Virginia Christine (March 5, 1920 - July 24, 1996) was an American film and television actress and voice artist.
She was born Virginia Christine Kraft, in Stanton, Iowa. Christine had a long career as a character actress in film and television, and is well known as "Mrs. Olsen" or the "Folgers Coffee Woman", in a number of television commercials.
Christine began work in radio while attending UCLA. She was trained for a theatrical career by actor/director Fritz Feld, whom she married in 1940. In 1942, she signed a contract with Warner Bros., and started appearing in various films. Her first film was Edge of Darkness (1942), in which she played a Norwegian peasant girl called "Miss Olson".
She was adept at imitating foreign accents when the role required it. In a 1953 episode of Adventures of Superman called The Lady in Black, she appeared as the title character, effecting a stereotypically mysterious eastern-European accent.
Over the years she appeared in prestigious films such as High Noon (1952) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), as well as horror films such as The Mummy's Curse (1944) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). She was a favorite of director Stanley Kramer, appearing in a number of his films. One of her most notable roles was as Hilary St. George, the racially intolerant co-worker of the Katharine Hepburn character in the film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).
Her greatest fame came in 1965 when she started her 21-year stint as the matronly "Mrs. Olsen", who always had comforting words for young married couples while pouring Folgers Coffee in the TV commercials. In 1971, Christine's hometown honored her by transforming the city water tower to resemble a giant coffeepot.
External links
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Virginia Christine
Virginia Christine at the Internet Movie Database
Virginia Christine at the TCM Movie Database
Des Moines Register writeup on Virginia Christine
Persondata
NAME
Christine, Virginia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
Kraft, Virginia Christine
SHORT DESCRIPTION
Actor
DATE OF BIRTH
March 5, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH
Stanton, Iowa, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
July 24, 1996, aged 76
PLACE OF DEATH
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Christine"
Categories: American film actors | American television actors | American voice actors | 1920 births | 1996 deaths | Deaths from cardiovascular disease
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This page was last modified on 18 September 2008, at 12:52.
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