Virginia Mayo, with her peaches-and-cream beauty, dancing talent, likeable personality and ability to turn on dramatic fire when the occasion demanded it, never quite became a major star but enjoyed a long run as a dependable leading lady.

Born Virginia Clara Jones on Nov. 30, 1920, in St. Louis, Mo., she performed with the St. Louis Municipal Opera before becoming a showgirl on Broadway. Spotted by a talent scout, she was signed by Samuel Goldwyn to lend decorative appeal to such Technicolor comedies as The Princess and the Pirate (1944) starring Bob Hope; and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) starring Danny Kaye. Mayo's breakthrough as a dramatic actress came in a stinging performance as Dana Andrews' faithless wife in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Goldwyn's drama of servicemen returning from World War II.

Mayo began a long association with Warner Bros. with a leading role, that of a socialite mixed up with gangsters, in Smart Girls Don't Talk (1948). After supporting Milton Berle in Always Leave Them Laughing (1949), she starred opposite most of Warners' leading men including Zachary Scott in Flaxy Martin (1949), Ronald Reagan in The Girl from Jones Beach (1949) and She's Working Her Way Through College (1952), James Cagney in White Heat (1949) and The West Point Story (1950), Burt Lancaster in The Flame and the Arrow (1950) and South Sea Woman (1953), and Alan Ladd in The Iron Mistress (1952). At RKO, she teamed with Robert Stack in the Western Great Day in the Morning (1956).

Although her pace slowed, Mayo continued to make appearances in feature films and on television through the 1980s. Her most recent credit was The Man Next Door (1997). Married to actor Michael O'Shea from 1947 to his death in 1973, she is the mother of a daughter, Catherine Mary.

The movies in TCM's tribute to Virginia Mayo are The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), Smart Girls Don't Talk (1948), Always Leave Them Laughing (1949), Flaxy Martin (1949), The Girl from Jones Beach (1949) and Great Day in the Morning (1956).

by Roger Fristoe