{{short description|American actress}} {{More footnotes|date=July 2008}} {{Infobox person | name = Viola Barry | image = Violabarry.jpg | caption = | birth_name = Gladys Viola Wilson | birth_date = {{Birth date| 1894|3|4|}} | birth_place = Evanston, Illinois, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date|1964|4|2}} (Aged 70) | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | other_names = | occupation = Film actress | father = J. Stitt Wilson | spouse = {{plainlist| * Jack Conway (1911–1918) * F. McGrew Willis (1921–1957) }} | years_active = 1911–1920 }}
'''Viola Barry''' (March 4, 1894<ref name=sfc/> – April 2, 1964) was an American silent film actress who starred in a number of films during the 1910s.
==Early years== Gladys Viola Wilson was born in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of Rev. J. Stitt Wilson, a Methodist minister.<ref name=Returned>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2390484/returned_lecturer_j_stitt_wilson_to/ "Returned Lecturer, J. Stitt Wilson, to Speak at Berkeley,"] ''Oakland Tribune,'' Feb 13, 1910, pg. 30.</ref> She moved with her family to Berkeley, California, where her father was a socialist lecturer and was mayor of Berkeley in 1911.{{Citation needed |date=June 2021}} She attended Berkeley High School.<ref>{{cite news |title=Minister's girl proves a clever play writer |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4365862/oakland-tribune/ |access-date=June 3, 2021 |work=Oakland Tribune |date=August 5, 1906 |page=13|via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
She studied under Herbert Beerbohm Tree while she spent more than two years in England, returning to California in December 1909.<ref name="sfc">{{cite news |title=Young girl wins honors abroad |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4365818/the-san-francisco-call/ |access-date=June 3, 2021 |work=The San Francisco Call |date=December 8, 1908 |page=9wpn}}</ref>
==Acting career==
Before December 1909, Barry was leading woman at Ye Liberty Theater in Oakland, California.<ref name="sfc" /> In 1910, under her stage name Viola Barry,<ref>Although she used it for the rest of her life, Viola Barry was actually a stage name. See: [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2390852/actress_daughter_of_well_known/ "Actress, Daughter of Well Known Socialist, Marries,"] ''Oakland Tribune,'' Feb. 28, 1911, pg. 11.</ref> Wilson signed with the Belasco Theater Company in Los Angeles to be its new ingénue. Previously, she had four years of stage experience, two of these with F. H. Benson's Shakespearean Company in England. Among the heroines she played were Desdemona, Juliet, Ophelia, and Portia.<ref name="lah">{{cite news|date=December 6, 1910|title=Actress Viola Barry a Socialist? Sure! Stitt Wilson's her father|page=4wpn|work=Los Angeles Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78866683/viola-barry/|access-date=June 3, 2021}}</ref> Her first appearance with the Belasco company was in ''The Test'' by Jules Eckert Goodman.<ref>{{cite news |title=Viola Barry at Belasco |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78868087/viola-barry/ |access-date=June 3, 2021 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=November 24, 1910 |page=16|via = Newspapers.com}}</ref>
She was in movies 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.
==Personal life==
In February 1911, Barry married actor and film director Jack Conway of the Bison Moving Picture Company<ref>{{cite news |title=Viola Barry, former Liberty favorite, weds motion picture man |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78872504/viola-barry/ |access-date=June 3, 2021 |work=The Evening Times-Star |date=February 28, 1911 |location=California, Alameda |page=8|via = Newspapers.com}}</ref> in Santa Ana, California. They had one daughter, Rosemary. The couple divorced in 1918. Barry later married screenwriter Frank McGrew Willis, with whom she had four children: Virginia, Gloria, McGrew, and James.
Barry was a suffragist and, like her father, a Socialist.<ref name="lah" />
==Death and legacy==
Barry died in 1964 in Hollywood, California. She was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.{{Citation needed |date=June 2022}}
==Selected filmography== * ''Help! Help! Hydrophobia!'' (1913) * ''The Mothering Heart'' (1913) * ''The Ranchero's Revenge'' (1913) * ''The Lady and the Mouse'' (1913) * ''A Misunderstood Boy'' (1913) * ''A Frightful Blunder'' (1913) * ''Peeping Pete'' (1913) * ''The Little Tease'' (1913) * ''Almost a Wild Man'' (1913) * ''Twixt Love and Fire'' (1914) * ''His Favourite Pastime'' (1914) * ''John Barleycorn'' (1914), lost film * ''Martin Eden'' (1914), incomplete film * ''The Flying Torpedo'' (1916), lost film
==Footnotes==
{{reflist|2}}
==Other sources consulted==
*''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.
==External links== {{commons category}} *{{IMDb name|0058184}} *{{Tcmdb name}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barry, Viola}} Category:American film actresses Category:American silent film actresses Category:Western (genre) film actresses Category:Actresses from Evanston, Illinois Category:1964 deaths Category:Actresses from Berkeley, California Category:Burials at Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California) Category:20th-century American actresses