Victoria Horne

Victoria Horne was an American actress born on November 1, 1911, in New York City, the second of four children of Ignatz Hornstein, an emigrant from Braila, Romania, and Mary Louise Schoenwetter Hornstein. The family surname was changed to Horne during her childhood. She trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and began her professional stage career in New York, appearing on Broadway between 1938 and 1939 in two productions: Aries Is Rising and On the Rocks.

Horne went on to build a substantial screen career during the 1940s and 1950s, accumulating credits in 49 films, 25 of which were uncredited appearances. Her film work included Blue Skies, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff. Among her most recognized screen roles was Myrtle Mae Simmons, James Stewart's love-searching niece, in the 1950 film adaptation of Mary Chase's play Harvey. She also portrayed Nabura, a villainous Japanese agent, in the 1945 serial Secret Agent X-9, and appeared as Roberta in the 1952 Three Stooges short subject Cuckoo on a Choo Choo.

In 1950, Horne married actor Jack Oakie, and the two lived together at Oakridge, an eleven-acre estate at 18650 Devonshire Street in Northridge, Los Angeles. The property had originally been commissioned by Barbara Stanwyck and designed by architect Paul Williams; Stanwyck sold it to Oakie in 1940. The estate was considered one of the last remaining large Northridge properties associated with thoroughbred breeding. Horne remained with Oakie until his death on January 23, 1978.

Following her husband's death, Horne arranged the posthumous publication of his memoir, Jack Oakie's Double Takes, and authored and compiled several additional volumes related to his life and career, including Jack Oakie's Oakridge, a history of the family estate; Dear Jack, a collection of letters from nearly 150 celebrities compiled to mark what would have been Oakie's 90th birthday; and Life With Jack Oakie: Anecdotes. She also co-credited a volume titled When the Line Is Straight: Jack Oakie's Comedy in Motion Pictures. Horne continued to reside at Oakridge after her husband's death and ultimately bequeathed the estate to the University of Southern California. Following two unsuccessful development attempts, the City of Los Angeles acquired the property, and it was developed into Oakridge Estate Park, which opened in December 2018. The house and grounds are designated as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 484.

The Jack Oakie and Victoria Horne Oakie Charitable Foundation funds lectures on comedy and scholarships for film and theater students at institutions across the country. A Syracuse University official noted that foundation money was instrumental in helping the university establish its semester-in-Los-Angeles program.

Horne died on October 10, 2003, in a retirement home in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 91. She is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.