Virginia Grey

 Virginia Grey (March 22, 1917 – July 31, 2004)

Grey debuted at the age of 10 in the silent film Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927) as Little Eva. She continued acting for a few more years, but then left movies for three years in order to finish her education. Grey gave up on training to be a nurse and returned to films in the 1930s with bit parts and work as an extra, and eventually signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), appearing in several films, including The Hardys Ride High (1939), Another Thin Man (1939), Hullabaloo (1940), and The Big Store (1941) She left MGM in 1942, and signed with several different studios over the years, working steadily. During the 1950s and 1960s, producer Ross Hunter frequently included Grey in his popular soap melodramas, such as All That Heaven Allows, Back Street and Madame X. She had an on again/off again relationship with Clark Gable in the 1940s. After Gable's wife Carole Lombard died and he returned from military service, Gable and Grey were often seen at restaurants and nightclubs together. Many, including Virginia herself, expected him to marry her with the tabloids expecting a wedding announcement. It was a great surprise when he hastily married Lady Sylvia Ashley in 1949, leaving Grey heartbroken. Gable divorced Ashley in 1952. However, Gable never rekindled their romance and Grey's friends say that her hoping and waiting for Gable was the reason she never married. She was a regular on television in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing on Playhouse 90, U.S. Marshal, General Electric Theater, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, Your Show of Shows, Red Skelton, and Wagon Train, among others.

Grey died on July 31, 2004, aged 87, in Woodland Hills, California, at The Motion Picture Home where she was a resident. She was cremated, and her ashes scattered in the pacific ocean.