Viola Barry
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Viola Barry (June 4, 1894 - April 2, 1964) was a silent film actress from Berkeley, California. She was born Gladys Viola Wilson, daughter of Jackson Stitt Wilson, Socialist mayor of Berkeley from 1911-13. Her birthplace was Evanston, Illinois, but she moved with her family to Berkeley when very young.
In 1910 Barry signed with the Belasco Theater Company to be their new ingenue (stock character). Prior to this she had four years of stage experience, two of these with Benson's Shakespearean Company in England. Among the heroines she played were Viola, Juliet, Portia, and Rosalind. Her first appearance with the Belasco company was in The Test by Jules Eckert Goodman.
She was in motion pictures from 1911 through 1920. Her early screen credits include The Totem Mask, The Voyager: A Tale of Old Canada, McKee Rankin's '49, John Oakhurst, Gambler, An Indian Vestal, Coals of Fire, A Painter's Idyl, The Chief's Daughter, George Warrington's Escape, and Evangeline. All these were completed in her first year in movies.
In February 1911 Barry married John Conway of the Bison Moving Picture Company in Santa Ana, California. They had two daughters, Rosemary and Virginia. The couple divorced in 1918. Barry subsequently married screenwriter Frank McGrew Willis with whom she had three more children, Gloria, McGrew, and James.
Viola Barry Willis died in 1964 in Hollywood, California. She was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.
[edit] References
- Los Angeles Times, Viola Barry at Belasco, November 24, 1910, Page II6.
- Los Angeles Times, No Failure For Them, February 27, 1911, Page II3.
- Los Angeles Times, Rites Held for Star of Silent Films, April 7, 1964, Page 32.
