Edwin Forrest Society
The Actors Fund of America
Viola Harris Actress’ Paperweight
4” Diameter
1/2” - 1 1/2” Tall
Weight 8 Ounces
Clear Lucite
Viola Harris Etched into Paperweight
Viola Harris
Viola Harris (July 5, 1920 – August 23, 2017) was an American actress known for roles in television, theater, and film from the 1950s to the 2010s.
Viola Harris
Born July 5, 1920
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Died August 23, 2017 (aged 97)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation Actress
Years active 1953–2017
Spouse
Robert H. Harris (19??-1981; his death)
Children 1
Harris appeared in a number of films including Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry in 1997, Choke in 2008, The Other Guys in 2010, and Sex and the City 2 in 2010.
In 2010, she starred in the short film, The Secret Friend, directed by Flavio Alves. Harris received positive reviews for her role in the film. Phil Hall of Film Threat, who gave the film a positive score for example, argued that Harris "truly deserves to be in the center of the spotlight."
On stage, Harris worked in summer stock theatre for a number of years. She also was a standby for the Broadway production of Zelda (1969).
Filmography
1958 High School Hellcats Linda Martin
1958 The Lost Missile
1962 Don't Knock the Twist Helen - the Fashion Editor Uncredited
1965 The Slender Thread Telephone Supervisor
1968 Funny Girl First Nighter Uncredited
1975 Whiffs Miss Zonen
1977 Fire Sale Helen
1978 Good Guys Wear Black Airline Ticket Agent
1989 That's Adequate Carlotta Duprez
1997 Deconstructing Harry Elsie
1998 Sour Grapes Selma Maxwell
2002 Crooks Mrs. Tobleroni
2004 The Amazing Floydini Ida
2007 Noise Elderly Woman
2008 Choke Eva Muller
2010 Sex and the City 2 Gloria Blatch
2010 The Other Guys Mama Ramos
2016 My Dead Boyfriend Ms. Schulz
Television
1961 Rawhide Mrs. Besson S3:E21, "Incident of His Brother's Keeper"
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Edwin Forrest (March 9, 1806 – December 12, 1872) was a prominent nineteenth-century American Shakespearean actor. His feud with the British actor William Macready was the cause of the deadly Astor Place Riot of 1849.
Edwin Forrest
Born March 9, 1806
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died December 12, 1872 (aged 66)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation Actor
Early acting career
The theatres of New York and Philadelphia were already crowded with trained and successful actors, mostly the offspring of well-known British theatrical families or at least with British training. Few American actors were able to make much headway in these theaters, whose managers were highly skeptical of the quality of local talent.
Forrest therefore accepted an offer from Joshua Collins and William Jones, who owned theatres in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Lexington, and were scouting Philadelphia for actors who were willing to face the rigors of performing in the new cities along the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. His tour through a rough country—with the inconveniences of long distances, the necessity of presenting his plays in rude halls, insufficient support, and poor scenery—was not altogether successful, but the discipline to mind and body was felt in all his subsequent career.[4]
In 1824 he travelled from Louisville down to New Orleans, where he had been invited to join the company of the American Theatre, under the management of William Caldwell. There he began to act in a higher quality of production - though usually in roles secondary to Caldwell - and began to attract favorable responses from New Orleans audiences. However, Forrest vied with his employer for the affections of the leading actress of the company, Jane Placide. In a fury of jealousy, he quit the company and spent two months living in the Louisiana wilderness. Later Forrest would claim he spent much of this time in the company of a Choctaw Indian chief named Push-ma-ta-ha, though recent scholarship has come to question much of his account. By 1825 he was back in Philadelphia, and then went north to act with the Pearl Street Theatre in Albany, New York, where he was able to act with, and learn from, such eminent actors as William Conway and Edmund Kean.
Later stage career
In 1853, he played Macbeth, with a strong cast and fine scenery, at the Broadway Theatre for four weeks—an unprecedented run at that date. He became interested in politics, being spoken of as a candidate for congress. In 1860, he appeared at Niblo's Garden, New York, as Hamlet, and played the most successful engagement of his life. Some news reports at that time said he had been retired from acting for several years, although there are also numerous newspapers accounts of his performances in different cities between 1853 and 1860. Hereditary gout developed itself in a malignant form in 1865, during an engagement at the Holliday Street Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland the sciatic nerve was paralyzed, and he never regained the use of his hand or his steady gait. His California tour in 1866 was a failure. He played his last New York engagement in February 1871, the plays being Richelieu and King Lear. The weather was cold, and the houses empty.
In October 1871, Forrest commenced his last annual tour, starting at the Walnut Theater in his home town of Philadelphia. He passed through Columbus, OH; Cincinnati, OH; New Orleans, LA; Galveston, TX; Nashville, TN; Kansas City, MO; Leavenworth, KS; St. Louis, MO; Pittsburgh, PA; Detroit, MI; Buffalo, NY; and by late February the Opera House in Rochester, NY; February 27 through March 1. From Rochester he traveled on to Boston, MA.
Forrest's castle-like mansion by the Hudson River in New York
On the night of March 25, 1872, he appeared in Boston, Massachusetts at the Globe Theatre, as Lear, played this part six times, and was announced for Richelieu and Virginius, but on the intervening Sunday he caught cold. He struggled through the role of Richelieu on Monday night, and rare bursts of eloquence lighted the gloom, but he labored piteously against the disease which was fast conquering him. Being offered stimulants, he signed them away, with the words, "If I die, I will still be my royal self." This was his last appearance as an actor. He eventually recovered from the severe attack of pneumonia. The craving for public applause, which was his only happiness, induced him to give readings from Shakespeare in several large cities. The scheme failed, and was abandoned, to his deep mortification.
A stroke of paralysis ended his life suddenly and without pain. His servant found him dead, alone, and apparently asleep, in his home in Philadelphia December 12, 1872. His body was interred in Old Saint Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery, Philadelphia.[15] The large sums that he had earned on the stage were judiciously and fortunately invested, and resulted in his amassing a large fortune. He had purchased, about 1850, a site on the banks of the Hudson, on which he erected a castellated structure. This estate, which he named Fonthill, he afterward sold at a large advance for a convent, which later became the College of Mount Saint Vincent. In 1855 he purchased his mansion in Philadelphia, to which he retired after his temporary abandonment of the stage. There he collected the largest dramatic library in the United States. By avoiding New York and by legal evasions he succeeded in escaping the payment of alimony to his wife, but left his estate heavily in her debt