Vivien Oakland

Vivien Oakland, born Vivian Ruth Andersen on May 20, 1895, in San Francisco, California, was an American actress whose career spanned stage, vaudeville, and film. The daughter of Norwegian immigrants Edward Andersen and Anna Marthine Olsen, she grew up alongside siblings Edward, Herbert, and Edna. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, her mother, widowed since 1898, relocated the family to Oakland, California. Oakland and her younger sister Edna formed a vaudeville act known as the Oakland Sisters, with Edna later pursuing a film career under the name Dagmar Oakland. In 1917, Oakland married actor John T. Murray, who lived from 1886 to 1957.

Oakland's stage work brought her to Broadway between 1917 and 1927, where she appeared in a range of productions spanning plays, musicals, and revues. Her Broadway credits included the play The Matrimonial Bed, the musical The Yankee Prince, and the revues Bombo, The Midnight Rounders of 1921, and The Century Revue, among others. She also performed with the Ziegfeld Follies during this period.

Alongside her stage career, Oakland built an extensive presence in Hollywood, appearing in 157 films between 1915 and 1951. She became particularly associated with comedy, working most notably with the Hal Roach Studios. She supported Laurel and Hardy on multiple occasions and frequently appeared as the wife of Edgar Kennedy and Leon Errol in their respective short film series. In the 1940s her film roles shifted largely to bit parts in feature productions, and she made her final film, an Errol comedy, in 1951.

Oakland retired from acting that same year and settled in Sherman Oaks, California. She died on August 1, 1958, and was buried at Chapel of the Pines Crematory.