Viva Tattersall
{{short description|British actress (born 1898–1989)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Viva Tattersall
| image = Viva Tattersall.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth-date|1 April 1898}}
| birth_place = Fulham, London, England
| death_date = {{Death-date and age |19 January 1989|1 April 1898}}
| death_place = Loma Linda, California, U.S.
| othername = {{Ubl | Vera Tattersall Orkow | Viva Toler}}
| occupation = {{Hlist | Actress | playwright}}
| years_active = 1932-1936 (film)
| spouse = Ben Orkow (m. 1921–1937)
Sidney Toler (m. 1943–1947)
}}
Viva Tattersall (1898–1989) was the stage name of British stage and film actress, playwright and sculptor, Vera Tattersall, who settled in the United States.
Early life
Tattersall was one of five girls born in London to Hugh Tattersall, a sea captain, and his wife, Lilian. Her father had been blamed for a ship's loss and never worked again. Lilian worked as a dressmaker but supplemented her income by playing the stocks and shares.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/OBITUARY+-+Lady+Emmy+Henderson-a0114111211|title=OBITUARY - Lady Emmy Henderson. - Free Online Library|website=www.thefreelibrary.com}} Tattersall's sisters included Lady Emma Henderson and Marjorie Clark, wife of economist, Colin Clark.
Career
File:Sidney Toler and Viva Tattersall in Jamaica 1936.png
Tattersall commenced her career as a stage actress. In 1927 she appeared in the original Broadway run of John Galsworthy's Escape. She was also a playwright, co-authoring plays with actor Sidney Toler (who she later married) such as Her Western Romeo, Dress Parade and Ritzy.Ellenberger p.285{{cite news |date=January 19, 1930 |title=Gossip of the Rialto |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1930/01/19/archives/gossip-of-the-rialto-his-majesty-goes-to-the-playmrs-campbell-comes.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=September 28, 2016 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/viva-tattersall-61879|title=Viva Tattersall – Broadway Cast & Staff {{!}} IBDB|last=League|first=The Broadway|website=www.ibdb.com|access-date=June 18, 2018}}
She appeared in at least eight Hollywood films between 1932 and 1936. This included a leading role as the daughter, Vera Strang, of Professor Adam Anton Strang, played by Bela Lugosi, in the serial film, The Whispering Shadow.
Personal life
Tattersall married screenwriter B. Harrison Orkow (aka Ben Orkow) in Manhattan in 1921.{{cite web | website=MyHeritage | url=http://www.myheritage.de/names/ben_orkow | access-date=2023-08-19|title=Ben Orkow}} They divorced in New York in the late 1920s.{{cite web | title=Orkow v. Orkow, 133 Cal.App. 50| website=Casetext Search + Citator | date=1933-06-28 | url=http://casetext.com/case/orkow-v-orkow | access-date=2023-08-19}} (Cal. Ct. App. 1933) 23 P.2d 781] (a decision as to whether Viva was entitled to 1/3 of Orkow's earnings)
Tattersall (then known as Vera Tattersall Orkow) married Sidney Toler in 1943, four weeks after his previous wife, actress Vivian Marston, died. At the time she was described as working as a sculptor.{{cite news |date=November 12, 1943 |title=Sidney Toler of Screen Weds |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1943/11/12/archives/sidney-toler-of-screen-weds.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=September 28, 2016 }} Their marriage lasted until Toler's death in September 1947.
In 1972, she was living in the Brookside Patios Apartments, under the name Viva Toler, in Redlands, California.Redlands Daily Facts, February 18, 1972, reporting on a visit by her sister Lady Emma Henderson
She died on 19 January 1989 (aged 90) in Loma Linda, California.
Selected filmography
File:The Whispering Shadow.png
- Cynara (1932)
- Looking Forward (1933)
- The Whispering Shadow (1933)
- Picture Brides (1934)
- Without Regret (1935)
- The Call of the Savage (1935)
- The Widow from Monte Carlo (1935)
- The Unguarded Hour (1936)
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- Allan R. Ellenberger. Miriam Hopkins: Life and Films of a Hollywood Rebel. University Press of Kentucky, 2017.
- Thomas S. Hischak. Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than 14,000 Shows through 2007. McFarland, 2009.
External links
- {{Commons category-inline}}
- {{IMDb name|0851324}}
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVQfQxPZHms The Whispering Shadow series]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tattersall, Viva}}
Category:Actors from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Category:British film actresses
Category:British stage actresses
Category:British emigrants to the United States
Category:Actresses from London
Category:Writers from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Category:British women dramatists and playwrights
Category:20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
Category:20th-century British women writers