Mayo, Virginia

(b. 30 November 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri; d. 17 January 2005 in Thousand Oaks, California), film and stage actress who starred in many Hollywood musicals and comedies as well as appearing in critically acclaimed dramatic roles. Noted for her remarkable beauty, Mayo was once called “tangible proof of the existence of God” by the Sultan of Morocco.

Mayo was born Virginia Clara Jones to Martha Henrietta (Rautenstrauch), a homemaker, and Luke Ward Jones, a reporter for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. She had one older brother. The family traced their origins back to several heroes of the American Revolution and to one of the founders of the city of East St. Louis. Mayo’s exposure to the stage began early because of an aunt who gave drama and elocution lessons. Mayo was naturally drawn to singing and dancing and by the age of six was working on stages throughout St. Louis. During the Great Depression, her father lost his job on the paper and the family had to move in with relatives. Mayo continued to work on stage and took dancing lessons at the Sherman Park Funding School. She graduated from Soldan High School in 1937 and that same year got a job performing at the St. Louis Municipal Opera.

While working at the municipal opera, she met Andrew Mayo, who asked her to join his vaudeville act. He wanted her to be the comic foil in an act called “Pansy the Horse.” She accepted and went on the road with the vaudeville team comprised of the Mayo brothers. She adopted their last name as her own. The show was a hit with promotional posters highlighting her role and calling her a “symphony for the eyes” and the winner of the “perfect legs contest.” By 1940 Mayo was on Broadway in a show called Banjo Eyes with Eddie Cantor. It was her work on stage in New York City that brought her to the attention of Hollywood. Samuel Goldwyn, one of the founders of MGM Studios, gave her a screen test and then put her under contract. As one of the Goldwyn Girls she was moved to Hollywood and given charm and acting lessons.

Mayo entered the movies at the height of the power of the studio system. As a Goldwyn Girl she was groomed and trained to fit the mold of a young starlet. By 1943 she was acting in bit parts; she went uncredited in Follies Girl (1943) and the Danny Kaye comedy Up in Arms (1944). She had a small role in Jack London (1943), an important film because while making it she met her future husband, the actor Michael O’Shea. Her first major role occurred in 1944 when she starred opposite Bob Hope in The Princess and the Pirate. She then appeared in two popular comedies starring Kaye, Wonder Man (1945) and The Kid from Brooklyn (1946). Often called the best film about post–World War II America, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) gave Mayo two opportunities: her first significant dramatic role and, under the direction of William Wyler, her first experience working with an A-list Hollywood director.

Mayo married O’Shea on 7 July 1947 and ended her contract with MGM the same year. She moved to Warner Bros., and her hectic work pace continued in such films as the screwball comedy Out of the Blue (1947); The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), costarring Kaye and Boris Karloff; the crime drama Smart Girls Don’t Talk (1948); and another comedy with Kaye, A Song Is Born (1948), directed by Howard Hawks. In 1949 she starred in six films, including performing her most famous role as the unfaithful wife of a gangster played by James Cagney in the film noir classic White Heat. Her other film appearances in 1949 displayed her range throughout the popular film genres: Flaxy Martin, a mystery; Colorado Territory, a western directed by Raoul Walsh; the comedy The Girl from Jones Beach, starring opposite Ronald Reagan; the film noir Red Light; and the comedy Always Leave Them Laughing, with Milton Berle.

Mayo continued her demanding work schedule throughout the 1950s, a decade that saw her become a bona fide movie star. She worked with famous leading men and notable directors in such films as The Flame and the Arrow (1950), directed by Jacques Tourneur and costarring Burt Lancaster; The West Point Story (1950), again teamed with Cagney; Captain Horatio HornblowerR. N. (1951), costarring Gregory Peck and directed by Walsh; and Walsh’s Along the Great Divide (1951), costarring Kirk Douglas in his first western. In 1952 Mayo starred in her personal favorite of all her films, the musical comedy She’s Working Her Way Through College. The decade saw Mayo continue to star in big-budget productions alongside famous costars; she was paired with Alan Ladd in The Iron Mistress (1952) and reunited with Lancaster in South Sea Woman (1953). She continued to be a star of genre pictures such as the musical She’s Back on Broadway (1953), the western Devil’s Canyon (1953), the adventure story King Richard and the Crusaders (1954), and the biblical epic The Silver Chalice (1954). The latter featured the actor Paul Newman in his first major film role.

In 1954 Mayo gave birth to a daughter. She remained married to O’Shea until his death in 1973 and never remarried. The birth of her daughter did not keep the demands of Hollywood away, and Mayo continued her brisk work pace throughout the late 1950s with leading roles in the action film Pearl of the South Pacific (1955), the westerns Great Day in the Morning (1956) and The Proud Ones (1956), and the African adventure story Congo Crossing (1956) with Peter Lorre. In The Story of Mankind (1957) she played Cleopatra, a nod to her famous beauty. Mayo ended the decade with a trio of westerns: The Tall Stranger (1957), costarring Joel McCrea; Fort Dobbs (1958); and Westbound (1959), directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott. Westbound was the last film she made under a Hollywood studio contract.

Mayo made her first film outside of the United States in 1960 when she starred in the Italian “sword and sandal” epic La Rivolta dei mercenari (Revolt of the Mercenaries). Although she continued to work in films throughout the 1960s, Mayo’s career slowed as the old Hollywood studio system collapsed. Mayo toured with several acting companies and appeared on stage in musicals and comedies. She began to appear regularly on television and was in demand for genre films such as the thriller Jet over the Atlantic (1960), the westerns Young Fury (1965) and Fort Utah (1967), and the horror film Castle of Evil (1966). Throughout the rest of her career she appeared in several low-budget B movies, including Fugitive Lovers (1975), French Quarter (1977), the horror films The Haunted (1979) and Evil Spirits (1990), and the action film Midnight Witness (1993). Mayo’s final film appearance occurred in the thriller The Man Next Door (1997).

Mayo died of pneumonia at age eighty-four. She is buried in Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California. In a Hollywood career that spanned more than fifty films, Mayo redefined herself from Goldwyn Girl to critically acclaimed actress. Her combination of talent and beauty made her a different kind of Hollywood sex symbol. In White Heat she tries to manipulate her gangster husband played by Cagney into spending some heist money on her: “I look good in a mink coat, honey.” Cagney’s response summed up Mayo’s place in Hollywood history: “You’d look good in a shower curtain.”

Mayo’s autobiography, as told to L. C. van Savage, is Virginia Mayo: The Best Years of My Life (2002). An obituary is in the New York Times (18 Jan. 2005).

John Rocco