Winnie Lightner(1899-1971)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Winnie Lightner was known as Broadway's "Song a Minute Girl" because
she could belt out a song in less than 60 seconds. Her brassy, outgoing
style lent itself to Warner's Vitaphone shorts when sound came in, and
soon Winnie Lightner was a top Warner star. The missing "Gold Diggers
of Broadway" was a triumph for Lightner in 1929, and the
all-technicolor "The Life of the Party" was an even bigger hit. Despite the
huge success of her first few films, Warner Brothers began to assign
maudlin roles to Winnie, and by 1933 she was at MGM playing second
fiddle to stars like Joan Crawford. Lightner had met Director Roy Del
Ruth when he directed "Gold Diggers", and they eventually married.
Winnie had a son from a previous marriage named Richard Lightner (he
legally changed his name to Lightner) when she married Del Ruth. They
had a son named Thomas who is a cinematographer in Hollywood. After she
quit pictures she never looked back. Friends and family never heard her
speaking of her days of fame, and the Del Ruths rarely entertained the
movie crowd in their home. Winnie died in 1971 and is buried next to
Roy at the Mission San Fernando in southern California.
