The Return of the Classic Films Obituary Thread

[CBHagman]

34. Actress Virginia Patton, 97

As we've just come off the annual TV airing of It's a Wonderful Life, I wanted to make sure we noted the passing of Virginia Patton (Ruth Dakin Bailey).

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/virginia-patton-dead-wonderful-life-1235203102/

Virginia Ann Patton was born in Cleveland on June 25, 1925. She was raised in Portland, Oregon, where she graduated from Jefferson High School in 1942, then made her way to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

She signed with Warner Bros., made her movie debut in the musical Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), starring Eddie Cantor and an all-star cast, and appeared in small roles in other films including Janie (1944), Hollywood Canteen (1944) and Jack Benny’s The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945).

A niece of World War II general George Patton, she had starred in a play written by William C. De Mille, brother of Cecil B. De Mille, while she was attending USC, and that put her on the radar of Capra. He was casting It’s a Wonderful Life, the first film he would make for his new Liberty Films production company.