Virginia Leith

{{Infobox person

| name = Virginia Leith

| image = Virginia Leith in One Step Beyond (The Bride Possessed).jpg

| alt =

| caption = Leith in an episode of One Step Beyond (1959)

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|10|15|mf=yes}}

| birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2019|11|04|1925|10|15|mf=yes}}

| death_place = Palm Springs, California, U.S.

| occupation = Actress

| years_active = 1953–1962;
1977–1981

| spouse = {{marriage|Don Harron|1960|1968|end=divorced}}

}}

Virginia Leith (October 15, 1925 – November 4, 2019) was an American film and television actress.

Career

Leith starred in a few films, with her most productive period coming in the 1950s. Her debut was also the first film directed by Stanley Kubrick, a self-financed art house film, Fear and Desire (1953).{{cite magazine |title=A Silent Virginia is Discovered |url={{Google books|mEYEAAAAMBAJ|page=122|plainurl=yes}} |date=May 11, 1953 |magazine=Life |issn=0024-3019 |page=122}} She signed a contract with 20th Century-Fox in 1954 and had leading roles in films such as Violent Saturday (1955), Toward the Unknown, On the Threshold of Space, and opposite Robert Wagner and Joanne Woodward in the crime drama A Kiss Before Dying (all 1956). Her most recognizable role may have been that of a decapitated woman whose head is kept alive in The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962, shot 1959).

She left acting after her 1960 marriage to actor Donald Harron. Following her divorce from Harron, in the 1970s Leith resumed her career and appeared mainly in television shows, including Starsky and Hutch, Barnaby Jones, The White Shadow and Baretta. She left the screen again in the early 1980s.{{cite web |website=Brian's Drive-In Theater |url=http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/virginialeith.html |title=Virginia Leith Biography |access-date=March 27, 2018}}

Personal life

She was involved with actor Jeffrey Hunter during his divorce in 1955. She dated actor Marlon Brando in 1956.{{cite web |website=Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen |url=http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/320/Virginia+Leith/index.html |title=Virginia Leith Profile |access-date=March 27, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/2019/film/news/virginia-leith-dead-dies-stanley-kubrick-fear-and-desire-actress-1203403178/|title=Virginia Leith, Female Lead in Stanley Kubrick's First Film, Dies at 94|first1=Erin|last1=Nyren|date=November 13, 2019}}

According to her husband Don Harron, she had a brief affair with model Barbara Freking prior to their marriage.{{Cite book|author=Samuel Claesson|author-link=|title=Glamour: Models, Mannequins, and Pinups of the 1950s|page=142|publisher=Sequoia Press|date=January 31, 2025|isbn=9798350736847}}

Leith died on November 4, 2019, at the age of 94.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/virginia-leith-dead-star-brain-wouldnt-die-was-94-1254393|title=Virginia Leith, Star of 'The Brain That Wouldn't Die,' Dies at 94|website=The Hollywood Reporter|date=November 12, 2019 }} Upon her death, her body was donated to medical science at the UCLA Medical School.{{Citation needed |date=August 2022}}

Filmography

class="wikitable sortable"
Year ! Title ! Role ! class = "unsortable" \| Notes
rowspan=2\|1953 \| Fear and Desire \| Young Girl \|
Here Come the Girls \| Chorus Girl \| Uncredited
1954 \| Black Widow \| Claire Amberly \|
rowspan=2\|1955 \| White Feather \| Ann Magruder \|
Violent Saturday \| Linda Sherman \|
rowspan=4\|1956 \| On the Threshold of Space \| Pat Lange \|
A Kiss Before Dying \| Ellen Kingship \|
Toward the Unknown \| Connie Mitchell \|
The 20th Century-Fox Hour \| Irene Bennett \| Episode: "The Last Patriarch"
rowspan=3\|1958 \| Sing, Boy, Sing \| Stewardess \| Uncredited
Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre \| Barbara \| Episode: "The Bravado Touch"
The Millionaire \| Lil Harrigan \| Episode: "The Frank Harrigan Story"
1959 \| Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond \| Sally Conroy \| Episode: "The Bride Possessed"
1961 \| Great Ghost Tales \| \| Episode: "August Heat"
1962 \| The Brain That Wouldn't Die \| Jan Compton \| Filmed in 1959
rowspan=3\|1977 \| Baretta \| Sally Locker \| Episode: "Guns and Brothers"
Starsky & Hutch \| Margaret Blaine \| Episode: "Death in a Different Place"
First Love \| Mrs. March \| Uncredited
1978 \| The White Shadow \| Art teacher \| Episode: "Mainstream"

class="wikitable sortable"

Year

! Title

! Role

! class = "unsortable" | Notes

rowspan=2|1953

| Fear and Desire

| Young Girl

Here Come the Girls

| Chorus Girl

| Uncredited

1954