Virginia Patton Moss, the final surviving grownup member of the solid of Frank Capra’s “It’s a Fantastic Life,” who, three years after that movie was launched, left Hollywood to search out her personal fantastic life elevating a household in Ann Arbor, Mich., died on Aug. 18 in Albany, Ga. She was 97.
The loss of life, at an assisted residing facility, was confirmed by her son, Michael Cruse Moss.
As Virginia Patton, she started her film profession at 18. She had appeared in 10 movies, largely in uncredited roles, when she was solid in “It’s a Fantastic Life” (1946), which stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a annoyed banker within the city of Bedford Falls who, when he faces monetary damage, contemplates suicide, however who’s saved by a guardian angel who exhibits him what the lives of everyone on the town would have been like with out him.
Miss Patton seems within the movie when her character, Ruth Dakin, steps off a practice with George’s youthful brother, Harry (Todd Karns), on the railroad station in Bedford Falls, bearing information that they’d married. Harry introduces her as Ruth Dakin, however she provides confidently, “Ruth Dakin Bailey, if you happen to don’t thoughts.”
“What’s a fairly lady such as you doing marrying this two-headed brother of mine?” George asks.
“Nicely, I’ll let you know,” Ruth says. “It’s purely mercenary. My father supplied him a job.”
George is shaken, realizing that if Harry takes the job, he can’t flee Bedford Falls and go away his household’s building-and-loan affiliation to his brother to run, as he had lengthy hoped. Then, when a nonetheless dazed George catches as much as Ruth, who has walked forward of him consuming popcorn, she tells him, “George, George, George … that’s all Harry ever talks about.”
Earlier than that scene was filmed, Miss Patton was frightened that she can be consuming buttered popcorn and that the digicam would zoom in and present butter on her white gloves.
“We rehearsed it,” she recalled in 2013 when the St. Nicholas Institute, which promotes the beliefs of Santa Claus, gave her its first Spirit of Christmases Previous, Current & Future Award. Mr. Capra, she recalled, “didn’t say something about it. His assistant didn’t say something about it. His cameraman didn’t say something about it.” So, she determined, “I’ll simply faux everyone eats buttered popcorn with gloves.”
Virginia Ann Marie Patton was born on June 25, 1925, in Cleveland and grew up in Portland, Ore. Her father, Donald, was an aeronautical engineer, and her mom, Marie (Cain) Patton, was a homemaker. Virginia was a great-niece of Basic George S. Patton, the daring World Conflict II Military commander
After her household moved to Los Angeles, she attended courses on the College of Southern California and appeared in a play written by William C. deMille (the older brother of the director Cecil B. DeMille, who capitalized the “D” in his household’s final title). That efficiency led her to Hollywood.
At 18 she appeared in a musical quantity with Ann Sheridan in her first movie, the Warner Bros. musical “Thank Your Fortunate Stars” (1943); she was in a string of different Warner Bros. movies earlier than Mr. Capra signed her for “It’s a Fantastic Life.”
She appeared in 4 extra movies — together with starring roles in “The Burning Cross” (1947) and “Black Eagle” (1948)— however left Hollywood for good after marrying Cruse Watson Moss, who grew to become an automotive government, in 1949, when she was 24.
“It’s Tinsel City,” she mentioned of Hollywood when she was interviewed in 2010 by Lucy Ann Lance on WLBY, a radio station in Ann Arbor, the place Mrs. Patton Moss lived for many of her life. “And that’s not the life that I wished. I bought what I wished in Ann Arbor.”
In that college city, she raised her three kids and was a Boy Scout and Woman Scout chief; studied artwork historical past and archaeology on the College of Michigan; served on the boards of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and the Stearns Assortment of Musical Devices, each on the college; was a docent on the college’s Museum of Artwork; and raised funds for numerous organizations. She was additionally president of the Patton Firm, her household’s actual property funding agency.
Joseph Lam, a former director of the Stearns assortment, mentioned in an electronic mail that Mrs. Patton Moss “was very inventive in setting the scenes of fund-raising actions,” including, “Her flower decorations, and different creative particulars, contributed a lot to the creative and jovial ambiance of the events.”
Along with her son, Mrs. Patton Moss is survived by a daughter, Carol Moss Loop; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 2018. One other son, Stephen, died in 1997.
When reminiscing about “It’s a Fantastic Life,” she spoke extensively about Mr. Capra and his message, delivered by means of the lifetime of George Bailey, in regards to the impression a single individual’s life can have on his group.
“Capra knew we have been popping out of a warfare, we have been in horrible form and there wanted to be some sort of stimulus,” she informed the St. Nicholas Institute. She then rang a bell, which, within the movie, signified that an angel had gotten its wings.
She added, “Go get ’em, Capra.”