Hollywood star Virginia Mayo dies

Virginia Mayo starred in several hit films during the 40s and 50s

Actress Virginia Mayo, who starred alongside the likes of Ronald Reagan and Bob Hope in some of the biggest films of the 40s and 50s, has died.

Mayo, who was 84, began her career as a chorus girl, her big break coming when she starred alongside Bob Hope in 1944's The Princess and the Pirate.

She went on to sign a contract with the Warner Brothers studio, becoming one of its most popular stars.

Mayo also starred alongside James Cagney in the crime drama White Heat.

Dancer

Born Virginia Clara Jones in St Louis, Missouri in 1920, she took her stage name from the boss of a vaudeville act where she worked before starting her film career.

"I really wanted to be a dancer, but I ended up as an actress and I got to perform next to some of the greatest actors of our time," she said in an interview in 2001.

Mayo made her film debut in 1943's Jack London, a biopic of the White Fang author, and went on to star in five films with Danny Kaye in the 40s, including the 1947 classic The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty.

The actress starred with big names including Ronald Reagan (right)

She also starred with Ronald Reagan in two films, the 1949 romantic comedy The Girl From Jones Beach, and the musical She's Working Her Way Through College in 1952.

Thoughtful

Most famously, she appeared as the wife of a World War II veteran in the 1946 Oscar-winner The Best Years Of Our Lives, and as the wife of a killer, played by James Cagney, in the 1949 thriller White Heat.

Longtime friend Mary Walsh described Mayo as "very kind and very thoughtful".

"She was beautiful in pictures but she was even more beautiful in person," she said. "I guess maybe it was because she was so good inside."

Mayo continued acting in films and on TV throughout the 70s and 80s, making her final appearance in a horror film, Evil Spirits, in 1990.

She met her husband, actor Michael O'Shea, on the set of Jack London. The pair married in 1947 and had a daughter, Catherine Mary. Mayo never remarried following his death in 1973.