Born in Los Angeles in 1919, Virginia O'Brien was attracted to dancing at an early age after seeing several movies starring Eleanor Powell, but she ultimately became a singer. She was hired for a 1940 stage production of +Meet the People (she got the gig because the director was impressed with her spot-on impersonation of Ethel Merman). Although she thought her on-stage debut was a disaster (she suffered from stage fright and sang her song with little emotion), the head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Louis B. Mayer, saw the performance and saw potential in O'Brien. She was signed to a seven-year contract after only a single screen test, starring in such movies as Ziegfeld Follies, Till the Clouds Roll By, The Harvey Girls, Thousands Cheer, and Du Barry Was a Lady alongside Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Fred Astaire, Bert Lahr, the Marx Brothers, Donald O'Connor, and Red Skelton (with whom she made a total of seven films with). In just a few short years, O'Brien was one of Hollywood's top female comedic actresses.

It was her work with Garland that O'Brien is best known for, however, singing The Wild, Wild West (from The Harvey Girls) and Life Upon the Wicked Stage (from Till the Clouds Roll By) alongside Garland. Her popularity began to wane by the end of the decade, but she kept working in both nightclubs and small theater productions, as well as appearing on such popular TV talk shows with Ed Sullivan, Merv Griffin, and Steve Allen, as well as an appearance in movies (the 1976 Disney film Gus). One of her last appearances was in the '90s, as part of the Palm Spring Follies. On January 16, 2001, O'Brien passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 81. ~ Greg Prato, Rovi