* New York 26.6.1897 - † 1987

Geboren als:  Virginia Flugrath

Dainty, popular silent film star Viola Dana was born Virginia Flugrath in Brooklyn,
New York on June 26th, 1897, and she was educated in the public schools in that city.
Her two sisters also became actresses, one performing in silents, going by the name
of Shirley Mason. Viola became a stage actress in her early teen years, and won
the title part in the Belasco stage production of "The Poor Little Rich Girl", which later
proved to be a big hit silent film for Mary Pickford. Viola started her feature film work
at age seventeen with the Edison Company, with a lead role in "Molly The Drummer
Boy" (1914), and then worked tirelessly in many silents for Edison, and also for
comedies with Mack Sennett, for Metro, First National, Apollo Pictures, Screen Classics,
and the Robertson-Cole Pictures Corporation.

Viola's first husband, John Collins, was a film director who died in the 1918 flu epidemic.
Viola remarried again in 1925, to the actor Maurice 'Lefty' Flynn, but the marriage dissolved
in 1929. She did not remarry, and left the business when sound came in, unwilling to deal
with the new medium. The last filmed public appearance for Viola came in 1987, when she
gave an interview at age 90, for the Buster Keaton documentary "A Hard Act To Follow".
It was wonderful to see her, she looked so sweet, but she unfortunately died shortly
thereafter of a heart attack, on July 3rd, 1987, in Woodland Hills, California. 

Filmologie

1929   The Show of Shows.... The Pirate Number' and 'Meet My Sister number
1929   One Splendid Hour.... Bobbie Walsh
         ... aka Her Mad Adventure (UK)
1929   Two Sisters  .... Jean/Jane 

1928   That Certain Thing  .... Molly Kelly

1927   Lure of the Night Club  .... Mary Murdock
1927   Naughty Nanette  .... Nanette Pearson
1927   Salvation Jane   .... Salvation Jane
1027   Home Struck   .... Barbara Page

1926   Bred in Old Kentucky   .... Katie O'Doone
1926   The Silent Lover   .... Scadsza
1926   The Ice Flood   .... Marie O'Neill
1926   Kosher Kitty Kelly   .... Kitty Kelly
1926   Bigger Than Barnum's   .... Juanita Calles
1926   Wild Oats Lane   .... Marie, the Girl 

1925   The Great Love   .... Minette Bunker
1925   Winds of Chance   .... Rouletta Kirby
1925   The Necessary Evil   .... Shirley Holmes
1925   Forty Winks   .... Eleanor Butterworth
1925   As Man Desires   .... Pandora La Croix

1924   Along Came Ruth   .... Ruth Ambrose
1924   Open All Night .... Thére'se Duverne
         ... aka One Parisian Night (UK)
1924   Merton of the Movies   .... Sally Montague, 'Flips'
1924   Revelation   .... Joline Hofer
1924   The Beauty Prize   .... Connie Du Bois
1924   Don't Doubt Your Husband   .... Helen Blake
1924   The Heart Bandit   .... Molly O'Hara 

1923   A Noise in Newboro   .... Martha Mason
1923   In Search of a Thrill   .... Ann Clemance
1923   The Social Code   .... Babs Van Buren
1923   Rouged Lips   .... Norah MacPherson
1923   Her Fatal Millions   .... Mary Bishop
1923   Crinoline and Romance   .... Miss Emmy Lou

1922   Love in the Dark   .... Mary Duffy
1922   June Madness   .... Clytie Whitmore
1922   The Five Dollar Baby   .... Ruth
1922   They Like 'Em Rough   .... Katherine
1922   Seeing's Believing   .... Diana Webster
1922   Glass Houses   .... Joy Duval
1922   Fourteenth Lover   .... Vi Marchmont

1921   There Are No Villains   .... Rosa Moreland
1921   The Match-Breaker   .... Jane Morgan
1921   Life's Darn Funny   .... Zoe Roberts
1921   Home Stuff   .... Madge Joy
1921   Puppets of Fate   .... Sorrentina Palombra
1921   The Off-Shore Pirate   .... Ardita Farnam

1920   Cinderella's Twin   .... Connie McGill
1920   Blackmail   .... Flossie Golden
1920   The Chorus Girl's Romance   .... Marcia Meadows
1920   Dangerous to Men   .... Eliza
1920   The Willow Tree   .... O-Riu

1919   Please Get Married   .... Muriel Ashley
1919   The Microbe   .... Happy O'Brien, The Microbe
1919   Some Bride   .... Patricia Morley
1919   False Evidence   .... Madelon MacTavish
1919   The Parisian Tigress   .... Jeanne
1919   Satan Junior   .... Diana Ardway
1919   The Gold Cure   .... Annice Paisch 

1918   Flower of the Dusk   .... Barbara North
1918   Opportunity   .... Mary Willard
1918   The Only Road   .... Nita
1918   Riders of the Night   .... Sally Castleton
1918   Breakers Ahead   .... Ruth Bowman
1918   A Weaver of Dreams   .... Judith Sylvester
1918   The Winding Trail   .... Audrey Graham 

1917   Blue Jeans   .... June
1917   The Girl Without a Soul   .... Unity Beaumont/Priscilla Beaumont
1917   Aladdin's Other Lamp   .... Patricia Smith (Patsy)
1917   Lady Barnacle   .... Lakshima
1917   God's Law and Man's   .... Ameia
1917   The Mortal Sin   .... Jane Anderson
1917   Rosie O'Grady   .... Rosie O'Grady
1917   Threads of Fate   .... Dorothea

1916   The Cossack Whip   .... Darya
1916   The Gates of Eden   .... Eve/Evelyn
1916   The Light of Happiness   .... Tangletop
1916   The Flower of No Man's Land   .... Echo
1916   The Innocence of Ruth   .... Ruth Travers 

1915   Children of Eve   .... Fifty-Fifty Mamie
         ... aka Fifty-Fifty Mamie (USA)
1915   Gladiola   .... Gladiola Bain
1915   Her Happiness  
1915   The Slavey Student  
1915   On Dangerous Paths   .... Eleanor Thurston
1915   Cohen's Luck   .... Minnie Cohen
1915   The House of the Lost Court  - .... Dolores Edgerton
1915   The Stoning   
1915   A Theft in the Dark  
1915   The Portrait in the Attic   
1915   A Spiritual Elopement   
1915   The Glory of Clementina   
1915   The Stone Heart   
1915   A Thorn Among Roses   
1915   Lena   
1915   The Champion Process Server    

1914   Seth's Sweetheart  
1914   The Adventure of the Hasty Elopement   .... Ruth
1914   The Blind Fiddler   
1914   Treasure Trove   
1914   Molly the Drummer Boy   .... Molly
1914   Who Goes There?   

1912   The Third Thanksgiving   (as Viola Flugrath)
1912   The Lord and the Peasant   (as Viola Flugrath)
1912   How Father Accomplished His Work   (as Viola Flugrath)
1912   The Butler and the Maid   (as Viola Flugrath)
1912   Children Who Labor   (uncredited) .... Older Daughter

1910   A Christmas Carol   (uncredited)