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Virginia Field Profile
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| (Margaret Cynthia Field) |
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| 4 November 17 | is born in London, England. Her father is Sir John Field, English barrister; her mother is a cousin of General Robert E. Lee. |
| c. 32 | debuts on the British stage at age 15 |
| ? | is educated in Paris and Vienna |
| ? | is seen on a street by a Viennese impresario who offers her a role in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well |
| c. 34 | debuts on the British screen, but her scenes in Drake of England end up on the cutting room floor |
| ? | Gilbert Miller asks her to go to Hollywood |
| ? | moves into a Los Angeles apartment after deciding that a house is too much of a bother |
| ? | makes her screen test opposite Owen Davis, Jr., who doesn't get the part, but later signs at another studio |
| April 36 | gives up Hollywood parties because she "is too tired after a day's work to endure the customary blah blah of shop talk." |
| May 36 | she and Owen Davis, Jr., will announce their engagement shortly |
| November 36 | is on hand to greet David A. Croll, Ontario's public welfare minister, visiting Hollywood |
| March 38 | is a new twosome with Vic Orsatti, the ex of actress June Lang |
| February 39 | columnist Jimmy Fidler writes: "Draw a pair of hearts, entwined, around the names of Virginia Field and Howard Sharpe, magazine scribe - they're serious." |
| April 39 | her escort at Santa Barbara's Russian Easter Ball is Hal Roach, Jr. |
| May 39 | the press announces that she and the Countess de los Torres are one and the same girl |
| refuses to pose in a bathing suit |
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| confides she will jaunt to England on September 1, for a month’s visit with her family - her first in three years |
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| October 39 | columnist Jimmy Fidler says: "What every young man would like to have for Christmas - is Virginia Field in her new Zaza gown." |
| Fidler reports: "About a year ago, Virginia Field discussing her plans for the future told me there were just four things she wanted to own, a restaurant, a food market, an apartment house, and a mink coat. She now has the mink coat and the restaurant - and if I had an apartment house and a grocery store to sell, I'd consider her a good prospect." |
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| her combination with Richard Greene continues. They are at the Victor House following the premiere of Cavalcade. |
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| November 39 | is in bed with a cold as bad as the one that had Richard Greene kayoed |
| February 40 | she and Greene are considered engaged. "They'll probably marry within a few months although they have no actual plans beyond the firm determination to have a real wedding and honeymoon." |
| June 40 | is seen at the Beachcomber's with Greene |
| July 40 | she, Greene, and the John Warburtons are a foursome at Bill Jordan's Bar of Music. Warburton's just back from offering his services in Canada. He found it will be quite a time before he is called to active duty. |
| Late July 40 | is seen at the Sphinx Club with Greene, gravely discussing his July 28 departure for Canada to enlist |
| November 40 | Greene has returned to England from Hollywood. Reports from London say she and Richard are engaged. |
| Early November 40 | thinks a reported announcement in London that she is engaged to Greene is premature. "Richard is now at war," she says, "and it would be silly for us at this time to make any such announcement. However, I will not say that we will not be married. The future is too uncertain." |
| November 40 | studies her lines always between 6 and 9 a.m. with a cup of coffee to keep her awake |
| Christmas 40 | is in New York City with "that millionaire who gifted her so beautifully last Yuletide" |
| February 41 | is seen dining with wealthy Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, horse enthusiast, at a Hollywood nightclub. She sports a striking diamond-ruby ensemble for hair, ears and gown. |
| columnist Jimmy Fidler reports that "Virginia Fields, whose contours were perfect, has dropped close to 20 pounds and foolishly wants to shed more..." |
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| March 41 | is pictured chatting with fellow actress Carole Landis during a lull in a nightclub evening |
| columnist Walter Winchell knows that "Alf Vanderbilt's linking with every gal in town - when closest to him insist that Virginia Field has no competition..." |
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| wins a French poodle from Bob Taplinger on a tennis bet |
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| Herbert Klotz, the ski champ, helps her not to think about Richard Greene |
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| April 41 | dates Victor Mature on the East Coast. His steady is Helen Stedman, society debutante; her's was Alfred Vanderbilt. |
| June 41 | columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reports that Virginia and Owen Davis, Jr., look serious. That romance, iced two years ago by her when she met Greene is warming up again in the East. She's quoted as saying Richard Greene "was too young anyway." |
| July 41 | is out for the first time since the auto accident death of her aunt, playwright-actress Auriol Lee, who died at age 60 in a Hutchison, Kansas, road accident |
| February 42 | Kilgallen reports that Virginia and Paul Douglas have postponed their wedding day |
| 11 April 42 | marries Paul Douglas in Hollywood. He's 34; she's 24. He's a former radio announcer now attached to the government office of fact and figures. |
| September 42 | she and Douglas expect the stork. Columnist Louella Parsons knows that "that's the real reason that Virginia has sent her regrets to Columbia for Power of the Press. She wants to remain in the cast with her husband until he goes into the service and to be near him as long as possible. Moreover, she will not do any picture work until the arrival of the Douglas heir. I hear that Gloria Dickson, who has been dieting and is much thinner, will have the femme lead in Power of the Press..." |
| 31 January 44 | is among stars of the stage, screen and radio who gather at the White House to celebrate the 62nd birthday of President Roosevelt. The others are Joan Fontaine, Martha Scott, Mary Martin, Mary Pickford, Lucille Ball, Maria Montez, Jinx Falkenburg, Jeanne Cagney, Lily Pons, Patricia Collinge, Louis Prima, Guy Lombardo, Brian Aherne, Grantland Rice, Roland Young, Red Skeleton, John Garfield, Meyer Davis, Walter Pidgeon, and Brian Donlevy. |
| May 44 | columnist Erskine Johnson writes: "Virginia Field and Paul Douglas, recently rumored divorcing, have made a date with the stork." |
| c. 44 | her daughter, Margaret, is born |
| December 44 | when she learns that Richard Greene names his new police dog "Tristan," she promptly christens her toy Chihuahua "Isolde" |
| March 45 | is spotted studying a play script on the corner of 57th and Fifth in New York City |
| April 45 | may test for the title role in Amber |
| her father's appointed England's newest King's Counsellor and is now addressed as "His Honor, Judge St. John Field, K.C." |
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| completes her training as a nurse's aid, serving in her spare time at a hospital in New York City |
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| March 46 | Louella Parsons tells: "I talked with Paul Douglas and Virginia Field over the long distance telephone. Virginia has just gone back to visit Paul, and they are happier than ever, which is good news. They plan to go to London to co-star in Born Yesterday, the play in which he made such a success on Broadway, and later the movie will be made as an independent venture, with Paul, of course, in the role he created on the stage." |
| Early June 46 | finally persuades her mother, "whom she hasn't seen in 10 years, to make the trip from England. She arrives in August." |
| c. 20 June 46 | Winchell heralds that Douglas "may post the renotice. All of us saw they were happier thank larks..." |
| August 46 | her mother's en route from England to sit out with her during the waiting period in Las Vegas, Nevada, toward divorcing Douglas |
| September 46 | is expected to marry Irving "Clip" Squires, wealthy New York socialite, after her Reno clearance from Paul Douglas. Squires is 46; she's 28. |
| December 46 | she and George Raft are a new twosome |
| January 47 | is reported trying to talk Paramount into letting her be THE woman and not the other woman all the time |
| 4 April 47 | composer Howard Grode takes out the marriage license. She and Grode, Ingrid Bergman's voice coach, say they plan to marry April 5. |
| 5 April 47 | marries Howard Richard Grode in a simple ceremony, lasting about five minutes, in Santa Barbara, California. He's 49; she's 29. They met when Grode mistook her for the maid and handed her his hat. Grode's the ex of Harriett Lee, MGM voice coach. |
| May 47 | there's time out for her and Grode. "After eating out for two straight weeks, they enjoyed a dinner at home and both contracted food poisoning." |
| July 47 | is pictured in a three-piece playsuit designed by Stephanie Koret of California |
| intimates wonder if she and Douglas will try it again. They are on the phone daily. |
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| 1 October 47 | files suit for divorce from Grode in Los Angeles |
| December 47 | Douglas is expected to visit her in Reno, where she is divorcing Howard Grode |
| 5 January 48 | is reported seriously ill with pneumonia at a Las Vegas hospital |
| 7 January 48 | wins an uncontested divorce from Grode in Judge Howard McNamec's district court in Las Vegas, Nevada, charging mental cruelty. They were married just nine months ago. No property settlement is involved. Grode will die at age 53 in 1951 in Los Angeles. |
| Early January 48 | Dorothy Kilgallen knows that "the Virginia Field-Paul Douglas reconciliation talk is just silly, according to their friends. She has a new beau out west, and Paul is picking up Lenore Lemmon's dinner tabs." |
| June 48 | frequently visits Paul Douglas, who's in a New York hospital for an operation |
| March 49 | asked if there is a possibility of a reunion with her, Paul Douglas says: "I don't believe in tie-backs." |
| May 49 | columnist Sheila Graham reports: "There is nothing unusual in Paul Douglas and director Eddie Goulding making a trip together to Honolulu. It was Goulding who introduced Paul to his last wife, Virginia Field. Not only that but he went along on their honeymoon. |
| February 50 | is reported having captured the heart of wealthy Sir Victor Sassoon |
| March 50 | Douglas is expected to meet her and their daughter when they arrive from New York. "People, who say they know, say that Paul has never lost that old feeling for Virginia." |
| April 50 | columnist Erskine Johnson reports: "The character of the junk tycoon Brock in Born Yesterday was played on Broadway by Paul Douglas and on the road by Richard Rober. Jan Sterling was Rober's leading lady. The other night, Virginia Field, who was one married to Douglas, dated Rober. During the evening they ran into Jan Sterling being squired by Paul Douglas." |
| Early May 50 | attends the opening of a new ice cream parlor on Vine Street with Rod Cameron. Other guests are Dan Duryea and Wanda Hendrix. The opening night special is an ice cream soda made with champagne. |
| End May 50 | is squired around town by actor Rod Cameron |
| June 50 | is courted again by Richard Greene |
| December 50 | friends of her and Willard Parker won't be surprised if a Mexican divorce paves the way for their early marriage |
| is reported lunching at Romanoff's with her fiancé, Willard Parker. Not many tables away, Paul Douglas is lunching with his present wife, Jan Sterling. |
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| January 51 | on a Hollywood movie set, she and Parker announce their wedding date to be October 10, the day after his divorce from Marion Pierce becomes final. |
| February 51 | a baby photo of hers is used to advertise Weatena cereals |
| 24 April 51 | refuses to take off her diamond ring for a movie scene, so her engagement to Willard Parker comes into the press again. She and Parker are going to be married on October 9, she says. Concerning the ring, the studio compromises. They tape the ring with flesh-colored adhesive. |
| April 51 | rides an elephant at the charity opening of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey show in New York. Other celebrities taking part are Lily Pons, Ella Raines, Jimmy Durante, Ed Wynn, Bob Hope, Cyd Charisse, Laraine Day, Jack Dempsey, Robert Montgomery, Lauritz Melchior, Patrice Munsel, Celeste Holm, and Ken Murray. |
| May 51 | she and Parker are signed to co-star in the TV series "Boss Lady." The series calls for 36 films a year, each budgeted at $18,000 for the next five years. |
| July 51 | columnist Armand Archerd reports that she and Parker couldn't decide who would get top billing on the letterheads. A compromise ends in equal credits. |
| 12 October 51 | marries Parker in a three-minute ceremony in Beverly Hills. He's 38; she's 33. It's his second and her third marriage. Afterwards, they leave on a brief honeymoon to Palm Springs. |
| January 52 | the press hails her a walking treasury as she models diamond jewelry at a Hollywood benefit show. As a novelty, she wears both earrings on one ear. |
| February 52 | makes her singing debut in Weekend with Father. "She displays a voice so pleasing that an entirely new field of opportunity seems opened to her." |
| June 52 | sparks fly over her new TV series "Boss Lady." She and Parker say they'll sue producer Jack Wrather. "They were replaced in the series by Lynn Bari and Glenn Langan when a shampoo sponsor discovered that Virginia had collected $5,000 for endorsing a rival shampoo on the home screens." |
| July 53 | will headline CBS's "Vanity and Mrs. Fair," due in the fall |
| January 54 | she and Parker are pictured attending a party in Beverly Hills |
| January 55 | she and Parker are reported "not going in at Ida Lupino's party because they saw no cars outside the house. There were 40 guests inside. Ida had asked everybody to come in taxi cabs." |
| June 55 | for his part in TV's "The Texas Ranger," her husband is asked by sponsors General Mills neither to smoke nor drink in public nor to frequent nightclubs. Because he has to be an all-out American type Texan, he has to get rid of his Jaguar and ride around in an American automobile. |
| July 57 | Jan Sterling predicts her 12-year-old stepdaughter, Maggie, will crash the movies as a glamour girl by the time she is 17 |
| September 59 | she and her 15-year-old daughter, Margaret, attend the final rites for Paul Douglas in Hollywood. Douglas died at age 52 of a heart attack. |
| 4 April 60 | her daughter is granted a $150-a-month allowance from Douglas' $111,500 estate by the Los Angeles Superior Court. Virginia had asked for $250 a month for Maggie. |
| August 60 | films "Meet the Girls," an eventually unsold pilot about small-town girls in the big city. Her co-stars are Mamie Van Doren and Gale Robbins. |
| November 60 | is awarded child support payments totalling $400 monthly from the estate left by her former husband, Paul Douglas |
| 2 January 92 | as Virginia Field, she dies at age 74 in Palm Desert, California, of cancer. Her husband survives. Parker will die at age 84 in 1996 in Rancho Mirage, California, from heart failure. |
| Sources: The Oshkosh Northwestern, The Gettysburg Times, Pottstown Mercury, Nevada State Journal, Screen Stories, The Lowell Sun, Appleton Post-Crescent, The Daily Independent, Oakland Tribune, The Charleston Daily Mail, The Chronicle-Telegram, Syracuse Herald-Journal, The Frederick Post, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, The Port Arthur News, Mansfield News-Journal, The Lowell Sun, The Independent-Record, Record-Eagle, Lincoln-Journal, The Era, The Zanesville Signal, The Joplin Globe, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, Pottstown Mercury, Oelwein Daily Register, Indiana Evening Gazette, Portland Press Herald, The Monessen Daily Independent, Ames Daily Tribune, The Herald-Press, The Coshocton Tribune, The Dothan Eagle, Dixon Evening Telegraph, The Newark Advocate and American Tribune, Sunday Times Signal, The Daily Register, The Lethbridge Herald, Times Recorder, The Lima News, The Post-Standard, Silver Screen, Movieland, www.Ancestry.com, pro.Corbis.com | |
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| Links: Filmography | |