Virginia Mayo, the beautiful blonde who epitomised Hollywood glamour in the 1940s and 50s in roles opposite stars such as Bob Hope and James Cagney, has died at the age of 84.
Mayo, one of the biggest stars of the final years of Tinseltown's golden era, died in a Los Angeles-area nursing home of pneumonia and heart failure following a long illness, according to the Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter.
Mayo, who acted in more than 50 films, was best known for her turns opposite Cagney in the 1949 crime drama "White Heat," as the errant young wife in William Wyler's "The Best Years Of Our Lives" (1946) and opposite Danny Kaye in the 1947 classic "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."
The star, who was born in St Louis in Missouri in November 1920, also starred in "Captain Horatio Hornblower" with Gregory Peck and opposite future US president Ronald Reagan in "The Girl from Jones Beach" (1949).
Mayo appeared opposite some of the greatest leading men in cinema, including Rex Harrison in "King Richard and the Crusaders", Paul Newman in "The Silver Chalice," Robert Stack in "Great Day in the Morning", Bob Hope in "The Princess" and Kirk Douglas in "Along the Great Divide".
