Allen, Viola

Allen, Viola (1867–1948), actress. The daughter of actors, she was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and made her first New York appearance in 1882 as Annie Russell's replacement in the title part of Esmeralda. In the following seasons she played important roles opposite John McCullough, W. E. Sheridan, and Tommaso Salvini, and she won plaudits as Gertrude Ellingham in Shenandoah (1889) and as Lydia Languish in The Rivals (1889), showing that she was as adept in comedy as she was in tragedy and melodrama. Allen joined Charles Frohman's celebrated stock company at the Empire Theatre in 1893 and might have remained there indefinitely had she not left to essay her most famous role, Glory Quayle, the strong‐headed, worldly girl converted by her clergyman lover, in The Christian. Between appearances in such contemporary plays as In the Palace of the King (1900), Caine's The Eternal City (1902), and Clyde Fitch's The Toast of the Town (1905), she successfully played such Shakespearean roles as Viola, Hermione, Perdita, Cymbeline, Rosalind, Lady Macbeth, and Mistress Ford. Thereafter she appeared largely in plays of little significance, relying on her acting and appeal to lure audiences. Lewis C. Strang wrote of the wide‐eyed, round‐faced, somewhat sad‐miened beauty, “Miss Allen acts mentally rather than emotionally. Her conception of a part is always intelligent, comprehensive, and logical. One catches her meaning instantly.”