Victoria Horne (November 1, 1911 – October 10, 2003) was an American character actress, appearing in 49 films (uncredited in 25 of these) during the 1940s and 1950s.
Horne was born on November 1, 1911, in New York City, to Ignatz Hornstein (who emigrated from Braila, Romania) and Mary Louise Schoenwetter Hornstein.[1] She was the second of four children. The family name was changed to "Horne" when she was a child.[citation needed]
She was a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.[2]
The films in which she appeared included Blue Skies, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff. Perhaps her best-known film roles were as James Stewart's love-searching niece Myrtle Mae Simmons in the 1950 film adaptation of Mary Chase's play Harvey, as Roberta in the 1952 Three Stooges short subject Cuckoo on a Choo Choo, and as Nabura, a villainous Japanese agent in the 1945 serial Secret Agent X-9.
She married actor Jack Oakie in 1950 and remained with him until his death on January 23, 1978. After his death, she arranged the posthumous publication of her late husband's book, Jack Oakie's Double Takes and also published a number of other books about him.[citation needed]
Victoria and Jack Oakie lived their entire married life at "Oakridge", their 11-acre (45,000 m2) estate at 18650 Devonshire Street – 300 yards (270 m) west of Reseda Boulevard – in Northridge, Los Angeles, California. Oakridge, considered to be one of the last remnants of the large Northridge estates famed for thoroughbred breeding, was originally commissioned by Barbara Stanwyck and designed by Paul Williams; Stanwyck sold it to Oakie in 1944.[3] Victoria Oakie continued to live there after her husband's death and bequeathed the estate to the University of Southern California. After two failed attempts to develop the property, Oakridge was acquired by the City of Los Angeles in 2010.[4] The property was developed into the Oakridge Estate Park, which opened in December 2018.[5] The house has been maintained in the park, as both it and the grounds are listed as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #484.[6][7]
Horne died on October 10, 2003, in a retirement home in Beverly Hills, California. She was 91.[2] She is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.[8]
The Jack Oakie and Victoria Horne Oakie Charitable Foundation underwrites "lectures on comedy and scholarships for deserving film and theater students at some of the most prestigious institutions in the country."[9] An official of Syracuse University said that money provided by the foundation "was a godsend" in helping the university establish its semester-in-Los-Angeles program.[10]
