Virginia Bruce

At one point, the delicate and lovely Virginia Bruce seemed poised for movie icon status, the culmination of a remarkable series of events that included bit parts in films during the late 1920s, a marriage to actor John Gilbert, and divorce followed by resumption of her screen acting career. Alas, many of the resulting movies were only of B-picture quality. However, Bruce did star in a few well-received films, though usually as the obstacle to true love.

In the years immediately following her divorce, Bruce's films included the 1936 "Born to Dance," in which she played the rival to star Eleanor Powell. Meanwhile, in "The Great Ziegfeld," released in the same year, she played the ill-fated Audrey Dane, a would-be star brought down by alcohol abuse.

Bruce continued to take on roles in films of all sorts through the 1940s, including romances and sci-fi pictures, although her best performances tended to be as mischievous and defiant women. In '38's "There Goes My Heart" starring Fredric March, she played an heiress who runs away from home and becomes an ordinary shop girl in New York City; and in the '40 "The Invisible Woman," her character uses an invisibility machine to exact revenge on others.

The '42 comedy "Pardon My Sarong" is considered one of the best films featuring the duo of Abbott and Costello, but Bruce's film career would slow shortly afterward, and she would start appearing far more often on television than film beginning in the 1950s.