Victoria H. Oakie, character actress
LOS ANGELES -- Victoria Horne Oakie, a former character actress and the widow of film comedian Jack Oakie who devoted the last 25 years to keeping his name alive, has died. She was 91.
Mrs. Oakie died Oct. 10 of natural causes in a Beverly Hills retirement home, said publicist Dale Olson, a longtime friend.
As Victoria Horne, she appeared in more than 40 films between 1944 and 1953, including "Harvey," "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," "Forever Amber," and "Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer." She also costarred in two film serials, "The Scarlet Horseman" and the cult classic "Secret Agent X-9."
In 1952, she quit acting to spend more time with her husband, who had costarred in scores of films opposite everyone from Clark Gable to Shirley Temple, and, most memorably, Charlie Chaplin in "The Great Dictator," in which Oakie spoofed Italy's Benito Mussolini.
Jack Oakie died in 1978 at age 74.
Since then, Olson told the Los Angeles Times, Mrs. Oakie had spent her time burnishing her husband's memory. She established the Jackie Oakie Comedy Lectures at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and donated her husband's show business memorabilia to the University of Wyoming, which until a couple of years ago housed the material in the Jack Oakie Room, a recreation of the actor's den.
She also wrote four books about her husband and their life together, including "Jack Oakie's Oakridge," about their sprawling Los Angeles estate. Her last book, "Life With Jack Oakie," was published in 2001. Within the past year, Mrs. Oakie had donated her Los Angeles estate to the University of Southern California, whose School of Cinema-Television will establish the Victoria and Jack Oakie Endowed Chair in Comedy.
Mrs. Oakie was born in New York City and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After spending a season at Stratford-on-Avon in England, she returned to the United States to appear in Leslie Howard's production of "Hamlet."
