[3] She studied under Herbert Beerbohm Tree while she spent more than two years in England, returning to California in December 1909.

[1] Before December 1909, Barry was leading woman at Ye Liberty Theater in Oakland, California.

[1] In 1910, under her stage name Viola Barry,[4] Wilson signed with the Belasco Theater Company in Los Angeles to be its new ingénue.

Her early screen credits include The Totem Mask, The Voyager: A Tale of Old Canada, McKee Rankin's '49, John Oakhurst, Gambler, An Indian Vestal, Coals of Fire, A Painter's Idyl, The Chief's Daughter, George Warrington's Escape, and Evangeline.

In February 1911, Barry married actor and film director Jack Conway of the Bison Moving Picture Company[7] in Santa Ana, California.