Virginia Valli was a renowned American stage and film actress, whose illustrious career in the motion picture industry spanned from the silent film era to the early days of sound films in the 1930s.
Born Virginia McSweeney on June 10, 1898, in Chicago, Illinois, she began her acting journey in Milwaukee with a stock company, before transitioning to film work with Essanay Studios in her hometown of Chicago, starting in 1916.
Throughout the 1920s, Valli continued to appear in films, establishing herself as a prominent star at the Universal studio by the mid-1920s. In 1924, she took on the female lead in King Vidor's Southern Gothic film, Wild Oranges, which had lain dormant for several decades before being rediscovered.
Valli's filmography during this period included a range of genres, from romantic comedies like Every Woman's Life, to dramatic features like The Man Who Found Himself, alongside Thomas Meighan, and the thriller, Paid To Love, with William Powell.
In 1925, she collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on his debut feature, The Pleasure Garden, and also appeared in Evening Clothes, featuring Adolphe Menjou. Valli's film career reached its peak between 1924 and 1927, with her final silent film being the romantic comedy, Night Life in Reno, in 1929.
Her first sound picture was The Isle of Lost Ships, released in 1929, but her film career gradually declined, and she eventually quit the industry after being unable to find a suitable studio. Valli was married twice, first to George Lamson, with whom she shared a small bungalow in Hollywood, and then to actor Charles Farrell, to whom she remained married until her death.
The couple moved to Palm Springs, where Valli became a social fixture for many years. However, her life took a turn for the worse when she suffered a stroke in 1966, and she passed away two years later, on September 24, 1968, at the age of 70. Valli was laid to rest in the Welwood Murray Cemetery in Palm Springs, California.
