Virginia Dale (born Virginia Paxton; – October 3, 1994) was an American actress and dancer.

Biography

Dale was born in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. She was the daughter of Lula Helms Paxton, and she graduated from Central High School in Charlotte. Dale began learning toe dancing when she was 9 years old. When she was an adult, she recalled, "I slaved and slaved at it, hating every minute. I tried everything I could think of to get out of it." That exit occurred when blood poisoning in one of her feet required grafting lamb's skin over the top of the foot. The resulting reduction in the foot's ability to stretch ended her toe dancing. When Dale was a teenager,

Earl Carroll Earl Carroll (September 16, 1893 – June 17, 1948) was an American theatrical producer, director, writer, songwriter and composer. Early life Carroll was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1893. He lived as an infant in the Nunnery Hill ( Fin ...

selected her as the winner of a beauty contest in Charlotte. That introduction to Carroll helped Dale and her sister, Frances, who danced as a team, to perform in New York City. Their engagements there included an eight-month stint at the Hollywood Restaurant. They also performed in other cities in the eastern United States. While they were in New York City, Dale was discovered by

Darryl F. Zanuck Darryl Francis Zanuck (; September 5, 1902December 22, 1979) was an American film producer and studio executive; he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. Best known as a co-founder of 20th Century Fox, he played a ...

who signed her to a contract with

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

. She appeared in a number of movies in the late 1930s and 1940s, including ''

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn by IHG is a chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson (1913–2003), who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee. The chain was a division ...

'' (1942), in which she dances and sings with Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby, and she became particularly associated with musicals. In the 1950s, she worked mainly in television series such as ''

The Adventures of Kit Carson ''The Adventures of Kit Carson'' is an American Westerns on television, Western television series that aired from 1951 to 1955 and consisted of 104 episodes. While airing, the show was shown in over 130 markets and was sold to the Coca-Cola Bott ...

'' (1951–1952), ''Highway Patrol'' (1957), and ''

The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp ''The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp'' is the first Western television series written for adults.emphysema Emphysema is any air-filled enlargement in the body's tissues. Most commonly emphysema refers to the permanent enlargement of air spaces (alveoli) in the lungs, and is also known as pulmonary emphysema. Emphysema is a lower respiratory tract di ...

on October 3, 1994, in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

, aged 77.

Filmography

References

External links

* * * 1917 births 1994 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Charlotte, North Carolina American female dancers American film actresses Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) Deaths from emphysema {{US-film-actor-1910s-stub