Many of these actors achieved stardom because of their start in film noir; others, despite it. In any case, at one time or another, sometimes many times, they played cops and robbers, hoodlums and toadies, doomed anti-heroes and femme fatales in one of filmdom’s richest genres. And all of us fans of film noir are richer for that. A tip of the fedora to them all.
VIRGINIA MAYO
Virginia Mayo (1920-2005) was a chorus dancer when she began her film career as a bit player in 1942. She rose to face as Danny Kaye's leading lady in a series of splashy Technicolor musicals produced by Samuel Goldwyn. Though never regarded as a great actress, she was utterly convincing as Dana Andrews' two-timing wife in Goldwyn's THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946) and as James Cagney's two-timing gun moll in WHITE HEAT (1949). In the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, Mayo was one of the most popular female stars at Warner Bros., appearing in musicals, melodramas and westerns. When her film career faltered in the ‘60s, she turned to stage work on the touring-company and dinner-theatre circuit. In her last few years, she was a frequent interview subject on TV documentaries dealing with the old Hollywood studio system.
There was nothing wrong with Virginia Mayo as an actress, she was very talented. She was certainly as good if not better than plenty of others.
ReplyDeleteWho, "never regarded her highly as an actresss?" The, "People With No Taste or Judgement Society"?
I'm just saying...