Viola Dana
| Viola Dana | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Virginia Flugrath June 26, 1897 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | July 3, 1987 (aged 90) Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Hollywood Forever Cemetery |
| Nationality | American |
| Years active | 1900–1933 |
| Spouse(s) |
John H. Collins (m. 1915; d. 1918) Maurice "Lefty" Flynn (m. 1925; div. 1929) Jimmy Thomson (m. 1930; div. 1945) |
| Relatives |
Edna Flugrath (sister) Shirley Mason (sister) |
Viola Dana (born Virginia Flugrath, June 26, 1897 – July 3, 1987) was an American film actress who was successful during the era of silent films. The diminutive actress appeared in over 100 films, but was unable to make the transition to sound films.
Born Virginia Flugrath on June 26, 1897, she was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Dana was the middle sister of three siblings who would all become actresses. Her sisters were known as Edna Flugrath and Shirley Mason. Dana's "upbringing was fairly 'normal', without the poverty and tragedy that marked the early years of so many other young men and women who ultimately turned to the escapist world of the movies."
Dana appeared on the stage at the age of three. She read Shakespeare and particularly identified with the teenage Juliet. She enjoyed a long run at the Hudson Theater in New York City. Between 1910 and 1912, she made four small appearances in the emergent film industry in New York, using the name Viola Flugrath. A particular favorite of audiences was her performance in David Belasco's Poor Little Rich Girl, when she was 16.
She began performing in vaudeville with Dustin Farnum in The Little Rebel and played a bit part in The Model by Augustus Thomas.
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 important 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.
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