User:Bostonredsox80/Marcia Van Dyke

=Marcia Van Dyke=

Marcia Van Dyke (March 26, 1924 – September 3, 2002) was an American actress and violinist. Unlike many of her contemporaries that had expansive careers in film and television, Van Dyke's acting career lasted only 6 years. She is probably best remembered for her violin playing character, Louise Parkson, in the film In the Good Old Summertime, (where close to the end of the film, she plays the fiendishly difficult violin showpiece "Souvenir de Moscou" by Henryk Wieniawski.) She stared in only two major films, In the Good Old Summertime alongside Van Johnson and Judy Garland and in Shadow on the Wall with Ann Sothern and Nancy Davis. She focused on small television roles from 1951 until her retirement from film in 1954. Not just a pretty face, she was also recognized as a serious classical violinist, and was a member of the San Francisco Symphony when it became the first American orchestra to make a coast-to-coast U.S. tour in 1947, under then-music director Pierre Monteaux.

While born in Oregon, Van Dyke spent most of her life in Los Angeles. She died in 2002 in Ashland, Oregon.

Category:1924 births Category:2002 deaths Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American violinists Category:People from Grants Pass, Oregon