Viola Lyel

Viola Lyel (19 December 1896 – 14 August 1972) was an English actress. In a long stage career she appeared in the West End and on Broadway, for leading directors of the day, including Sir Barry Jackson, and Nigel Playfair. Her roles ranged from Shakespeare and Restoration comedy to melodrama and drawing room comedies.

Viola Mary Watson was born in Hull, Yorkshire, the daughter of Frederick Watson and his wife Elizabeth (née Lyel). She was educated at Hull High School and Kilburn High School, London. She studied for the stage at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and was a student at the Old Vic where she made her first appearance in 1918, playing small parts and understudying.

In 1919 Lyel appeared in William Poel's company in The Return from Parnassus in London. She toured in Ben Greet's company, and in 1922 went to the Liverpool Repertory Company after which she was a member of Sir Barry Jackson's Birmingham Repertory Company from 1925.

In 1926 she appeared in Yellow Sands at the Haymarket Theatre, London in a company that was led by Cedric Hardwicke and included the young Ralph Richardson. Two years later she was a member of Nigel Playfair's company at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. In 1929 she went to America for the first time, and made her first appearance in New York, at the Elting Theatre in September as Lucy Timson in Murder on the Second Floor.

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