Viola
Dana
Foto: Albert Witzel (1879-1929)
1897
- 1987 |
.
.
The actress Viola Dana was born as Virginia Flugrath in Brooklyn. Her
sisters Edna Flugrath and Shirley Mason entered also the acting career.
Viola Dana began as an extra for the Edison Company at the age of 13
and made her film debut as an actress in 1912 with "How Father Accomplished
His Work" (12). It followed another small part in "The Lord and the Peasant"
(12), after that she was engaged as a leading actress, so in "Molly the
Drummer Boy" (14) and "The Blind Fiddler" (14).
With her role in "Gladiola" (15) she attracted public attention for
the first time and she cemented her popularity with the leading part in
"The Innocence of Ruth" (16).
Viola Dana got married with director John H. Collins in 1915 with whom
she shot several movies like "On Dangerous Paths" (15), "The Cossack's
Whip" (16) and "Aladdin's Other Lamp" (17).
But the young love was sudden destroyed when John H. Collins died in
1918 because of influenza - he was only 28 years old.
Viola Dana went to Metro Pictures and became a leading star. She cultivated
also good contacts to her film colleagues and counted Buster Keaton, Roscoe
"Fatty" Arbuckle, John Gilbert and Mabel Normand
as her friends.
Viola Dana belonged to the greatest stars of the 20's and entertained
the audience with movies like "The Willow Tree" (20), "Blackmail" (20),
"Forteenth Lover" (22), "Glass Houses" (22), "In Search of Thrill" (23),
"The Heart of a Bandit" (24), "The Beauty Prize" (24), "Merton of the Movies"
(24), "Along Came Ruth" (24), "The Great Love" (25), "The Silent Lover"
(26), "That Certain Thing" (28) and "The Show of Shows" (29) - her last
movie.
When the film business was revolutionized by the sound, she retired
from the film business.
Other movies with Viola Dana:
Children Who Labor (12) Who Goes There? (14) The House
of the Lost Court (15) Cohen's Luck (15) Children of Eve (15) The Portrait
in the Attic (15) Lena (15) The Flower of No Man's Land (16) The Light
of Happiness (16) The Gates of Eden (16) Lady Barnacle (17) Threads of
Fate (17) Rosie O'Grady (17) The Mortal Sin (17) God's Law and Man's (17)
The Girl Without a Soul (17) Blue Jeans (17) The Winding Trail (18) A Weaver
of Dreams (18) Breakers Ahead (18) Riders of the Night (18) The Only Road
(18) Opportunity (18) Flower of the Dusk (18) The Gold Cure (19) Satan
Junior (19) The Parisian Tigress (19) False Evidence (19) Some Bride (19)
The Microbe (19) Please Get Married (19) The Chorus Girl's Romance (20)
Cinderella's Twin (20) Dangerous to Men (20) The Off-Shore Pirate (21)
Puppets of Fate (21) Home Stuff (21) Life's Darn Funny (21) The Match-Breaker
(21) There Are No Villains (21) Seeing's Believing (22) They Like 'Em Rough
(22) The Five Dollar Baby (22) June Madness (22) Love in the Dark (22)
Crinolline and Romance (23) Her Fatal Millions (23) Rouged Lips (23) A
Noise in Newboro (23) The Social Code (23) Don't Doubt Your Husband (24)
Revelation (24) Open All Night (24) As Man Desires (25) Forty Winks (25)
The Necessary Evil (25) Winds of Chance (25) Wild Oats Lane (26) Bigger
Than Barnum's (26) Kosher Kitty Kelly (26) The Ice Flood (26) Bred in Old
Kentucky (26) Home Struck (27) Salvation Jane (27) Naughty Nanette (27)
Lure of the Night Club (27) Two Sisters (29) One Splendid Hour (29) |