Winnie Lightner

Biography

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.