Actress. Born Virginia Oglesby Fox, she was an American actress who starred in many silent films of the 1910s and 1920s. She was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, the daughter of Marie (née Oglesby) and Frederick Fox. While on vacation from boarding school, she traveled to visit a friend in Los Angeles. The two made a casual stop by the studio of Mack Sennett, where she was hired on the spot and made a bathing beauty in the studio's films. She went on to star as leading lady in many of the early films of Buster Keaton, including 1920's highly regarded Neighbors. In 1924 she married film producer Darryl F. Zanuck, with whom she had three children, Darrylin, Susan Marie, and Richard Darryl. She retired from acting, but was known as a behind-the-scenes influence on her husband's business decisions. The couple separated in 1956 over the studio mogul's affairs with other women, though they were never legally divorced; but according to Zanuck biographers, she cared for him at their home from the time he became mentally incapacitated in the early 1970s until his death in 1979. On October 14, 1982, she died of a lung infection complicated by emphysema at her home in Santa Monica, California after having been sick for about a year.
Actress. Born Virginia Oglesby Fox, she was an American actress who starred in many silent films of the 1910s and 1920s. She was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, the daughter of Marie (née Oglesby) and Frederick Fox. While on vacation from boarding school, she traveled to visit a friend in Los Angeles. The two made a casual stop by the studio of Mack Sennett, where she was hired on the spot and made a bathing beauty in the studio's films. She went on to star as leading lady in many of the early films of Buster Keaton, including 1920's highly regarded Neighbors. In 1924 she married film producer Darryl F. Zanuck, with whom she had three children, Darrylin, Susan Marie, and Richard Darryl. She retired from acting, but was known as a behind-the-scenes influence on her husband's business decisions. The couple separated in 1956 over the studio mogul's affairs with other women, though they were never legally divorced; but according to Zanuck biographers, she cared for him at their home from the time he became mentally incapacitated in the early 1970s until his death in 1979. On October 14, 1982, she died of a lung infection complicated by emphysema at her home in Santa Monica, California after having been sick for about a year.
Bio by: AJ
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