Viva (actress)

Viva (born August 23, 1938) is an American actress, writer and a former Warhol superstar.

Career

Viva was born Janet Susan Mary Hoffmann in Syracuse, New York. She was given the name Viva by Andy Warhol before the release of her first film, but later used Auder, her married name. She appeared in several of Warhol's films and was a regular at The Factory. Viva was on the phone with Warhol when he was shot by Valerie Solanas.

After Viva began making films for other directors she also began writing. Her first book, Superstar, was an insider's look at the Factory scene, a partly fictional autobiographical account of her time there. She also wrote for various publications, including The Village Voice and New York Woman.

Viva incorporated excerpts from video tapes into her second book The Baby. These tapes were later released by her former husband, video artist Michel Auder, as Chronicles: Family Diary in three parts.

Viva was the narrator for Carla Bley's 1971 experimental jazz composition Escalator over the Hill.

Personal life

Viva was one of the early pioneers in Video art.

During the 1970s Viva was a guest participant in Shirley Clarke's Teepee Video Space Troupe, which she formed in the early 1970s. With husband Michel Auder, she made and kept film diaries which included the birth of her first daughter, Alexandra (Alex) Auder.

Viva married video artist Michel Auder in 1969 and together they had one daughter, Alexandria Auder. She had another child later, out-of-wedlock, the actress Gaby Hoffmann.

She lives in Palm Springs, California, where she paints landscapes.

Filmography

• Bike Boy, Andy Warhol (1967)
• Nude Restaurant, Andy Warhol (1967)
• The Loves Of Ondine, Andy Warhol (1968)
• Lonesome Cowboys, Andy Warhol (1968)
• Blue Movie, Andy Warhol (1969)
• Keeping Busy, Michel Auder, 1969
• Midnight Cowboy (1969)
• Lions Love, Agnes Varda (1969)
• Trapianto, consunzione e morte di Franco Brocani (1969)
• Necropolis (1970)
• Cleopatra, Michel Auder (1970)
• Viva Booksigning, Michel Auder (1970)
• The Valerie Solanas Incident Michel Auder (1971)
• Play It Again, Sam, Woody Allen (1972)
• Cisco Pike, Bill L. Norton (1972)
• New Old, Pierre Clementi (1978)
• Flash Gordon (1980)
• Forbidden Zone, Richard Elfman (1980)
• The State of Things (Der Stand der Dinge) Wim Wenders (1982)
• Paris, Texas, Wim Wenders (1984)
• The Man Without a Face, Mel Gibson (1993)
• News From Nowhere, Paul Morrisey (2010)

Books

• Superstar (1970)
• The Baby (1974)

External links

Interview - "Play It Again Sam" on Archive.org [1]

• Viva in Andy Warhol's The Nude Restaurant