| Virginia Weidler | |
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from the trailer for Best Foot Forward (1943) |
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| Born | March 21, 1926[1] Eagle Rock, California, U.S. |
| Died | July 1, 1968 (aged 42) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1931–1943 |
| Spouse | Lionel Krisel (m. 1947–1968) |
Virginia Weidler (March 21, 1926 – July 1, 1968) was an American child actress, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.
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Born in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California in 1926, Virginia Weidler made her first film appearance in 1933. Over the next few years, she was cast in minor roles for RKO and Paramount Pictures. Neither studio made more extensive use of her and when Paramount did not extend her contract, she was signed by MGM in 1938.
Her first film for MGM was with their leading male star Mickey Rooney in Love Is a Headache (1938). The film was a success and Weidler was now cast in larger roles, most often as precocious tom-boys. She was one of the all-female cast of the 1939 film The Women, as Norma Shearer's daughter, a role that was uncharacteristically sentimental for her.
Her next major success was The Philadelphia Story (1940) in which she played Dinah Lord, the witty younger sister of Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn). As a teenager she was less popular with audiences. After a string of box-office disappointments, her film career ended with the 1943 film Best Foot Forward.
At her retirement at the age of 17, Weidler had appeared in more than forty 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.
On March 27, 1947, Weidler married Lionel Krisel. They had two sons, Ronnie and Gary. Weidler refused to be interviewed for the remainder of her life, living in private. She remained married to Krisel until her death on July 1, 1968 when she suffered a heart attack in Los Angeles at the age of 42.[2]
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