Viola Dana

Viola Dana (born Virginia Flugrath; June 26, 1897 – July 3, 1987) was an American film actress during the silent film era. She appeared in over 100 films, but was unable to make the transition to sound films.

Early life Born Virginia Flugrath on June 26, 1897, in Brooklyn, New York City, where she was raised, she was the middle sister of three siblings who all became actresses. Her sisters were known as Edna Flugrath and Shirley Mason.

She began performing in vaudeville with Dustin Farnum in The Little Rebel and played a bit part in The Model by Augustus Thomas.

Film career

With the stage name of Viola Dana, she entered films in 1910, including A Christmas Carol (1910). Her first motion picture was made at a former Manhattan (New York) riding academy on West 61st Street. The stalls had been transformed to dressing rooms. Dana became a star with the Edison Manufacturing Company, working at their studio in the Bronx.

She fell in love with Edison director John Hancock Collins, and they married in 1915.

Dana's success in Collins's Edison features such as Children of Eve (1915) and The Cossack Whip (1916) encouraged producer B.A. Rolfe to offer the couple lucrative contracts with his company, Rolfe Photoplays, which released through Metro Pictures Corporation. Dana and Collins accepted Rolfe's offer in 1916 and made several films for Rolfe/Metro, notably The Girl Without a Soul and Blue Jeans (both 1917). Rolfe closed his New York-area studio in the face of the 1918 flu pandemic and sent most of his personnel to California. Dana left before Collins, who was finishing work at the studio; however, Collins contracted influenza and died in a New York hotel room on October 23, 1918.

Dana remained in California acting for Metro throughout the 1920s, but her popularity gradually waned. One of her latter roles was in Frank Capra's first film for Columbia Pictures, That Certain Thing (1928). She retired from the screen in 1929. Her final screen credits are roles in Two Sisters (1929), One Splendid Hour (1929), and with her sister Leonie Flugrath, better known as Shirley Mason (years earlier she had appeared with her older sister, Edna Flugrath, in the 1923 film The Social Code), in The Show of Shows (1929). By the time she made her final film appearance in 1933, she had appeared in over 100 films. She briefly came out of retirement to appear in her first and only television role in a small part on Lux Video Theatre in 1956.

More than 50 years after her retirement from the screen, Dana appeared in the Kevin Brownlow/David Gill documentary series Hollywood (1980), discussing her career as a silent film star during the 1920s. Footage from the interview was used in the later documentary series Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (1987) from the same team.

Personal life Dana's first husband was Edison director John Collins who died in the influenza pandemic of 1918.

In 1920, she began a relationship with Ormer "Lock" Locklear, an aviator, military veteran and budding film star. Locklear died when his aircraft crashed on August 2, 1920, during a nighttime film shoot for The Skywayman. Although married, Locklear had been dating Dana, and on the night before his death, in a premonition, gave her some of his personal effects. Dana witnessed the 1920 crash and did not fly again for 25 years. #tag:ref|In the "Hazards of the Game" episode of Hollywood (1980), actresses Leatrice Joy and Viola Dana recalled Locklear and the making of his last film. Dana described his final flight.

Dana was married to Yale football star and actor Maurice "Lefty" Flynn in June 1925. They divorced in February 1929. Her third and final marriage was to golfer Jimmy Thomson from 1930 to March 1945. In later years, she volunteered at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital, and she moved there permanently in 1979. In 1986, one year before her death, she was the subject of a documentary short by Anthony Slide titled Vi: Portrait of a Silent Star, in which she talks of her life and career.

Death Dana died on July 3, 1987, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles at the age of 90.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Dana has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is located at 6541 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

Short subject Year Title Role Notes 1910 A Christmas Carol 1912 Children Who Labor The Immigrant's Older Daughter The Butler and the Maid The Statue How Father Accomplished His Work The Second Daughter The Lord and the Peasant Mary's Sister The Third Thanksgiving 1914 Molly the Drummer Boy Molly Mason My Friend from India Gertie Underholt Treasure Trove Cora Fairfield The Blind Fiddler The Fairy The Adventure of the Hasty Elopement Ruth Seth's Sweetheart Sally Who Goes There? Kate - Toppy's Sweetheart 1915 Lena Euphemia Miggles A Thorn Among Roses The Stone Heart Nan Cowles The Glory of Clementina Etta Concanna A Spiritual Elopement Evelyn Banks The Portrait in the Attic Thelma A Theft in the Dark Lady Genevieve The Stoning Ruth Fenton The Slavey Student Alma Picket Her Happiness Viola Winters 1933 The Strange Case of Poison Ivy

Features

Year Title Role Notes 1915 The House of the Lost Court Dolores Edgerton Lost film Cohen's Luck Minnie Cohen Lost film On Dangerous Paths Eleanor Thurston Lost film Gladiola Gladiola Bain Lost film Children of Eve Fifty-Fifty Mamie 1916 The Innocence of Ruth Ruth Travers The Flower of No Man's Land Echo Lost film The Light of Happiness Tangletop Lost film The Gates of Eden Eve / Evelyn Lost film The Cossack Whip Darya Orlinsky 1917 Threads of Fate Dorothea Lost film Rosie O'Grady Rosie O'Grady Lost film The Mortal Sin Jane Anderson Lost film God's Law and Man's Ameia Lost film Lady Barnacle Lakshima Lost film Aladdin’s Other Lamp Patricia Smith (Patsy) Lost film The Girl Without A Soul Unity Beaumont / Priscilla Beaumont Blue Jeans June 1918 The Winding Trail Audrey Graham Lost film A Weaver of Dreams Judith Sylvester Lost film Breakers Ahead Ruth Bowman Lost film Riders of the Night Sally Castleton The Only Road Nita Opportunity Mary Willard Flower of the Dusk Barbara North 1919 The Gold Cure Annice Paisch Lost film Satan Junior Diana Ardway The Parisian Tigress Jeanne Lost film False Evidence Madelon MacTavish Some Bride Patricia Morley Lost film The Microbe Happy O'Brien, The Microbe Lost film Please Get Married Muriel Ashley Lost film 1920 The Willow Tree O-Riu Dangerous to Men Eliza Lost film The Chorus Girl's Romance Marcia Meadows Blackmail Flossie Golden Lost film Cinderella's Twin Connie McGill Lost film 1921 The Off-Shore Pirate Ardita Farnam Lost film Puppets of Fate Sorrentina Palombra Lost film Home Stuff Madge Joy Life's Darn Funny Zoe Roberts Lost film The Match-Breaker Jane Morgan Lost film There Are No Villains Rosa Moreland Lost film 1922 The Fourteenth Lover Vi Marchmont Glass Houses Joy Duval Lost film Seeing's Believing Diana Webster They Like 'Em Rough Katherine Lost film The Five Dollar Baby Ruth Lost film June Madness Clytie Whitmore Lost film Love in the Dark Mary Duffy Lost film 1923 Crinoline and Romance Miss Emmy Lou Lost film Her Fatal Millions Mary Bishop Lost film Hollywood Viola Dana Lost film Rouged Lips Norah MacPherson The Social Code Babs Van Buren Lost film In Search of a Thrill Ann Clemance A Noise in Newboro Martha Mason Lost film 1924 The Heart Bandit Molly O'Hara Lost film Don't Doubt Your Husband Helen Blake Lost film The Beauty Prize Connie Du Bois Lost film Revelation Joline Hofer Merton of the Movies Sally Montague, 'Flips' Lost film Open All Night Thérèse Duverne Along Came Ruth Ruth Ambrose Lost film As Man Desires Pandora La Croix Lost film 1925 Forty Winks Eleanor Butterworth Lost film The Necessary Evil Shirley Holmes Lost film Winds of Chance Rouletta Kirby The Great Love Minette Bunker Lost film 1926 Wild Oats Lane Marie, the Girl Lost film Bigger Than Barnum's Juanita Calles Lost film Kosher Kitty Kelly Kitty Kelly Incomplete film, missing a reel The Ice Flood Marie O'Neill The Silent Lover Scadsza Bred in Old Kentucky Katie O'Doone 1927 Home Struck Barbara Page Salvation Jane Salvation Jane Naughty Nanette Nanette Pearson Lure of the Night Club Mary Murdock 1928 That Certain Thing Molly Kelly 1929 Two Sisters Jean / Jane Lost filmOne Splendid Hour Bobbie Walsh The Show of Shows Performer in 'The Pirate,' 'Meet My Sister' & 'Ladies of the Ensemble' Numbers Black-and-white version is extant, and the technicolor version is partially extant

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