Virginia Grey

Virginia Grey was an American actress born on March 22, 1917, in Edendale, California, the youngest of three daughters of Florence Anna Grey and film director Ray Grey. Among those who cared for her in her early years was film star Gloria Swanson. Grey made her screen debut at age ten in the silent film Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927), playing Little Eva. After acting for several years as a child, she stepped away from the profession for three years to complete her education, and later abandoned nursing training before returning to film work in the 1930s.

Her return to the screen began with bit parts and extra work before she secured a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. During her time at MGM, Grey appeared in a number of notable productions, including The Hardys Ride High (1939) alongside Mickey Rooney, Another Thin Man (1939) with William Powell, Hullabaloo (1940), and The Big Store (1941) with the Marx Brothers. She departed MGM in 1942 and continued working across multiple film studios in the years that followed. Producer Ross Hunter cast her repeatedly during the 1950s and 1960s in his soap melodramas, among them All That Heaven Allows, Back Street, and Madame X. Over the course of her career, Grey appeared in more than 100 films.

In 1935, Grey appeared on Broadway in Achilles Had a Heel, marking her sole credited stage appearance in the New York theater. Her work extended to radio and television as well, spanning from the 1930s through the early 1980s. In 1951, she played Blanche Bickerson on the syndicated comedy series The Bickersons. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s she was a consistent television presence, with appearances on Playhouse 90, Wagon Train, Bonanza, Burke's Law, The Virginian, Peter Gunn, Ironside, Marcus Welby M.D., Love American Style, Your Show of Shows, General Electric Theater, U.S. Marshal, The Jane Wyman Show, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, and Red Skelton, among many others.

Grey had a romantic relationship with Clark Gable during the 1940s. Following the death of Gable's wife Carole Lombard and his return from military service, the two were frequently seen together publicly. Grey and many others anticipated that Gable would marry her, and tabloids regularly speculated about a wedding. Gable instead married Lady Sylvia Ashley in 1949, a development that left Grey heartbroken. After Gable divorced Ashley in 1952, he did not resume his relationship with Grey, who never married. Actress Anna Torv later portrayed Grey in the HBO miniseries The Pacific, depicting her friendship with John Basilone during a war bond tour.

Grey died on July 31, 2004, at age 87, in Woodland Hills, California, while residing at the Motion Picture Home. She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered at sea off the Los Angeles coast on August 6, 2004.