Virginia Vestoff(1940-1982)

[David]

A tribute to a great, unsung talent who died too young.

Virginia Vestoff always wanted to be a movie star. Though she never achieved that goal, she was one of the biggest and most bankable names in Broadway musicals of the 1970s. Her beautiful singing voice can be heard on a number of cast albums of that period.

Her biggest hit was as Abigail Adams in 1776, which also featured David Ford & Emory Bass(Mr Best, 1970) All three can be seen repeating their roles in the 1973 film version of the show.

Virginia also had a large role in Robert Altman's 1978 film A Wedding, in which she played the drug addicted sister of Dina Merrill, and the daughter of screen legend Lillian Gish.

Had she lived, she would no doubt have gone on to screen stardom, but cancer, the scourge of the 20th Century, decided that that was not to be.

RIP

[Patti Feinberg]

Thank you David.

I enjoyed her in "1776".

Patti

[Gothick]

Hi David,

there's a wonderful little photo-essay about Virginia in this book:

The Playmakers, by Stuart Little (yep, that's his real name) and Arthur Cantor.  NY: Norton, 1970

There are no references to her being on DS--it's possible that she started on the show after the book had gone to press.

I absolutely agree with you that Virginia Vestoff might have done great things, had she lived, but in my opinion, her performance as Samantha is outstanding.  Really a great highlight of the series, and in many ways, the best thing about the entire 1840 storyline.  She and James Storm had wonderful onscreen chem together.

Talking of Stuart Little, there's a wonderful photo in his book Off-Broadway: The Prophetic Theatre, of Grayson Hall in the 1960 production of The Balcony.

Cheers, Steve

[Birdie]

What other musicals did she take part in?  I also am in awe of her talent.

Birdie

[Julia99]

Birdie check out this link:

http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?id=63231