# Virginia Weidler

Virginia Anna Adeleid Weidler (March 21, 1927 – July 1, 1968) was an American child actress, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.

## Early life and career

Weidler was born on March 21, 1927, in the Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles, California, the youngest of six children born to German parents, Alfred Weidler, an architect, and Margaret Weidler (born Margarete Therese Louise Radon, 1890–1987), a former opera singer. She was the second Weidler child born in the United States after the family emigrated from Germany in 1923.
She made her first film appearance in 1931. Her first credited role was as Europena in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934), a role she won at age seven after having been seen in the play Autumn Crocus. Virginia made a big impression on audiences as the little girl who would "hold my breath 'til I am black in the face" to get her way.
For the next several years, she appeared in many memorable films from George Stevens's Laddie (1935) to a pivotal supporting role in Souls at Sea (1938) starring Gary Cooper and George Raft. Despite being under contract to Paramount, many of her roles of the period took place while on loan to RKO-Radio Pictures.
When Paramount did not extend her contract, she was signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1938. Her first film for MGM was with its leading male star Mickey Rooney in Love Is a Headache (1938). The film was a success and Weidler was later cast in larger roles. She was one of the all-female cast of the 1939 film The Women, as the daughter of Norma Shearer's character.
Her next major success was The Philadelphia Story (1940) in which she played Dinah Lord, the witty younger sister of Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) and performed the song "Lydia the Tattooed Lady". Her film career ended with the 1943 film Best Foot Forward.
At her retirement from the screen at age 16, she had appeared in more than 40 films, and had acted with some of the biggest stars of the day, including Clark Gable and Myrna Loy in Too Hot to Handle, Bette Davis in All This and Heaven Too, and Judy Garland in Babes on Broadway.

## Family

Virginia had three brothers and two sisters. Her brothers Warner (born Werner), Walter (born Wolfgang), and George were successful musicians after some child-acting work, eventually owning their own recording studio. George was married to singer-actress Doris Day from 1946–1949 (his first marriage, her second). Her sisters, Sylvia (born Waltraud) and Renee (born Verena), also were involved in show business prior to their marriages.
Her father turned his architectural skills into a career building miniature sets for 20th Century Fox.

## Marriage

On March 27, 1947, aged 20, Weidler married Lionel Krisel. They had two sons. Krisel's U.S. Navy career began during WWII; he spent two years in Korea in the early 1950s, and--with his wife and children--was stationed for some time in Cuba in the late 1950s.

## Death

After her retirement, Weidler gave no interviews for the remainder of her life. She was married to Krisel until her death at age 41 at her Los Angeles home on July 1, 1968. She had suffered from a heart ailment for many years and died of a heart attack.

## Legacy

While not the box-office draw of Fox's Shirley Temple or Jane Withers, Weidler still has a loyal following to this day. In 2012, the Virginia Weidler Remembrance Society was created to honor her life and career.
In late 2016, the Los Angeles City Council honored Weidler by proclaiming March 21, 2017, which would have been her 90th birthday, as A Celebration of Virginia Weidler.

## Partial filmography

| Year | Film | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1931 | Surrender | Little Girl | William K. Howard Robert Lee "Lefty" Hough (assistant director) | uncredited |
| 1933 | After Tonight | Olga, Carla's Niece | George Archainbaud | uncredited |
| 1934 | Long Lost Father | Girl at Pier | Ernest B. Schoedsack | uncredited |
| 1934 | Stamboul Quest | Child | Herman J. Mankiewicz Richard Schayer (uncredited) | uncredited |
| 1934 | Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch | Europena Wiggs | Norman Taurog | |
| 1935 | Laddie | 'Little Sister' Stanton | George Stevens | |
| 1935 | The Big Broadcast of 1936 | Little Girl in Hospital | Norman Taurog | |
| 1935 | Freckles | Laurie Lou Duncan | Edward Killy William Hamilton Charles Kerr (assistant) | |
| 1935 | Peter Ibbetson | Mimsey - Mary Age 6 | Henry Hathaway | |
| 1936 | Timothy's Quest | Samantha Tarbox | Charles Barton | |
| 1936 | Trouble for Two | Miss Vandeleur as a Child | J. Walter Ruben | scenes deleted |
| 1936 | Girl of the Ozarks | Edie Moseley | William Shea | |
| 1936 | The Big Broadcast of 1937 | Flower Girl | Mitchell Leisen | |
| 1937 | Maid of Salem | Nabby - Their Daughter | Frank Lloyd | |
| 1937 | The Outcasts of Poker Flat | 'Luck' | Christy Cabanne | |
| 1937 | Souls at Sea | Tina | Henry Hathaway | |
| 1938 | Love Is a Headache | Jake O'Toole | Richard Thorpe | |
| 1938 | Scandal Street | Wilma 'Willie' Murphy | James P. Hogan | |
| 1938 | Men with Wings | Peggy Ranson at Age 8 | William A. Wellman | |
| 1938 | Mother Carey's Chickens | Lally Joy Popham | Rowland V. Lee | |
| 1938 | Too Hot to Handle | Hulda Harding | Jack Conway | |
| 1938 | Out West with the Hardys | 'Jake' Harding | George B. Seitz | |
| 1939 | The Great Man Votes | Joan | Garson Kanin | |
| 1939 | The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt | Patricia | Peter Godfrey | |
| 1939 | Fixer Dugan | Ethel Myrtle 'Terry' O'Connell | Lew Landers James Anderson (assistant) | |
| 1939 | The Rookie Cop | Nicey | David Howard | |
| 1939 | Outside These Walls | Ellen Sparling | Ray McCarey (as Raymond B. McCarey) | |
| 1939 | The Spellbinder | Girl | Jack Hively | uncredited |
| 1939 | The Under-Pup | Janet Cooper | Richard Wallace | |
| 1939 | The Women | Little Mary | George Cukor | |
| 1939 | Bad Little Angel | Patricia Victoria 'Patsy' Sanderson | Wilhelm Thiele | |
| 1939 | Henry Goes Arizona | Molly Cullison | Edwin L. Marin | |
| 1940 | Young Tom Edison | Tannie Edison | Norman Taurog | |
| 1940 | All This and Heaven Too | Louise de Praslin | Anatole Litvak | |
| 1940 | Gold Rush Maisie | Jubie Davis | Norman Taurog | |
| 1940 | The Philadelphia Story | Dinah Lord | George Cukor | |
| 1940 | Keeping Company | Harriet Thomas | S. Sylvan Simon | |
| 1941 | Barnacle Bill | Virginia Johansen | Richard Thorpe | |
| 1941 | I'll Wait for You | Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Miller | Robert B. Sinclair | |
| 1941 | Babes on Broadway | Barbara Jo | Vincente Minnelli | |
| 1942 | Born to Sing | Patsy Eastman | Edward Ludwig | |
| 1942 | This Time for Keeps | Harriett Bryant | Charles Reisner | aka Over the Waves |
| 1942 | The Affairs of Martha | Miranda Sommerfield | Jules Dassin | |
| 1943 | The Youngest Profession | Joan Lyons | Edward Buzzell | |
| 1943 | Best Foot Forward | Helen Schlesinger | Edward Buzzell | |

## Radio appearances

| Year | Program | Episode/source |
| 1939 | The Gulf Screen Guild Theater | Never In This World with Leslie Howard and Kay Francis, Episode 012 |
| 1941 | The Chase and Sanborn Program with Bergen and McCarthy | Guest Star with Abbott and Costello, Ray Noble and his Orchestra |
| 1942 | The Kraft Music Hall with Bing Crosby | Guest Star with Carole Landis |
| 1942 | Victory Theater | The Philadelphia Story with Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Lt. James Stewart and Ruth Hussey |
| 1943 | Screen Guild Theater | The Youngest Profession with Edward Arnold and Jean Porter |
| 1944 | Dupont's Cavalcade of America | Junior Nurse with Jane Darwell |
| 1945 | Dupont's Cavalcade of America | Weapon 4-H with Skip Homeier |
| 1946 | Reader's Digest-Radio Edition | Do You Remember? |