Silent Film Actress. A pretty brunette, she is remembered as the star of several 1920s Hollywood features. Born Virginia McSweeney, she was raised in Chicago and got her acting start as a teenager with a Milwaukee-based stage troupe. After making some films for Essanay Studios in her home city starting around 1915, she moved on to Hollywood where she was well established with Paramount thru the mid 1920s. Among her better-known vehicles were "The Man Who Found Himself" (1925), as well as "Paid To Love" and "Evening Clothes" (both 1927). Virginia is often pictured as one of the "victims of sound", but this is probably inaccurate; the 1929 "The Isle of Lost Ships" and "Mr. Antonio" showed her voice well-suited to the medium. In reality she had essentially lost interest, and was to make her final bow with 1931's "Night Life in Reno". Following a failed marriage to George Lamson, Virginia wed actor Charles Farrell in 1931, the union lasting the rest of her life. As Mrs. Farrell, she was a grande dame of Palm Springs society until her demise two years after suffering a stroke.
Silent Film Actress. A pretty brunette, she is remembered as the star of several 1920s Hollywood features. Born Virginia McSweeney, she was raised in Chicago and got her acting start as a teenager with a Milwaukee-based stage troupe. After making some films for Essanay Studios in her home city starting around 1915, she moved on to Hollywood where she was well established with Paramount thru the mid 1920s. Among her better-known vehicles were "The Man Who Found Himself" (1925), as well as "Paid To Love" and "Evening Clothes" (both 1927). Virginia is often pictured as one of the "victims of sound", but this is probably inaccurate; the 1929 "The Isle of Lost Ships" and "Mr. Antonio" showed her voice well-suited to the medium. In reality she had essentially lost interest, and was to make her final bow with 1931's "Night Life in Reno". Following a failed marriage to George Lamson, Virginia wed actor Charles Farrell in 1931, the union lasting the rest of her life. As Mrs. Farrell, she was a grande dame of Palm Springs society until her demise two years after suffering a stroke.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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