Career
Born Helen Virginia Briggs in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She got it as an extra in Why Bring That Up?. In 1930 she appeared on Broadway in the musical Smiles, followed by America"s Sweetheart in 1931.
The couple divorced in 1934, and Virginia returned to a hectic schedule of film appearances.
Gilbert died two years later in 1936. Bruce introduced the Cole Porter standard "I"ve Got You Under My Skin" in the film Born to Dance and costarred in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical The Great Ziegfeld.
One of her final film appearances was in Strangers When We Meet. In 1949, Bruce starred in a daily 30-minute radio drama.
Make Believe Town was an afternoon program on Columbia Broadcasting System.
Bruce died of cancer on February 24, 1982, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.
She was 71.