Last surviving adult actor from It’s a Wonderful Life, Virginia Patton Moss, Dies at 97

American retired businesswoman and former actress from It’s a Wonderful Life Virginia Patton Moss has passed away at age 97.

The news was announced by Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu in It’s a Wonderful Life.

After appearing in several films in the early 1940s, she was cast in her most well-known role as Ruth Dakin Bailey in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). In 1949, Patton retired from acting, with her final film credit being The Lucky Stiff (1949).

“We’ve have another angel! Virginia Patton Moss. Grimes wrote that she was 97 years old. “She is now with Cruse, the man she loves. We’ll miss her!”

In the 1946 film, Moss appears under her given name, Virginia Patton. James Stewart’s George Bailey’s sister-in-law, Ruth Dakin Bailey, was played by her husband, Todd Karns’s Harry Bailey. Only Moss remained from the original cast of the famous holiday film (a number of the child actors in the film, such as Grimes, are still alive).

While a student at the University of Southern California, Moss began her career as an actress by appearing in stage productions and supporting roles in films. She gave numerous interviews during her life, many of which focused on her time spent on the set of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

In 2012, Moss’s husband, Cruse W. Moss, said that Virginia was the only girl hired directly by Frank Capra. “Everyone else in that movie came from another studio. Ginny wasn’t with the studio, though, and Frank Capra was the one who hired her for that movie.

Before giving up acting, Moss was in four more movies, including the lead role in the 1948 Western “Black Eagle.” Her last movie role was in the comedy “The Lucky Stiff,” which came out in 1949 and starred Dorothy Lamour, Brian Donlevy, and Claire Trevor.

In 1949, she got married to Cruse W. Moss and took his last name. The couple moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Moss started working as a businesswoman, raised three kids, and volunteered at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Cruse stayed married to Virginia until Cruse died in 2018.

“I couldn’t see myself doing that for the rest of my life,” Moss said in 2012 about why she quit acting. “I wanted to be just like I am. Ann Arbor, Michigan, a great husband, great kids, and a helpful member of the community. I work hard to help people.”