Virginia Walker
{{short description|American actress (1908-1946)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Virginia Walker
| image = Virginia Walker (actress).png
| alt =
| caption = Walker in a 1945 publicity photo for
A Royal Scandal
| birth_name = Virginia May Walker
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1908|07|31}}
| birth_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1946|12|23|1908|07|31}}
| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| other_names = Virginia Walker Hawks
| occupation = Film actress
| years_active = 1938–1945
| known_for = Alice Swallow in Bringing Up Baby
| spouse = William Hawks (1938-1942)
}}
Virginia May Walker Hawks (July 31, 1908 – December 23, 1946) was an American model and film actress. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she studied Japanese art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and pursued a modeling career in national magazine advertisements, through which she was spotted by a Universal Pictures scout and signed to a film contract. Upon arriving in Hollywood, she met filmmaker Howard Hawks, who negotiated her release from Universal and signed her to a personal contract. She made her film debut in Hawks's Bringing Up Baby (1938), and the following year married Hawks's brother William. After their 1942 divorce, she appeared in four more feature film roles, three of them uncredited, for 20th Century Fox.
Early life and education
Virginia May Walker{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/44305313/william_h_walker_dead_30_july_1912/|title=William H. Walker Dead|newspaper=The Boston Globe|date=July 30, 1912|page=14|via=Newspapers.com}}{{open access}} was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 31, 1908.{{cite web |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-XXDJ-KT?i=34&cc=1536925&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AFXHQ-KNR|title=Births Registered in the City of Cambridge for the Year Nineteen Hundred and Eight|publisher=FamilySearch Indexing|access-date=February 16, 2020}} She was the only daughter of William Homer Walker (1869–1912), a local attorney, and Eva M. Walker (née Perry), originally from Paris. She had two older brothers.
Walker grew up in Boston and Cambridge; the family vacationed in Miami, Florida, during the winters.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/44066447/miss_walker_pt_2_20_november/|title=Face May Prove Fortune (pt. 2)|newspaper=The Boston Globe|page=4|via=Newspapers.com}}{{open access}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/44066352/face_may_prove_fortune_pt_1_20/|title=Face May Prove Fortune (pt. 1)|newspaper=The Boston Globe|date=November 20, 1935|page=1|via=Newspapers.com}}{{open access}} At age 10, Walker moved to Miami and eventually graduated from Miami High School. She returned to Boston to study Japanese art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, with a specialty in Japanese prints.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/44065734/the_boston_globe/|title=Boston Miss in Screen Debut|first=Mayme Ober|last=Peak|date=December 4, 1937|newspaper=The Boston Globe|page=9|via=Newspapers.com}}{{open access}} She was a member of the Junior League of Boston.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/44066069/the_boston_globe/|title=Boston's Own Virginia Walker Gets Role With Jimmy Dunn|first=Mayme Ober|last=Peak|date=March 31, 1945|newspaper=The Boston Globe|page=12|via=Newspapers.com}}{{open access}}
Early work
Walker began modeling in national magazine advertisements for various companies, including a car manufacturer and a garment designer. She performed in amateur stage productions in Brookline, including dramatic plays staged by the Harvard Dramatic Club and comedies produced by the Hasty Pudding Club.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43934423/virginia_hawks_dead_on_coast/|title=Virginia Hawks Dead on Coast|newspaper=The Boston Globe|date=December 24, 1946|page=12|via=Newspapers.com}}{{open access}} Additionally, she created a skin care product which she manufactured in her home kitchen.
Film career
In 1935, Walker responded to a call for "new faces" by Hollywood filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, who sought a new actress for his production of Samson and Delilah. DeMille received 3,000 entries from around the country and chose Walker's picture together with five others for further consideration. She was ultimately not chosen for a screen test, but in June 1937, a Universal Pictures scout saw Walker's picture in a magazine advertisement for a soap product, signed her to a contract, and brought her to Hollywood.
Before the studio cast her in a film, however, Walker and a friend went to visit executives at RKO Pictures, including director Howard Hawks. Hawks recognized Walker from her magazine advertisements and wanted her to work for him. He negotiated Walker's release from Universal and signed her to a personal contract. She was one of the first actresses whom Hawks signed to a personal contract, and was loaned to RKO to appear in Hawks's 1938 film Bringing Up Baby.{{sfn|McCarthy|2007|p=391}} Walker made her film debut playing Alice Swallow, the fiancée of Cary Grant's character.{{sfn|McCarthy|2007|p=391}}{{cite web |url= https://cine-fille.com/2011/07/31/bringing-up-baby-the-supporting-cast/|title=Bringing Up Baby: Meet the Supporting Cast|date=July 31, 2011|access-date=February 9, 2020|work=Cine-Fille}}
She put aside her screen career upon her marriage in 1938,{{cite news|url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16120123/the_decatur_daily_review/|title=Film Actress Dies|date=December 24, 1946|newspaper=The Decatur Daily Review|page=15|via=Newspapers.com}}{{open access}} but resumed it after her 1942 divorce. In the second part of her career, she signed with 20th Century Fox and played bit roles in four films, three of them uncredited. In 1945 she was signed to appear with James Dunn in Command to Embezzle, a drama film that was ultimately shelved.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LQgbBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT124|title= Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes|first=Matthew|last=Kennedy|year=2009|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn= 9781626744325|page=124}}
Personal life
Walker married film producer William Hawks, brother of Howard Hawks, in June 1938 in Mexico.{{sfn|McCarthy|2007|p=391}}{{cite news|title=Bessie Love's Former Husband Weds Actress|newspaper=The Hartford Courant|date=June 29, 1938|page=4}} It was the second marriage for Hawks. The couple divorced in October 1942 in Reno, Nevada.{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT54|title=Divorces|magazine=Billboard|date=November 14, 1942| volume=54|issue=46|page=54}}
Walker died on December 23, 1946, after a months-long illness and a surgical procedure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.{{cite web |url= https://www.aenigma-images.com/2017/06/photo-research/virginia/|title=Virginia Walker|publisher=aenigma-images.com|year=2020|access-date=February 9, 2020}}{{cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1946/12/25/archives/mrs-virginia-w-hawks-former-actress-left-boston-society-for-film.html|title= MRS. VIRGINIA W. HAWKS; Former Actress Left Boston Society for Film Career|date=December 25, 1946|access-date=February 9, 2020|work=The New York Times}} A requiem mass was held for her at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/44065149//|title=Mass Thursday for Mrs. Hawks, Former Actress|newspaper=Valley Times|location=North Hollywood, California|date=December 24, 1946|page=2|via=Newspapers.com}}{{open access}}
Filmography
{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
! Film ! Role ! Notes |
|---|
| rowspan=1|1938
|Alice Swallow | |
| rowspan=4|1945
|Lady-in-waiting |Uncredited |
| Diamond Horseshoe
|Chorine |Uncredited |
| Nob Hill
|Mrs. Van Buren |Uncredited |
| The Caribbean Mystery
|Adelaide Marcel | |
{{col-end}}
Sources:{{sfn|McBride|2013|p=237}}{{sfn|American Film Institute Catalog|1999|p=380}}
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- {{cite book|ref={{harvid|American Film Institute Catalog|1999}}|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fRY0QiacQccC&pg=PA380|title=American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States – Feature Films, 1941–1950 – Film Entries, A–L|year=1999|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520215214}}
- {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W_4d5Vm5Ku8C&pg=PT237|title=Hawks on Hawks|first=Joseph|last=McBride|author-link=Joseph McBride (writer)|year=2013|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=9780813144306}}
- {{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VurpbRg7GRoC&pg=PT391|title=Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood|first=Todd|last=McCarthy|author-link=Todd McCarthy|year=2007|publisher=Open Road + Grove/Atlantic|isbn=9780802196408}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|0908294}}
- {{Find a Grave|117254225}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Virginia}}
Category:American film actresses
Category:School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts alumni
Category:Actresses from Cambridge, Massachusetts
Category:20th-century American actresses