silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
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."Returned Lecturer, J. Stitt Wilson, to Speak at Berkeley," ''Oakland Tribune,'' Feb 13, 1910, pg. 30. She moved with her family to Berkeley, California, where her father was a socialist lecturer and was mayor of Berkeley in 1911. She attended Berkeley High School.
She studied under
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) was an English actor and theatre manager.
Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, winning praise for adventurous progra ...
while she spent more than two years in England, returning to California in December 1909.
Acting career
Before December 1909, Barry was leading woman at Ye Liberty Theater in Oakland, California. In 1910, under her stage name Viola Barry, Wilson signed with the Belasco Theater Company in Los Angeles to be its new
ingénue
The ''ingénue'' (, , ) is a stock character in literature, film and a role type in the theater, generally a girl or a young woman, who is endearingly innocent. ''Ingénue'' may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in such role ...
. 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. Her first appearance with the Belasco company was in ''The Test'' by
Jules Eckert Goodman
Jules Eckert Goodman (November 2, 1876 – July 10, 1962) was an American playwright and author. He was best known for his plays ''The Man Who Came Back'' (1916), '' The Silent Voice'' (1914), ''Chains'' (1923), and a series of plays featuring ...
.
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 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 suffragette and, like her father, a
Socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
.
Death and legacy
Barry died in 1964 in Hollywood, California. She was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.
Selected filmography
* ''
Help! Help! Hydrophobia!
''Help! Help! Hydrophobia!'' is a 1913 American short comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle.
Cast
* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Jim Brown
* Viola Barry - (as Peggy Pearce)
* Nick Cogley
See also
* List of American films of 1913
* Fatty Arbuck ...
'' (1913)
* ''
The Mothering Heart
''The Mothering Heart'' is a 1913 American short drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. A print of the film survives in the film archive of the Museum of Modern Art.
Plot
The film opens by showing a young woman (Lillian Gish) in a garden. She ...
'' (1913)
* ''
The Ranchero's Revenge
''The Ranchero's Revenge'' is a 1913 American short silent Western film directed by D. W. Griffith.
Cast
* Lionel Barrymore as The Ranchero
* Harry Carey as The Schemer
* Claire McDowell as The Schemer's Associate
* Clarence Barr as The Ch ...
'' (1913)
* ''
The Lady and the Mouse
''The Lady and the Mouse'' is a 1913 American short drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. A print of the film survives. Lillian and Dorothy Gish play sisters in the film. The only other two films where the Gishes play sisters are ''An Unseen ...
'' (1913)
* ''
A Misunderstood Boy
''A Misunderstood Boy'' is a 1913 American short drama film directed by D. W. Griffith.
Cast
* Lionel Barrymore as The Father
* Kate Bruce as The Mother
* Lillian Gish as The Daughter
* Robert Harron as The Son
* Alfred Paget as The Vigilante ...
'' (1913)
* ''
A Frightful Blunder
''A Frightful Blunder'' is a 1913 American silent drama film featuring Harry Carey.
Cast
* Charles West as The Young Businessman
* Viola Barry as The Young Woman
* Walter Miller as The Pharmacist
* Kate Bruce as The Young Woman's Mother
* ...
'' (1913)
* ''
Peeping Pete
''Peeping Pete'' is a 1913 American short comedy film featuring Fatty Arbuckle.
Cast
* Phyllis Allen
* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle as Pete's wife
* Charles Avery
* Peggy Pearce
* Nick Cogley as Sheriff
* Dot Farley
* Mack Sennett as Pete
* Fo ...
'' (1913)
* ''
The Little Tease
''The Little Tease'' is a 1913 silent black and white film directed by D. W. Griffith, produced by Biograph Company and starring Henry B. Walthall and Mae Marsh.
Cast
See also
* D. W. Griffith filmography
*Lionel Barrymore filmography
*Lillia ...
'' (1913)
* ''
Almost a Wild Man
''Almost a Wild Man'' is a 1913 Canadian silent short black and white film directed by Dell Henderson, written by William Beaudine and starring Dorothy Gish.
Cast
* Charles Murray as McDoo
* Gus Pixley as The Wild Man
* Edward Dillon as Rooly, ...
'' (1913)
* ''
Twixt Love and Fire
''Twixt Love and Fire'' is a 1914 short comedy film featuring Fatty Arbuckle.
Cast
* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
* Peggy Pearce
* Cecile Arnold
* Charles Avery
* Harold Lloyd
See also
* List of American films of 1914
* Fatty Arbuckle filmograp ...
'' (1914)
* ''
His Favourite Pastime
''His Favourite Pastime'' is a 1914 American comedy film starring Charlie Chaplin.
Synopsis
Charlie gets drunk in the bar. He steps outside, meets a pretty woman, tries to flirt with her, only to retreat after the woman's father returns. Return ...
'' (1914)
* ''
John Barleycorn
"John Barleycorn" is an English and Scottish folk song listed as number 164 in the Roud Folk Song Index. John Barleycorn, the song's protagonist, is a personification of barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it: beer and whisky. ...
'' (1914), lost film
* ''
Martin Eden
''Martin Eden'' is a 1909 novel by American author Jack London about a young proletarian autodidact struggling to become a writer. It was first serialized in ''The Pacific Monthly'' magazine from September 1908 to September 1909 and then publish ...
'' (1914), incomplete film
* ''
The Flying Torpedo
''The Flying Torpedo'' is a 1916 American silent drama directed by John B. O'Brien and Christy Cabanne. It was produced by the Fine Arts Film Company and distributed by the Triangle Film Corporation. The film was written by John Emerson (who ...
'' (1916), lost film
Footnotes
Other sources consulted
*''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'', "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.