Virginia Vestoff
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Virginia Vestoff was an American actress of film, television and Broadway, arguably most famous for having played Abigail Adams in 1776 (see [1]).
Virginia Vestoff was born into a family of vaudeville performers on December 9, 1939 in New York City. Both her Russian immigrant father and mother, who was the great niece of American composer Stephen Foster, died and left Virginia an orphan at the age of nine.
Acting provided Virginia with a new outlet during the loss in her childhood. She took third prize on The Ted Mack Amateur Hour, which launched a professional debut in the Children's Chorus of the New York City Opera Company.
While living with relatives, Virginia attended the New York High School for the Performing Arts. At 15, she decided to move out and manage life on her own by attending Washington Irving High School and moonlighting as a salesgirl at a department store. However, Virginia quit school early to tour with a dance company. The failure to graduate remained a personal regret to Virginia throughout her life, which she countered with a thirst to self-educate, becoming an extensive reader.
Soon after dropping out, she landed a part on stage in The Boyfriend and it led to many of her other theatrical credits including I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road, Spokesong, Drinks Before Dinner, The Misanthrope, Love and Let Love, Man With a Load of Mischief, Ben Bagley's New Cole Porter Revue, And in this Corner, A Doll's House, Fallout, The Crystal Heart, Private Lives, The Threepenny Opera, The Archbishop's Ceiling, Booth is Back in Town, Camelot (musical), Put it in Writing, The King and I, and My Fair Lady.
Those first bows on Broadway came in a revue called From A to Z and as Daisy in Baker Street, where she met and later married writer Morty Lefkoe. Her other Broadway performances include Irma La Douce, Boccaccio, Via Galactica and that Tony nominated role of Abigail Adams in the hit musical 1776, alongside David Ford (she reprised the role in the movie version).
For a time, Virginia took on dual duties with Broadway in 1776 and daytime drama. From 1969 to 1970, she filled in for Elizabeth Hubbard as Dr. Althea Davis on The Doctors and then later joined the cast of Dark Shadows as Samantha Collins, a character Virginia felt was an "extension" of herself.
She also did another soap opera stint on As the World Turns and appeared in numerous television commercials, including Sure Deodorant, Geritol, Hamburger Helper, Sardo Bath Beads, and Bradlees.
Virginia's primetime television guest credits included The Quinns, Carmody, Contact: The Case of the Secret Message, We Interrupt This Season, Alone at Last and Kojak. Her big screen roles included Robert Altman's A Wedding and Such Good Friends.
On May 2, 1982, aged just 42, Virginia Vestoff succumbed to cancer in New York City.
