Virginia Welles

Virginia Welles, born Virginia Francine Welter, was an American actress who had ingenue roles, primarily at Paramount Pictures, where she was under contract, in the late 1940s. She was a native of Wausau, Wisconsin, the daughter of Frank and Phyllis (Wheldon) Welter. Her father was a theatre manager. While still in high school, she was noticed by a Hollywood talent scout while attending the wedding of her sister Gwen in California. The scout sought permission to do a screen test for Virginia. Her parents agreed, but Virginia chose to complete high school and attend Stephens College in Missouri, where she studied under the great American stage actress Maude Adams. She finally went to Hollywood to follow up on her screen test and was given a part in Columbia's _Kiss and Tell (1945)_ (qv and renamed Virginia Welles). Subsequently she was signed to a contract by Paramount Pictures and made a handful of films there throughout the remainder of the 1940s. Dropped by Paramount in 1949, she freelanced for a couple of years before retiring from the movies in 1951. She made one final film in 1956, as well as a few infrequent television appearances throughout the 1950s, but was essentially retired. She had married automotive financier Henry George Stix Kuh in 1949. They divorced in 1977, five years after an automobile accident seriously injured their daughter Patsy. Virginia Wells Kuh spent thirty years caring for her daughter, until Virginia's death in 2002.