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Viola Dana, Viola DanaThe First One Hundred Noted Men and Women of the Screen (1920)BornVirginia FlugrathJune 26, 1897(1897-06-26)Brooklyn, New York, U.S.DiedJuly 3, 1987(1987-07-03) (aged 90)Woodland Hills, California, U.S.OccupationActressYears active1910–1933Viola Dana (June 26, 1897 – July 3, 1987) was an American film actress who was successful during the era of silent movies.[edit] CareerBorn Virginia Flugrath, Dana was a child star, appearing 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. A particular favorite of audiences was her performance in David Belascos Poor Little Rich Girl, when she was 16. She went into vaudeville with Dustin Farnum in The Little Rebel and played a bit part in The Model by Augustus Thomas.Dana entered films in 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 Company, working at their studio in the Bronx. She fell in love with Edison director John Hancock Collins (1889–1918) and they married in 1915. Danas success in Collinss 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 Rolfes 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 down in the face of the 1918 influenza epidemic and sent most of his personnel to California. Dana left before Collins, who was finishing work at the studio; however, Collins contracted influenza which rapidly turned into pneumonia and died in a New York hotel room on October 23, 1918.Dana remained in California acting for Metro. In 1920, she became engaged to Ormer Locklear, a daring aviator and military veteran. Locklear died when his plane crashed on August 2, 1920 during a nighttime film shoot for a serial for Fox Studios. (Dana witnessed the crash. She would not fly again for 25 years.) Locklear was the prototype for the Robert Redford movie, The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), and Dana was an honored guest for the premiere of The Great Waldo Pepper.Viola DanaDana continued to act throughout the 1920s, but her popularity gradually waned. One of her last important roles was in Frank Capras first film for Columbia Pictures, That Certain Thing (1928). She retired from the screen in 1929. Her final screen credits are roles in Two Sisters (1929), One Splendid Hour (1929), and with her sister Leonie Flugrath, better known as Shirley Mason (years earlier she had appeared with her older sister, Edna Flugrath, in the 1923 film The Social Code), The Show of Shows (1929). By the time she made her final film appearance, she had appeared in over 100 films. More than 50 years after her retirement from the screen she appeared in the documentary Hollywood (1980), discussing her career as a silent film star during the 1920s. Footage from the interview sessions was used in the 1987 documentary Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow.Dana was married to Yale football star and actor Maurice Lefty Flynn from 1925 to 1929 and to golfer Jimmy Thomson from 1930 to 1945.Dana died in 1987 from heart failure, aged 90. She is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery under her original name of Virginia Flugrath.Dana has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to motion pictures. It is located at 6541 Hollywood Boulevard.[edit] ReferencesGreeley, Colorado Daily Tribune, Viola Dana Loved the Real Waldo Pepper, April 28, 1975, Page 23.Indianapolis Star, Little Viola Dana Ambitious to Become Grown-Up Actress, January 15, 1914, Page 13.Lima, Ohio News, Viola Dana In Person at Faurot, March 23, 1930, Page 24.Ogden, Utah Standard, From the Movies to Stardom, January 10, 1914, Page 27.[edit] External linksWikimedia Commons has media related to: Viola DanaViola Dana photo galleryViola Dana at the Internet Movie DatabaseViola Dana at the Internet Broadway DatabaseViola Dana at Find a GravePersondataNameDana, ViolaAlternative namesShort descriptionDate of birthJune 26, 1897Place of birthBrooklyn, New York, U.S.Date of deathJuly 3, 1987Place of deathWoodland Hills, California, U.S.Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_DanaCategories: 1897 births | 1987 deaths | American silent film actors | American film actors | People from Brooklyn | Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery | Vaudeville performersHidden categories: Articles lacking in-text citations from November 2009 | All articles lacking in-text citations | Infobox person using deprecated parameters | Articles with hCardsPersonal toolsLog in / create accountNamespacesArticleDiscussionVariantsViewsReadEditView historyActionsSearchNavigationMain pageContentsFeatured contentCurrent eventsRandom articleDonate to WikipediaInteractionHelpAbout WikipediaCommunity portalRecent changesContact WikipediaToolboxWhat links hereRelated changesUpload fileSpecial pagesPermanent linkCite this pagePrint/exportCreate a bookDownload as PDFPrintable versionLanguagesDeutschEspañolFrançaisItalianoPortuguêsРусский This page was last modified on 25 February 2011 at 02:11.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;additional terms may apply.See Terms of Use for details.Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Contact 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