Virginia Leith (October 15, 1925 – November 4, 2019) was an American film and television actress.
Virginia Leith | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Leith in an episode of One Step Beyond (1959) | |
| Born | October 15, 1925 |
| Died | November 4, 2019 (aged 94) Palm Springs, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1953–1962; 1977–1981 |
| Spouse | |
Career
editLeith starred in a few films, with her most productive period coming in the 1950s. Her debut was also the first film directed by Stanley Kubrick, a self-financed art house film, Fear and Desire (1953).[1] She signed a contract with 20th Century-Fox in 1954 and had leading roles in films such as Violent Saturday (1955), Toward the Unknown, On the Threshold of Space, and opposite Robert Wagner and Joanne Woodward in the crime drama A Kiss Before Dying (all 1956). Her most recognizable role may have been that of a decapitated woman whose head is kept alive in The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962, shot 1959).
She left acting after her 1960 marriage to actor Donald Harron. Following her divorce from Harron, in the 1970s Leith resumed her career and appeared mainly in television shows, including Starsky and Hutch, Barnaby Jones, The White Shadow and Baretta. She left the screen again in the early 1980s.[2]
Personal life
editShe was involved with actor Jeffrey Hunter during his divorce in 1955. She dated actor Marlon Brando in 1956.[3][4]
According to her husband Don Harron, she had a brief affair with model Barbara Freking prior to their marriage.[5]
Leith died on November 4, 2019, at the age of 94.[6] Upon her death, her body was donated to medical science at the UCLA Medical School.[citation needed]
Filmography
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | Fear and Desire | Young Girl | |
| Here Come the Girls | Chorus Girl | Uncredited | |
| 1954 | Black Widow | Claire Amberly | |
| 1955 | White Feather | Ann Magruder | |
| Violent Saturday | Linda Sherman | ||
| 1956 | On the Threshold of Space | Pat Lange | |
| A Kiss Before Dying | Ellen Kingship | ||
| Toward the Unknown | Connie Mitchell | ||
| The 20th Century-Fox Hour | Irene Bennett | Episode: "The Last Patriarch" | |
| 1958 | Sing, Boy, Sing | Stewardess | Uncredited |
| Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre | Barbara | Episode: "The Bravado Touch" | |
| The Millionaire | Lil Harrigan | Episode: "The Frank Harrigan Story" | |
| 1959 | Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond | Sally Conroy | Episode: "The Bride Possessed" |
| 1961 | Great Ghost Tales | Episode: "August Heat" | |
| 1962 | The Brain That Wouldn't Die | Jan Compton | |
| 1977 | Baretta | Sally Locker | Episode: "Guns and Brothers" |
| Starsky & Hutch | Margaret Blaine | Episode: "Death in a Different Place" | |
| First Love | Mrs. March | Uncredited | |
| 1978 | The White Shadow | Episode: "Mainstream" | Art teacher |
References
edit- ^ "A Silent Virginia is Discovered". Life. May 11, 1953. p. 122. ISSN 0024-3019.
- ^ "Virginia Leith Biography". Brian's Drive-In Theater. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
- ^ "Virginia Leith Profile". Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
- ^ Nyren, Erin (November 13, 2019). "Virginia Leith, Female Lead in Stanley Kubrick's First Film, Dies at 94".
- ^ Samuel Claesson (January 31, 2025). Glamour: Models, Mannequins, and Pinups of the 1950s. Sequoia Press. p. 142. ISBN 9798350736847.
- ^ "Virginia Leith, Star of 'The Brain That Wouldn't Die,' Dies at 94". The Hollywood Reporter. November 12, 2019.
External links
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