Virginia Lee O'Brien (April 18, 1919 – January 16, 2001) was an American actress, singer, and radio personality known for her comedic singing roles in
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
musicals of the 1940s.
Life and career
O'Brien primarily performed in comedic roles during the height of her formal film career. This was in part due to her intentionally humorous singing style, which involved her singing in a deadpan manner, with no facial expressions and very little movement– reportedly she stumbled upon this "gimmick" by accident during a stage show when she became virtually paralyzed with
stage fright before singing a number in the Los Angeles stage production ''
Meet the People''. The audience found the performance to be hilarious and she was soon hired to repeat this performance in a number of movies beginning in 1940, for which she gained the nicknames "Frozen Face" and "Miss Ice Glacier" amongst others. When she was not singing, her acting style was just as emotive as other actresses, and she did not always employ her gimmick when singing, as evidenced by her performance in the excerpt from ''
Show Boat
''Show Boat'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 Show Boat (novel), novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the per ...
'' in the 1946 film ''
Till the Clouds Roll By''. She made her Broadway debut in the short-lived musical ''
Keep Off the Grass'' with Jimmy Durante and recorded four of the songs for Columbia Records. She also recorded several sides for
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...
, including two of her signature songs – "
The Wild, Wild West" and "
Say We're Sweethearts Again".
Among the films she appeared in at MGM were ''
The Big Store'' (1941) with the
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act known for their anarchic humor, rapid-fire wordplay, and visual gags. They achieved success in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in 14 motion pictures. The core group consisted of brothers Chi ...
, ''
Lady Be Good'' (1941), ''
Ship Ahoy'' (1942) with
Eleanor Powell and
Red Skelton, ''
Thousands Cheer
''Thousands Cheer'' is a 1943 American musical comedy film directed by George Sidney and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Produced during the Second World War, the film was intended as a morale booster for American troops and their families.
P ...
'' (in which she endured ribbing from
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Ninnian Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nearly nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last survivi ...
about her singing style), ''
Du Barry Was a Lady'' (with Skelton and
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by ''Time (magazine), Time'' in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for h ...
), the film version of ''
Meet the People'' with
Dick Powell, ''
The Harvey Girls'' (with
Judy Garland) though she dropped out halfway through filming due to a pregnancy, and ''
Ziegfeld Follies.'' After appearing once again with Red Skelton in 1947's ''
Merton of the Movies'' and after a guest appearance the following year in the short, ''
Musical Merry-Go-Round
''Musical Merry-Go-Round'' is an NBC TV series which aired from July 25, 1947, to 1949. The series featured live music performances.
Production history
Each 30-minute episode was hosted by Jack Kilty, "who sat in front of the camera and played r ...
,'' O'Brien was suddenly dropped from her MGM film contract, and she moved into television and back to live performances.
She made two film appearances after this: ''
Francis in the Navy'' (1955) and a brief appearance in the 1976
Walt Disney Studios comedy, ''
Gus.'' She was among the stars in a 1972 nostalgia revue entitled ''
The Big Show of 1928'' with
Allan Jones,
Cass Daley,
Beatrice Kay, and
Sally Rand, which toured the country and played New York's
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...
. In 1984, she created a cabaret act, "Virginia O'Brien Salutes the Great MGM Musicals," which was recorded at the Masquer's Club in Hollywood, and is currently available on CD and on
iTunes
iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
. She performed several times at such clubs as Hollywood's
Roosevelt Hotel Cinegrill, the Vine St. Bar and Grill, and the Gardenia, as well as the Plush Room in San Francisco.
She continued to perform well into the 1990s with both her one-woman show and a production of ''
Show Boat
''Show Boat'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 Show Boat (novel), novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the per ...
,'' co-starring
Alan Young, and also headlined
The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies.
She died aged 81 in
Woodland Hills, California, from natural causes.
She is buried at the
Forest Lawn Memorial Park in
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city located primarily in the Verdugo Mountains region, with a small portion in the San Fernando Valley, of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is located about north of downtown Los Angeles.
As of 2024, Glendale ha ...
.
O'Brien was a registered
Republican and was supportive of
Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
's campaign during the
1952 presidential election. She also adhered to
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
.
[Morning News, January 10, 1948, ''Who Was Who in America'' (Vol. 2).]
Filmography
References
Sources
*
Further reading
*
External links
* Virginia O'Brien at BearManor Medi
VIRGINIA O'BRIEN: MGM'S DEADPAN DIVA (SOFTCOVER EDITION) by Robert Strom*
*
*
at ArtistDirect.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Virginia
1919 births
2001 deaths
American film actresses
American musical theatre actresses
Actresses from Los Angeles
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
20th-century American singers
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American women singers
Catholics from California
California Republicans