?’

‘We rehearsed it, and Frank didn’t say anything about it, his assistant didn’t say anything about it, the cameraman didn’t say anything about it. I was sitting there, ‘What am I going to do? I’m going to get the popcorn all over those gloves.’ … I thought, “Well, I’ll just pretend everybody eats buttered popcorn with their gloves on, and they all get butter on them.”’

Tricky: Patton said the biggest concern she had when shooting this scene in which she’s introduced to her husband’s brother was how to eat buttered popcorn with white gloves 

She went on to make a few more films, including 1948’s Black Eagle, before retiring from show business following a small part in 1949’s The Lucky Stiff. 

Patton married automotive executive Cruse W. Moss in 1949, and they had three children. They were married for 69 years until his death in 2018. The former actress served as a docent at the University of Michigan’s Museum of Art and president and director of the Patton Corp., an investment and real estate holding company.

In a 2012 interview for Patch.com,  Patton noted that Capra asked her to think twice about giving up show business, but she said she was comfortable with her decision. ‘I have a beautiful letter that [Capra] wrote me because I kept in touch with him,” she said. ‘He wrote, “I just knew you’d be a wonderful mother with three little bambinos and a wonderful husband.”

Patton spent her final years at an assisted living facility in Albany, Georgia, where she died Thursday. She was the last surviving adult actor from the holiday classic. Carol Coombs, Karolyn Grimes and Jimmy Hawkins, who played Janie, Zuzu and Tommy Bailey appear to be the last remaining actors from the film.

Retired: Patton retired from Hollywood in 1949, married an automotive executive and has three children. Seen here in the 1948 movie Black Eagle

Source: Read Full Article