Virginia O'Brien

Virginia O'Brien

Born: April 18, 1919
Died: January 16, 2001
in Los Angeles, California, USA
​Known to classic film fans by various nicknames--including Miss Deadpan, Frozen Face, and Miss Ice Glacier--this statuesque, dark-haired singer/actress carved a unique niche for herself on stage and screen by the hilarious Sphinx-like way she delivered a song. The daughter of the captain of detectives of the Los Angeles Police Department, Virginia Lee O'Brien became interested in music and dance at an early age (it didn't hurt her career chances that her uncle was noted film director Lloyd Bacon). Her big show-business break came in 1939 after she secured a singing role in the L.A. production of the musical/comedy "Meet the People". On opening night, when time came for her solo number, Virginia became so paralyzed with fright that she sang her song with a wide-eyed motionless stare that sent the audience (which thought her performance a gag) into convulsions. Demoralized, Virginia left the stage only to soon find out that she was a sensation.

Signed by MGM in 1940, she deadpanned her way to acclaim and immense popularity with appearances in some of the studio's most memorable musicals including Thousands Cheer (1943), The Harvey Girls (1946), Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), Ziegfeld Follies (1945), Panama Hattie (1942), Ship Ahoy (1942), Meet the People (1944) and Du Barry Was a Lady (1943), performing inimitable renditions of such classic songs as "The Wild Wild West" (from The Harvey Girls), "A Fine Romance" (from Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)), "It's a Great Big World" (from The Harvey Girls (1946)), "Poor You" (from Ship Ahoy (1942)), and "Say We're Sweethearts Again" (from Meet the People (1944)).

Although too often relegated to featured songs and small supporting roles, she still managed to become an audience favorite by the sheer force of her personality, polished vocals and way with a comic quip. The latter ability is especially apparent in one of her last MGM films, Merton of the Movies (1947), in which she co-starred with Red Skelton. In 1948, after 17 memorable screen appearances for MGM, the studio unceremoniously dropped her from its roster. She returned to films only twice more after her termination from MGM, in Universal's Francis in the Navy (1955) and Disney's Gus (1976), preferring to focus her energies on television and the stage, where she delighted audiences for three more decades.

In the 1980s the still youthful beauty toured the country in a one-woman show and recorded a live album at the famed Masquers Club entitled, "A Salute to the Great MGM Musicals". One of her last significant stage appearances came in 1984 as Parthy Ann in the Long Beach Civic Light Opera's production of "Showboat", with Alan Young. She remained in semi-retirement in a large home in Wrightwood, California, for most of her later years until her death at the Motion Picture Country Hospital in Woodland Hills, 16 January, 2001, from a heart attack.

Movies for Virginia O'Brien...

Gus
Title: Gus
Character: Reporter
Released: July 7, 1976
Type: Movie
The California Atoms are in last place with no hope of moving up. But by switching the mule from team mascot to team member, (He can kick 100 yard field goals!) they start winning, and move up in the rankings, Hurrah! The competition isn't so happy.
bee
Francis in the Navy
Title: Francis in the Navy
Character: Nurse Kittredge
Released: August 24, 1955
Type: Movie
In the U. S. Army intelligence office, bumbling lieutenant Peter Stirling receives a coded message from his friend, Francis, a talking mule. The note urges Pete to hurry to the Coronado, California naval base, where Francis is about to be sold as surplus. Pete rushes to the train station, but before he can board, nurse Betsy Donevan mistakes him for her shell-shocked brother, Navy boatswain Slicker Donevan. She tries to forcibly remove his uniform so he will not get into trouble for impersonating an Army officer. Finally she realizes that Pete is not Slicker but merely his mirror image.
bee
Musical Merry-Go-Round #4
Title: Musical Merry-Go-Round #4
Character: Self
Released: July 17, 1948
Type: Movie
Virginia O'Brien visits Martin Block as he hosts a radio show devoted to Les Brown and His Band of Renown. A few numbers are heard from the band as Block gives a brief history of how they started. O'Brien also recalls her first movie song.
bee
Merton of the Movies
Title: Merton of the Movies
Character: Phyllis Montague
Released: October 11, 1947
Type: Movie
In 1915, Kansas theatre usher Merton Gill is a rabid silent-movie fan. When he brings Mammoth Studios free publicity by imitating star Lawrence Rupert's heroics, they bring him to Hollywood to generate another headline; he thinks he'll get a movie contract. Disillusioned, he haunts the casting offices, where he meets and is consoled by Phyllis Montague, bit player and stunt-woman. When Merton finally gets his "break," though, it's not quite what he envisioned.
bee
Till the Clouds Roll By
Title: Till the Clouds Roll By
Character: Ellie May Shipley / Virginia O'Brien
Released: December 5, 1946
Type: Movie
Light bio-pic of American Broadway pioneer Jerome Kern, featuring renditions of the famous songs from his musical plays by contemporary stage artists, including a condensed production of his most famous: 'Showboat'.
bee
The Show-Off
Title: The Show-Off
Character: Hortense
Released: December 1, 1946
Type: Movie
Chaos is brought to a family when daughter marries a brash young man met on a blind date.
bee
The Harvey Girls
Title: The Harvey Girls
Character: Alma from Ohio
Released: January 18, 1946
Type: Movie
On a train trip out west to become a mail-order bride, Susan Bradley meets a cheery crew of young women traveling out to open a "Harvey House" restaurant at a remote whistle-stop.
bee
Ziegfeld Follies
Title: Ziegfeld Follies
Character: Virginia O'Brien (segment Here's to the Ladies)
Released: August 26, 1945
Type: Movie
The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld looks down from heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style.
bee
The Great Morgan
Title: The Great Morgan
Character: Film Character (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1945
Type: Movie
Frank Morgan is hired to put together a movie using odds and ends from the MGM vaults. He does so by splicing together a string of completely unrelated short subjects and musical numbers, interspersed with a repeated loop of a scene from some melodrama. (Contains in their entirety the shorts, "Musical Masterpieces," "Our Old Car," and "Badminton," as well as clips from other projects)
bee
Two Girls and a Sailor
Title: Two Girls and a Sailor
Character: Virginia O'Brien
Released: June 14, 1944
Type: Movie
A sailor helps two sisters start up a service canteen. The sailor soon becomes taken with gorgeous sister Jean, unaware that her sibling Patsy is also in love with him.
bee
Meet the People
Title: Meet the People
Character: 'Woodpecker' Peg
Released: June 1, 1944
Type: Movie
A idealistic shipyard worker interests a beautiful Hollywood star in staging a musical tribute to the war industry, but they disagree on some important issues.
bee
Thousands Cheer
Title: Thousands Cheer
Character: Virginia O’Brien
Released: September 13, 1943
Type: Movie
Acrobat Eddie Marsh is in the army now. His first act is to become friendly with Kathryn Jones, the colonel's pretty daughter. Their romance hits a few snags, including disapproval from her father. Eddie's also plagued by fear of having an accident during his family's trapeze act in the army variety show, which also features a gallery of MGM stars.
bee
Du Barry was a Lady
Title: Du Barry was a Lady
Character: Ginny
Released: August 13, 1943
Type: Movie
Hat check man Louis Blore is in love with nightclub star May Daly. May, however, is in love with a poor dancer but wants to marry for money. When Louis wins the Irish Sweepstakes, he asks May to marry him and she accepts even though she doesn't love him. Soon after, Louis has an accident and gets knocked on the head, where he dreams that he's King Louis XV pursuing the infamous Madame Du Barry.
bee
Panama Hattie
Title: Panama Hattie
Character: Flo Foster
Released: September 30, 1942
Type: Movie
Sailors and spies mingle in between the acts at Hattie's nightclub in the Canal Zone.
bee
Ship Ahoy
Title: Ship Ahoy
Character: Fran Evans
Released: April 16, 1942
Type: Movie
Miss Winters is a dancer with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and is asked to secretly transport a prototype magnetic mine to Puerto Rico. She thinks that she is working for the US Government, but fails to see why she would be involved.
bee
Lady Be Good
Title: Lady Be Good
Character: Lull
Released: September 18, 1941
Type: Movie
Married songwriters almost split up while putting on a big show.
bee
Screen Snapshots Series 21 No. 1
Title: Screen Snapshots Series 21 No. 1
Character: Self
Released: August 15, 1941
Type: Movie
This edition of Screen Snapshots has more of a vaudeville flavor as opposed to Ralph Staub's usual candid-camera at home with the stars offerings. Ken Murray, assisted by the Brewer Twins, is the MC, while the Andrews Sisters sing "In Apple Blossom Time" and the pre-"Uncle Miltie" Milton Berle plays his clarinet. The rest of the players, with contract-player faces belonging to 20th-Century Fox, RKO Radio, Universal and Columbia, just pass through. Production Number 3851.
bee
Ringside Maisie
Title: Ringside Maisie
Character: Herself - Singer
Released: August 1, 1941
Type: Movie
Young undefeated boxer Terry Dolan, who's been lying to his invalid mother about his career, confides to Maisie that he hates and is terrified by boxing and wants out. Not wanting to let down his best friend and manager Skeets Maguire, who has hopes of him becoming the next champion, he is reluctant to bring up the subject with him. Maisie convinces Terry to tell Skeets, whose unexpected reaction induces him to step into the ring again.
bee
The Big Store
Title: The Big Store
Character: Kitty
Released: June 20, 1941
Type: Movie
A detective is hired to protect the life of a singer, who has recently inherited a department store, from the store's crooked manager.
bee
Hullabaloo
Title: Hullabaloo
Character: Virginia Ferris
Released: October 25, 1940
Type: Movie
A radio actor faces trouble when a science-fiction story causes the audience to panic.
bee
Sky Murder
Title: Sky Murder
Character: Lucille LaVonne
Released: September 27, 1940
Type: Movie
This final Carter film is a lot of fun, with Nick (unwillingly, at first) taking on a ring of Fifth Columnists (since this was filmed before the US entered the war, we're not told the villains are Nazis, but it's pretty clear anyway). Of course, the helpful and persistent Bartholomew is at his side--much to Nick's irritation. To further complicate things--and to make them still funnier--Joyce Compton is along for the ride too, as a delightfully brainless "detective" named Christine Cross.