Obituary: Virginia Patton, actress who starred in the Christmas classic ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ thankIs to a projectionist’s error
Virginia Patton and James Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life. Photo: CBS Photo Archive
September 04 2022 02:30 AM
Virginia Patton, who has died aged 97, played Ruth Bailey, James Stewart’s sister-in-law, in Frank Capra’s uplifting 1946 Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life. She was the only member of the cast personally signed up by the director, her fellow actors all being on loan from other studios, and she was the last surviving adult actor from the cast.
It’s a Wonderful Life centres around Stewart’s George Bailey, who contemplates taking his own life after a financial disaster but is saved when an angel, Clarence (Henry Travers), earns his wings by showing George how the world would have turned out if George had not been born.
Patton, a tall, blonde, dazzling young starlet, owed her part to a projectionist’s mistake. She had made a test reel for the producer-director George Stevens, but a few days later Capra was in the projection room to watch Stewart and Donna Reed, who played his wife Mary, in early scenes from It’s a Wonderful Life.
The projectionist picked up the wrong can of film and unwittingly screened Virginia’s test, but Capra sat through it and decided she would be ideal for the part he had in mind.
The role was small but crucial. In a scene shot at a railway station in Pasadena, Ruth alights from a train as the new bride of George Bailey’s brother Harry, and announces that her father has offered Harry a lucrative job elsewhere, crushing George’s dreams of leaving Bedford Falls.
She adored working for Capra. “It was a wonderful atmosphere that some other directors didn’t produce.”
It’s a Wonderful Life was not a box-office success on its release, particularly in the US, but affection for it blossomed as repeat showings became a fixture of Christmas television. Patton joked that she had been “in more homes than Santa Claus”, but she knew there was something special about the film while she was working on it.
“People of all generations can still identify with Jimmy Stewart’s character,” she said in 2011.
In 1995 It’s a Wonderful Life was one of 45 films chosen by the Vatican to commemorate the 100th anniversary of filmmaking.
Patton’s role, however, was not quite as chaste as she had been promised. As she put it: “I was a teenager playing a very sophisticated woman, or so I thought.”
These contrasting features are revealed when Stewart kisses her in the film, although Capra had told her that this would not happen.
Virginia Ann Marie Patton was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 25, 1925, the daughter of Donald Patton and his wife Marie. Her father’s work took the family to Portland, Oregon, where she was educated at Jefferson High School before moving to California.
“I wanted to make it in Hollywood,” she said. “I could think of nothing else. When I arrived on Hollywood Boulevard, however, I have to admit my slight disappointment at seeing Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr and others sauntering along the sidewalk.”
She studied acting at the University of Southern California and soon secured several minor film roles with Warner Brothers.
After It’s a Wonderful Life, she made four more films, including the Ku Klux Klan exposé The Burning Cross (1947). But the previous year Warner Bros had released her from her contract, and without the backing of a big studio her career started to founder.
She retired from acting in 1949 to marry Cruse Moss, an American Motors executive. Although Capra urged her to think twice about abandoning her acting career, she had no regrets and “couldn’t see me doing that for my life”.
The couple settled in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she ran an investment business. Moss died in 2018; they had three children.
Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
September 04 2022 02:30 AM
Virginia Patton, who has died aged 97, played Ruth Bailey, James Stewart’s sister-in-law, in Frank Capra’s uplifting 1946 Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life. She was the only member of the cast personally signed up by the director, her fellow actors all being on loan from other studios, and she was the last surviving adult actor from the cast.
It’s a Wonderful Life centres around Stewart’s George Bailey, who contemplates taking his own life after a financial disaster but is saved when an angel, Clarence (Henry Travers), earns his wings by showing George how the world would have turned out if George had not been born.
Patton, a tall, blonde, dazzling young starlet, owed her part to a projectionist’s mistake. She had made a test reel for the producer-director George Stevens, but a few days later Capra was in the projection room to watch Stewart and Donna Reed, who played his wife Mary, in early scenes from It’s a Wonderful Life.
The projectionist picked up the wrong can of film and unwittingly screened Virginia’s test, but Capra sat through it and decided she would be ideal for the part he had in mind.
The role was small but crucial. In a scene shot at a railway station in Pasadena, Ruth alights from a train as the new bride of George Bailey’s brother Harry, and announces that her father has offered Harry a lucrative job elsewhere, crushing George’s dreams of leaving Bedford Falls.
She adored working for Capra. “It was a wonderful atmosphere that some other directors didn’t produce.”
It’s a Wonderful Life was not a box-office success on its release, particularly in the US, but affection for it blossomed as repeat showings became a fixture of Christmas television. Patton joked that she had been “in more homes than Santa Claus”, but she knew there was something special about the film while she was working on it.
“People of all generations can still identify with Jimmy Stewart’s character,” she said in 2011.
In 1995 It’s a Wonderful Life was one of 45 films chosen by the Vatican to commemorate the 100th anniversary of filmmaking.
Patton’s role, however, was not quite as chaste as she had been promised. As she put it: “I was a teenager playing a very sophisticated woman, or so I thought.”
These contrasting features are revealed when Stewart kisses her in the film, although Capra had told her that this would not happen.
Virginia Ann Marie Patton was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 25, 1925, the daughter of Donald Patton and his wife Marie. Her father’s work took the family to Portland, Oregon, where she was educated at Jefferson High School before moving to California.
“I wanted to make it in Hollywood,” she said. “I could think of nothing else. When I arrived on Hollywood Boulevard, however, I have to admit my slight disappointment at seeing Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr and others sauntering along the sidewalk.”
She studied acting at the University of Southern California and soon secured several minor film roles with Warner Brothers.
After It’s a Wonderful Life, she made four more films, including the Ku Klux Klan exposé The Burning Cross (1947). But the previous year Warner Bros had released her from her contract, and without the backing of a big studio her career started to founder.
She retired from acting in 1949 to marry Cruse Moss, an American Motors executive. Although Capra urged her to think twice about abandoning her acting career, she had no regrets and “couldn’t see me doing that for my life”.
The couple settled in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she ran an investment business. Moss died in 2018; they had three children.
Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
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