Jigee Viertel

Jigee Viertel
Born Virginia Lee Ray
September 30, 1915
Died January 31, 1960 (age 44)
Spouse(s)
Budd Schulberg
(m. 1936; div. 1943)

Peter Viertel
(m. 1943; div. 1959)
Children 2

Jigee Viertel (30 September 1915 – 31 January 1960) was an actress in early Hollywood pictures and later the wife of screenwriters Budd Schulberg and Peter Viertel. She was active in early Hollywood socialist organizating and later in life was linked to the writers Ring Lardner, Jr. and Ernest Hemingway. She died from burns she suffered after inadvertently dropping a lit cigarette into the pocket of her flammable sleepwear.

Biography

Born Virginia Lee Ray to a Christian family[1] in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her younger sister, Anne (later married to Melvin Frank), originally pronounced Virginia as "Jigee".[1] The family moved to Los Angeles, where Jigee became active in dance and theater and is credited with appearances in three early motion pictures: One in a Million (1936), Bottoms Up (1934) and Three Kids and a Queen (1935).

She married Budd Schulberg on New Year's Eve 1936. They had one child, daughter Victoria, before divorcing in 1943.[2] She married Peter Viertel in 1943, and was pregnant with their daughter, Christine, when Peter left her to live with fashion model Bettina Graziani – though they would not divorce until 1959.[3] Reputedly dependent on alcohol and sleeping medication, Viertel woke one night in her Los Angeles home and while in the bathroom lit a cigarette that she then dropped inadvertently into the pocket of her dressing gown, causing her immolation. She died from the burns she suffered a month later, 31 January 1960, a few months before Peter married the actress Deborah Kerr.

References

  1. 1 2 Beck, Nicholas (October 2001). Budd Schulberg: A Bio-bibliography. Scarecrow Press. p. 13. ISBN 9780810840355. "All of the Jewish communists were attracted to her, because she was a gorgeous gentile princess accessible to Jewish communists because she was a communist"
  2. ↑ Weineraug, Tim (2009-08-05). "Budd Schulberg, 'On the Waterfront' Writer, Dies at 95". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  3. ↑ Bernstein, Adam (2007-11-06). "Peter Viertel, 86; Novelist and Noted Screenplay Writer". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
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