Virginia Weidler - Award Winner

Virginia Weidler was given the annual Parents' Magazine Award as the outstanding juvenile star of 1940 for her work in Young Tom Edison (above with Mickey Rooney),

All this and Heaven Too,

and The Philadelphia Story (with Katherine Hepburn). Mickey Rooney, 1939 winner, presented the award to Virginia on the MGM set where he was making Andy Hardy's Private Secretary.

I love Virginia Weidler! I think she was a fabulous, overlooked child star. She and Norma Shearer's scenes in The Women are so touching and as a child from a divorced home, she totally acted the part. Virginia was born March 21, 1926 in Los Angeles. She appeared in more than 40 films, but her most well known ones were with MGM who signed her in 1938. Virginia retired at the tender age of 17 and would refuse to be interviewed the rest of her life. She married Lionel Krissel on March 27, 1947 and had two sons, Gary and Ronnie. Virginia Weidler died July 1, 1968 from a heart condition at the age of 42. Her ashes are scattered at sea.