Virginia Weidler (March 21, 1927 – July 1, 1968) was an American child actor, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.
Born in Eagle Rock, California, Weidler made her first film appearance in 1933. Over the next few years, she played minor roles in films for RKO and Paramount Pictures. Neither studio made full use of her abilities and when Paramount did not extend her contract, she was signed by MGM in 1938.
Her first film for MGM was opposite their leading male star Mickey Rooney in Love Is a Headache (1938). The film was a success and over the next few years, Weidler was regularly employed by the studio, usually playing precocious tom-boys. She was one of the all-female cast of the 1939 film The Women, as Norma Shearer's daughter, a role that was uncharacteristically sentimental for her.
Her next major success, and the film for which she is perhaps best remembered, was The Philadelphia Story (1940) in which she played Dinah Lord, the wise-cracking younger sister of Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn). She continued acting but by this time was maturing, and as a teenager was less popular with audiences. After a string of box-office disappointments, her film career ended with her final performance in the 1943 film Best Foot Forward. Her career at MGM was stymied by Louis Mayer who refused to renew her contract. In the revealing biography "PIcture Perfect" cameraman John Slokum revealed that Louis B. Mayer said Virginia's breasts looked like a couple of prunes and she would never have a career as an adult at MGM because of that.
By her retirement at the age of 17, she had appeared in more than forty films, and had acted with some of the biggest stars of her era, including Clark Gable and Myrna Loy in Too Hot to Handle, Bette Davis in All This and Heaven Too, and Judy Garland in Babes on Broadway.
After her retirement, Weidler married and had two sons. She reportedly refused to do interviews about her Hollywood career.
On July 1, 1968, Weidler suffered a heart attack in Los Angeles, California and died. She was 41 years old.
