Virginia Bruce
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Virginia Bruce (born Helen Virginia Briggs; 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.
Known for
Credits
Society Doctor (1935)
as Madge
That's Entertainment! (1974)
as (archive footage) (uncredited)
Strangers When We Meet (1960)
as Mrs. Wagner
The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
as Audrey Dane
Action in Arabia (1944)
as Yvonne
Times Square Lady (1935)
as Toni Bradley
Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)
as Jenny
The Invisible Woman (1940)
as Kitty Carroll
Land of Liberty (1939)
as (archive footage)
Love, Honor and Goodbye (1945)
as Roberta Baxter
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards (1940)
as Self
Butch Minds the Baby (1942)
as Susie O'Neill
Jane Eyre (1934)
as Jane Eyre
Hollywood Goes to Town (1938)
as Self
Pointed Heels (1929)
as Chorus Girl (uncredited)
There Goes My Heart (1938)
as Joan Butterfield
Careful, Soft Shoulders (1942)
as Connie Mathers
Only the Brave (1930)
as Elizabeth
Pardon My Sarong (1942)
as Joan Marshall
The Love Parade (1929)
as Lady-in-Waiting
Born to Dance (1936)
as Lucy James
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life (1987)
as Self (archive footage)
Here Comes the Band (1935)
as Margaret
The Garden Murder Case (1936)
as Zalia Graem
Sky Bride (1932)
as Ruth Dunning
The River of Romance (1929)
as Southern Belle
Winner Take All (1932)
as Joan Gibson
Let's Go Native (1930)
as Wendell Sr.'s Secretary (uncredited)
Wife, Doctor and Nurse (1937)
as Nurse Stephens
The Mighty Barnum (1934)
as Jenny Lind
The Murder Man (1935)
as Mary Shannon
Young Eagles (1930)
as Florence Welford
Lilies of the Field (1930)
as Doris
The Bad Man of Brimstone (1937)
as Loretta Douglas
Between Two Women (1937)
as Patricia Sloan
Arsène Lupin Returns (1938)
as Lorraine de Grissac
Brazil (1944)
as Nicky Henderson
State Department: File 649 (1949)
as Marge
Whoopee! (1930)
as Goldwyn Girl (uncredited)
Follow Thru (1930)
as Woman in Ladies' Locker Room (uncredited)
A Dream Comes True (1935)
as Herself (uncredited)
Let Freedom Ring (1939)
as Maggie Adams
Raffles (1930)
as Gwen's Friend (uncredited)
The Plague (1954)
as Nurse
Downstairs (1932)
as Anna
Let 'em Have It (1935)
as Eleanor Spencer
The First Hundred Years (1938)
as Lynn Conway
Society Lawyer (1939)
as Pat Abbott
The Man Who Talked Too Much (1940)
as Joan Reed
There's That Woman Again (1938)
as Sally Reardon
Hired Wife (1940)
as Phyllis Walden
The Miracle Man (1932)
as Margaret Thornton
Escapade (1935)
as Gerta
Kongo (1932)
as Ann
Paramount on Parade (1930)
as Chorus Girl (uncredited)
When Love Is Young (1937)
as Wanda Werner
Complicated Women (2003)
as Self (archive footage)
Stronger Than Desire (1939)
as Elizabeth Flagg
Flight Angels (1940)
as Mary Norvell
Slightly Scarlet (1930)
as Enid Corbett
Safety in Numbers (1930)
as Alma McGregor
Hard to Get (1929)
as Young Woman (uncredited)
Women of Glamour (1937)
as Gloria Hudson
Woman Against Woman (1938)
as Maris Kent
Pirate Party on Catalina Isle (1935)
as Virginia Bruce (uncredited)
Hollywood Hobbies (1939)
as Self (uncredited)
Shadow of Doubt (1935)
as Trenna
Dangerous Corner (1934)
as Ann Beale
Yellow Jack (1938)
as Frances Blake
The Reluctant Bride (1955)
as Laura Weeks
Fugitives (1929)
as Extra (uncredited)
Woman Trap (1929)
as Nurse
Adventure in Washington (1941)
as Jane Scott
Metropolitan (1935)
as Anne Merrill
The Social Lion (1930)
as Society Girl