{{Short description|Australian actress and opera singer}} {{Use Australian English|date=January 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Vera Doria | birth_name = Veronica Fosbery Eyton | birth_date = 20 March 1882 | birth_place = Tasmania, Australia | death_date = 22 June 1957 (aged 65) | death_place = Los Angeles, California, USA | occupation = Actress, opera singer | spouse = Juan de la Cruz (m. 1908–??)<br />John Snodgrass (m. 1921–??)<br />Harold Wavell (m. 1924–1932) | relatives = Alice Eyton (sister)<br />Charles Eyton (brother) }}
'''Vera Doria''' (born '''Veronica Eyton''') was an Australian actress and opera singer active in Hollywood during the silent era.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/607879306/?terms=%22vera+doria%22|title=Musical Offering by Artists|last=|first=|date=16 Nov 1912|website=Los Angeles Evening Express|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpYtAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vera+eyton%22&pg=PA246|title=The Playgoer|date=1901|publisher=Dawbarn & Ward.|language=en}}</ref>
== Biography ==
One of five children, Eyton was born in Tasmania, Australia,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9007521 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Mercury |volume=XL |issue=3786 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=28 March 1882 |access-date=24 January 2024 |page=1 (The Mercury Supplement ) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> to New Zealanders journalist Robert Henry Eyton (–1885) and Eleanor Maud Eyton (née Fosbery).<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article162973465 |title=Death of a Journalist |newspaper=Tasmanian News |volume=II |issue=591 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=15 October 1885 |access-date=20 January 2024 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
She began singing opera in her native Australia as a young woman and toured Europe in the early 1910s.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/37623484/?terms=%22vera+doria%22|title=Vera Doria|last=|first=|date=27 Jun 1915|website=The Lima News|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-19}}</ref> In December 1899, a Sydney's Masonic Lodge, she gave a pleasing rendition of the 'Convent' aria from ''Daughter of the Regiment''.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article228746919 |title=Mr. Louis Grist's concert |newspaper=The Australian Star |issue=3694 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=15 December 1899 |access-date=24 January 2024 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> In a complimentary concert in March 1901 at Sydney's Centenary Hall, before departing for London, she gave two selections, 'O, Divine Redeemer' and from Rossini's ''Semiramide'', 'Bel Raggio'.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article114023988 |title=Miss Vera EYTON'S concert |newspaper=The Evening News (Sydney) |issue=10,540 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=21 March 1901 |access-date=24 January 2024 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> In March 1902 she was playing Princess Ivy of 'The invisible prince' at the Edinburgh Theatre Royal.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article200783574 |title=Dramatic notes |newspaper=Evening Journal |volume=XXXIV |issue=9740 |location=South Australia |date=22 March 1902 |access-date=24 January 2024 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> By early 1903 she was involved in London pantomimes.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113399953 |title=Stageland |newspaper=The Evening News (Sydney) |issue=11,138 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=21 February 1903 |access-date=24 January 2024 |page=3 (Evening News Supplement) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
By December 1903 Eyton was noted, as Vera Nightingale, as party to a successful divorce petition on the grounds of adultery by Lillian Sophia Mackenzie-Fairfax against her husband John Mackenzie Fairfax. That couple had married in June 1898, but alleged the husband met Eyton in Sydney in January 1902 before all three persons returned to London.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57188656 |title=An actress's antics |newspaper=Sunday Times (Perth) |issue=310 |location=Western Australia |date=13 December 1903 |access-date=24 January 2024 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Eventually followed her older siblings, Alice Eyton (a screenwriter) and Charles Eyton (a film producer) to Los Angeles in 1915 seeking a career as an actress.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/353621067/?terms=%22vera+doria%22|title=Soprano Is Lured Into the Movies|last=|first=|date=27 Jun 1915|website=The Sunday Telegram|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-19}}</ref> At the time, she was married to fellow opera singer Juan de la Cruz.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/607904466/?terms=%22vera+doria%22|title=Club Does Honor to Opera Stars|last=|first=|date=3 Oct 1912|website=Los Angeles Evening Express|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/380696752/?terms=%22veronica+eyton%22|title=Ex-Wife Left Fund by Eyton|last=|first=|date=9 Jul 1941|website=The Los Angeles Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-19}}</ref>
She appears to have retired from acting in the late 1910s to focus on her singing career.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/380200419/?terms=%22vera+doria%22|title=Vera Doria's N.Y. Engagement|last=|first=|date=31 Aug 1913|website=The Los Angeles Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-19}}</ref> She eventually moved to Shanghai, where she met and married her second and third husbands, John Snodgrass and Harold Wavell.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/380461137/?terms=%22vera+eyton%22|title=Sugar and Spice|last=|first=|date=8 Oct 1933|website=The Los Angeles Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/163686881/?terms=%22vera+wavell%22|title=Beautiful Russian is Co-Respondent|last=|first=|date=24 Aug 1933|website=Arizona Daily Star|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-19}}</ref> after she returned, she became a children's author.
She died on 22 June 1957.
== Selected filmography ==
* ''The Veiled Adventure'' (1919) * ''Life's a Funny Proposition'' (1919) * ''A Lady's Name'' (1918) * ''Women's Weapons'' (1918) * ''Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots'' (1918) * ''Salome'' (1918) * ''Sauce for the Goose'' (1918) * ''A Pair of Silk Stockings'' (1918) * ''The Madcap'' (1916)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a3lJAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vera+doria%22&pg=PA1004|title=Motography|date=1916|language=en}}</ref> * ''The Majesty of the Law'' (1915)
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Doria, Vera}} Category:Australian film actresses Category:20th-century Australian actresses Category:1882 births Category:1957 deaths Category:Australian emigrants to the United States