Virginia Bruce

Virginia Bruce, born Helen Virginia Briggs on September 29, 1910, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was an American actress and singer whose career spanned stage, screen, and radio. Shortly after her birth, her parents, Earil and Margaret Briggs, relocated the family to Fargo, North Dakota, where the Briggs household was recorded in the city directory at 421 14th Street South. Bruce completed her secondary education at Fargo Central High School in 1928, after which the family moved to Los Angeles. Though she had intended to enroll at the University of California, Los Angeles, a friendly wager redirected her toward the film industry.

Her screen career began in 1929 with uncredited extra work for Paramount in Why Bring That Up? Bruce then turned to the stage, appearing on Broadway between 1930 and 1931. Her Broadway credits include the musical Smiles, which played at the Ziegfeld Theatre in 1930, and America's Sweetheart in 1931.

Bruce returned to Hollywood in 1932, joining Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in early August to work on the film Kongo, starring Walter Huston. On August 10 of that year, during production on that project, she married actor John Gilbert in his dressing room on the studio lot — his fourth marriage and her first. The ceremony was attended by MGM production head Irving Thalberg, who served as best man; screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart and his wife Beatrice, who acted as matron of honor; MGM art director Cedric Gibbons; and Gibbons's wife, actress Dolores del Río. The Film Daily described the wedding as a "quick" affair. Bruce and Gilbert had recently costarred together in Downstairs. Following the birth of their daughter Susan Ann, Bruce stepped away from acting temporarily, returning to film after her divorce from Gilbert in May 1934, which was attributed to his alcoholism. Gilbert died of a heart attack in 1936.

That same year proved significant for Bruce professionally. She introduced the Cole Porter standard "I've Got You Under My Skin" in the 1936 MGM film Born to Dance and costarred in the studio's musical The Great Ziegfeld. In 1937, she married American film director J. Walter Ruben. Bruce also worked periodically in radio, including a 1949 starring role in Make Believe Town, a 30-minute afternoon drama broadcast daily on CBS Radio. She retired from films in the early 1960s.

Bruce died of cancer on February 24, 1982, at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. She was 71 years old.