American leading lady of the 1930s and 1940s, Virginia Bruce was born in Minnesota but grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, and came to California to attend college. Her blond good looks got her an entry into films, and after a few extra roles and bit parts she began to make serious inroads as a leading woman in secondary films and as the "other" woman ...
She was a very active member of both the Hollywood Democratic Committee and The Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and donated much of her time and money to many liberal causes (such as the Civil Rights Movement and the creation of The United Nations) and political candidates (including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter) during her lifetime.
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Coached by Roger Edens her soprano voice was used to introduce the Cole Porter song "I've Got You Under My Skin" to film audiences in the MGM musical Born to Dance (1936), singing the song to James Stewart.
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According to Scott O'Brien's biography entitled "Virginia Bruce: Under My Skin," and his accompanying article on Virginia for Classic Images (February, 2010), Virginia was "discovered" by director William Beaudine when the young beauty accompanied her aunt, a clothing designer, to the home of a client, Mrs. Beaudine. Virginia played the piano and sang for him that day. Paramount, under Beaudine's suggestion, took an option out on her and placed her in walk-on and bit parts, her first being Beaudine's Fugitives (1929).
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Lovely but demure, and not especially ambitious or self-promoting, she was prodded by her parents, who were going through financial reversals, to skip her initial plans on a music education at UCLA and pursue film work.
Her third husband Ali Ipar ventured into a misguided Turkish shipping business that eventually put him behind bars. Virginia was a major contributor to the business.
After ex-husband John Gilbert died in 1936, she made 14 movies in 16 months.
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Her daughter Susan Ann Gilbert was born in 1933. She also had a son, Christopher Ruben, in 1941.
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She was divorced from Ali Ipar for the first time in 1951 when he began his compulsory Turkish army service because Turkish law forbids commissions to men married to foreigners.
$700,000
