Viola Keats

{{Short description|British actress (1911–1998)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}

{{Infobox person

| image = Actress_Viola_Keats.jpg

| caption = in The Guv'nor (1935)

| imagesize =

| name = Viola Keats

| birth_date = 27 March 1911

| birth_place = Doune, Perthshire, Scotland, UK

| death_date = {{death date and age|1998|6|5|1911|3|27|df=y}}

| death_place = Brighton, Sussex, England, UK

| othername =

| occupation = Actress

| yearsactive = 1933–1976

| spouse = Harold Peterson (deceased)
William Kellner (deceased)

}}

Viola Keats (1911–1998) was a British stage, film and television actress.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090116105742/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/15857 BFI.org] The Independent called her "an actress of vigour and conviction."{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-viola-keats-1170239.html|title=Obituary: Viola Keats|website=Independent.co.uk |date=7 August 1998|publisher=}} After training at RADA, her first appearance on the London Stage was at the Apollo Theatre in 1933, in The Distaff Side, and the following year she made her Broadway debut in the same play.{{cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-distaff-side-11918|title=The Distaff Side – Broadway Play – Original – IBDB|first=The Broadway|last=League|publisher=}} Her first screen appearance was in 1933 in Too Many Wives, and she went on to have starring roles in films such as A Woman Alone.{{cite web|url=http://www.allmovie.com/artist/viola-keats-p37284|title=Viola Keats – Movies and Filmography – AllMovie|publisher=}} From the 1950s, her screen work was largely in television, but she continued to work throughout in the theatre, including an Australian tour of A Streetcar Named Desire as Blanche, and in the 1958 Agatha Christie play Verdict at the Strand Theatre.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5g2PBAAAQBAJ|title=The London Stage 1950–1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel|first=J. P.|last=Wearing|date=16 September 2014|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780810893085 |via=Google Books}} She spent her retirement living in Brighton.