Virginia Patton Moss, the last surviving adult member of the cast of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, left Hollywood three years after that movie was released to raise a family on her own in Ann Arbor, Michigan. found a wonderful life. She died in Albany, Georgia on August 18th. she was 97 years old.
The death at the nursing home was confirmed by his son, Michael Cruz-Moss.
As Virginia Patton, she began her film career at the age of 18. She appeared in ten of her films, most of them in uncredited roles. She appeared in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), in which James Stewart played frustrated banker George Bailey. In the town of Bedford Falls, he contemplates suicide when he faces financial ruin, but is saved by a guardian angel who tells him what life was like for everyone in town without him. is showing.
Miss Patton Appeared in the movie When her character Ruth Dakin got off the train with George’s brother Harry (Todd Kearns) at the Bedford Falls train station, she broke the news that they were married. Harry introduces her as Ruth Dakin, but she adds with her confidence, “Ruth Dakin Bailey, if you will.”
“What is a pretty girl like you doing in marriage with this two-headed brother of mine?” George asks.
“Well, let me tell you,” says Ruth. “Just a mercenary. His father offered him a job.”
George was upset that if Harry got the job, he would run away from Bedford Falls and leave his family building and loan association to his brother, as he had long wanted. I noticed. Then a still-dazed George caught up with Ruth, who was walking in front of him eating popcorn, and she said to him, “George, George, George… that’s all Harry has ever talked about.” increase.
Before that scene was shot, Miss Patton was worried she was eating buttered popcorn.
“We rehearsed it” In 2013 she became a member of the St. Nicholas Institute.Advancing the ideals of Santa Claus . His assistant said nothing about it. His cameraman said nothing about it. ‘ So she decided, ‘Let’s pretend everyone puts on gloves and eats buttered popcorn.
Virginia Ann Marie Patton was born on June 25, 1925 in Cleveland and raised in Portland, Oregon. Her father, Donald, was an aeronautical engineer and her mother, Marie (Kane) Patton, was a homemaker. She Virginia was the niece of General George S. Patton, a bold World War II army commander.
After her family moved to Los Angeles, she attended classes at the University of Southern California and starred in plays written by William C. DeMille (director Cecil B. DeMille’s older brother). name). That performance brought her to Hollywood.
At 18, she starred in a musical number with Ann Sheridan in her first film, the Warner Bros. musical Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943). She had appeared in a series of other Warner Bros. films before Mr. Capra signed him to ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’
She went on to appear in four more films, including starring roles in “Burning Cross” (1947) and “Black Eagle” (1948), but in 1949 she starred with Cruz Watson Moss, who became an auto industry executive. After getting married, I left Hollywood for good. she was 24 years old.
In 2010, when interviewed by Lucy Ann Lance on WLBY, the Ann Arbor radio station where Mrs. Patton Moss has spent most of her life, she said of Hollywood, “It’s Tinsel Town.” “And it’s not the life I wanted. I got what I wanted in Ann Arbor.”
In that college town, she raised three children and served as a Boy and Girl Scout leader. She studied art history and archeology at the University of Michigan. She served on the trustees of the University’s Kelsey Museum of Archeology and the Stearns Musical Instrument Collection. She was an art museum lecturer at school. And she raised money for various organizations. She was also president of Patton Her Company, her family’s real estate investment firm.
Mrs. Patton Moss “was very creative in setting the scene for the fundraiser,” said Joseph Lamb, former director of the Stearns Collection, in an email. These fine details give the party an artistic and cheerful atmosphere.”
In addition to his son, Mrs. Patton Moss has a daughter, Carol Moss Roop. She has seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 2018. Her only son, Stephen, died in 1997.
When reminiscing about “It’s a Wonderful Life,” she spoke broadly about Mr. Capra and his message about the impact one person’s life has on his community, conveyed through the life of George Bailey.
“Capra knew we were out of the war. We were in terrible shape and needed some stimulation,” she told the St. Nicholas Institute. I was. The angel stretched out its wings.
She added, “Capra, go get it.”