Virginia Grey

A versatile supporting actress with a blue-collar mentality, Virginia Grey appeared in more than 100 films and 40 television shows over the course of her 50-year career. The daughter of a Hollywood director, she made her screen debut in 1927 in the drama "Uncle Tom's Cabin." In the late '30s she made movies for MGM, including the comedy caper "Another Thin Man" and the Marx Brothers comedy "The Big Store." After leaving MGM in 1942 she worked for a number of studios, including 20th Century Fox and Universal, where producer Ross Hunter often used her in romance films like "All That Heaven Allows," starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson. As her film career started to wane, Grey found work on television. She played a variety of characters on the Western series "Wagon Train" from 1958 to 1961, and Clara Appleby, one half of a perpetually bickering couple, on the sketch comedy show "The Red Skelton Hour." Her no-nonsense, businesslike attitude toward acting made her easy to cast and prolonged her career. Aside from her own career, Grey was also known for her brief romance with Clark Gable and her work selling war bonds in support of World War II. She died at the age of 87.