Mary Jeanette Robison (19 April 1858 – 20 October 1942), known professionally as May Robson, was an Australian-born American-based actress, whose career spanned 58 years, starting in 1883 when she was 25 years of age. A major stage actress of the late 19th and early 20th century, Robson is best known today for the dozens of 1930s motion pictures she appeared in when she was well into her 70s, usually playing cross old women with hearts of gold.
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Tuesday, May 05, 2020.
May Robson - Actress.
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1. Profile :
*May Robson in Broadway to Hollywood (1933)
Born Mary Jeanette Robison, April 19, 1858, Moama, New South Wales, Australia
Died October 20, 1942 (aged 84), Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Resting place Flushing, New York
Occupation Actress
Years active 1883–1942
Spouse(s)
Charles L. Gore (1875–c. 1883)
Augustus H. Brown (1889–1920; his death)
-------------------------------------------------------
2. Introduction :
Children Edward Hyde Leveson Gore (1876–1954) 2 others who died during their childhood
Mary Jeanette Robison (19 April 1858 – 20 October 1942), known professionally as May Robson, was an Australian-born American-based actress, whose career spanned 58 years, starting in 1883 when she was 25 years of age. A major stage actress of the late 19th and early 20th century, Robson is best known today for the dozens of 1930s motion pictures she appeared in when she was well into her 70s, usually playing cross old women with hearts of gold.
Robson was the earliest-born person to enjoy a major Hollywood career and receive an Academy Award nomination, which she got for her leading role in Lady for a Day in 1933. She was also the first Australian to be nominated for an Oscar.
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3. Early life :
Mary Jeanette Robison was born on 19 April 1858 in Moama, New South Wales, Australia, in what Robson described as "the Australian bush". She was the fourth child of Henry and Julia Robison; her siblings were Williams, James, and Adelaide.
Henry Robison (1810–1860) was born in Penrith, Cumberland, England and lived in Liverpool. He served 24 years in the foreign trade of the British Merchant Navy as a mate and a sea captain. Robison retired at half-pay due to his poor health and traveled with Julia Robison to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1853 on the SS Great Britain. By April 1855, Henry was a watchmaker, jeweller, silversmith and ornamental hairworker in Melbourne. According to Robson, her parents both suffered from phthisis pulmonalis, and moved to "the bush" for their heath. Henry bought a large brick mansion in Moama, New South Wales in August 1857 and opened the Prince of Wales Hotel. From there, he co-operated Robison and Stivens, coach proprietors for the Bendigo - Moama - Deniliquin service. The hotel was Robson's first home. Henry Robison died in Moama Maiden's Punt on 27 January 1860.
On 19 November 1862, Julia married Walter Moore Miller, solicitor and mayor of Albury, New South Wales at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne. Julia, Walter, and the four children moved to Melbourne in 1866. Miller was a partner with De Courcy Ireland in the firm of Miller and Ireland in Melbourne in November 1867, and until 20 January 1870, when it was mutually dissolved.
In 1870, the family moved to London. Robson attended Sacred Heart Convent School at Highgate, north London and studied languages in Brussels. She went to Paris for her examinations in French. According to her obituary, Robson was also educated in Australia.
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4. Marriages and children :
Robson ran away from home to marry her first husband, 18 year-old Charles Leveson Gore, in London. They were married on 1 November 1875 at the parish church in Camden Town, London. The couple traveled on the steamer SS Vaderland and arrived in New York on 17 May 1877. The Gores purchased 380 acres of land in Fort Worth, Texas where they built a house and established a cattle ranch. According to Jan Jones, "the Gores survived two years in their prairie manor house before homesickness, rural isolation, and repeated bouts of fever convinced them to sell and try their fortunes in the more settled east." They moved to New York City with little money and Robson says that shortly after, Gore died.
Robson produced crocheted hoods and embroidery, designed dinner cards, and taught painting to support her three children. By the time she began her acting career in 1883, two of Robson's three children had died due to illness. The surviving child was Edward Hyde Leveson Gore.
Six years after beginning her stage career, Robson married Augustus Homer Brown, a police surgeon, on 29 May 1889. They remained together until his death on 1 April 1920. Robson's son, Edward Gore, was her business manager.
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5. Career :
*May Robson in 1907
*Warren William and May Robson in Lady for a Day (1933)
*May Robson in A Star is Born (1937)
*May Robson in Four Daughters (1938)
On 17 September 1883, she became an actress in Hoop of Gold at the Brooklyn Grand Opera House stage. Her name was incorrectly spelled "Robson" in the billing, which she used from that point forward "for good luck". Over the next several decades, she flourished on the stage as a comedian and character actress. Her success was partly due to her affiliation with powerful manager and producer Charles Frohman and the Theatrical Syndicate. She established her own touring theatrical company by 1911.
She appeared as herself in a cameo in the 1915 silent film, How Molly Made Good. Robson starred in the 1916 silent film A Night Out, an adaptation of the play she co-wrote, The Three Lights.
In 1927, Robson went to Hollywood where she had a successful film career as a senior aged woman.] Among her starring roles was in The She-Wolf (1931) as a miserly millionaire businesswoman based on the real-life miser Hetty Green.
She also starred in the final segment of the anthology film If I Had a Million (1932) as a rest home resident who gets a new lease on life when she is given a $1,000,000 check by a dying business tycoon. She played the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1933), Countess Vronsky in Anna Karenina (1935), Aunt Elizabeth in Bringing Up Baby (1938), Aunt Polly in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), and a sharp-tongued Granny in A Star Is Born (1937). Robson was top-billed as late as 1940, starring in Granny Get Your Gun at age 82. Her last film was 1942's Joan of Paris.
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6. Academy Award nomination :
*In 1933, Robson was nominated for an Academy Award at age 75 in the Best Actress category for Lady for a Day but lost to Katharine Hepburn; both actresses later appeared in the Hepburn-Grant classic film, Bringing Up Baby (1938).
Robson was the first Australian-born person to be nominated for an acting Oscar, and, for many years, she held the record as the oldest performer nominated for an Oscar.
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7. Death :
May Robson died in 1942 at her Beverly Hills, California home at age 84. In its obituary of Robson, the Nevada State Journal stated that Robson died of "a combination of ailments, aggravated by neuritis and advanced age." Her remains were cremated and buried at the Flushing Cemetery in Queens, New York, next to her second husband, Augustus Brown.
The New York Times obituary for Robson called her the "dowager queen of the American screen and stage".
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8. Works :
8.1 Stage :
The following is a partial list of her stage performances:
Called Back (1884)
An Appeal to the Muse (1885)
Robert Elsmere (1889)
The Charity Ball (1890)
Nerves, adapted from Les Femmes Nerveuses (1891)
Gloriana (1892)
Lady Bountiful (1892)
Americans Abroad (1893)
The Family Circle (1893)
The Poet and the Puppets (1893)
Squirrel Inn (1893)
No. 3A (1894)
As You Like It (1894)
Liberty Hall (1894)
The Fatal Card (1895)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
A Woman's Reason (1895)
The First Born (1897)
His Excellency, The Governor (1900)
Are You a Mason? (1901)
Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1904)
Cousin Billy (1905–1907)
The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary (1907)
The Three Lights (A Night Out) (1911)
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8.2 Filmography :
8.2.1 Silent :
How Molly Made Good (1915) - Herself
A Night Out (1916) - Granmum
Snow White (1916) - Hex Witch(*replaced originally scheduled Alice Washburn)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) - Prostitute outside of music hall (uncredited)
Pals in Paradise (1926) - Esther Lezinsky
Rubber Tires (1927) - Mrs. Stack
The King of Kings (1927) - Mother of Gestas
The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary (1927) - Aunt Mary Watkins
The Angel of Broadway (1927) - Big Bertha
A Harp in Hock (1927) - Mrs. Banks
Turkish Delight (1927) - Tsakran
Chicago (1927) - Mrs. Morton - Matron
The Blue Danube (1928)
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8.2.2 Sound :
The She-Wolf (1931) - Harriet Breen
Letty Lynton (1932) - Mrs. Lynton, Letty's Mothers
Red-Headed Woman (1932) - Aunt Jane
Strange Interlude (1932) - Mrs. Evans
Little Orphan Annie (1932) - Mrs. Stewart
If I Had a Million (1932) - Mrs. Mary Walker
Men Must Fight (1933) - Maman Seward
The White Sister (1933) - Mother Superior
Reunion in Vienna (1933) - Frau Lucher
Dinner at Eight (1933) - Mrs. Wendel, the cook
One Man's Journey (1933) - Sarah
Broadway to Hollywood (1933) - Veteran Actress
Beauty for Sale (1933) - Mrs. Merrick
*Lady for a Day (1933) - Apple Annie
The Solitaire Man (1933) - Mrs. Vail
Dancing Lady (1933) - Dolly Todhunter
Alice in Wonderland (1933) - Queen of Hearts
You Can't Buy Everything (1934) - Mrs. Hannah Bell
Straight Is the Way (1934) - Mrs. Horowitz
Lady by Choice (1934) - Patricia Patterson
Mills of the Gods (1934) - Mary Hastings
Grand Old Girl (1935) - Laura Bayles
Vanessa: Her Love Story (1935) - Madame Judith Paris
Reckless (1935) - Granny
Strangers All (1935) - Anna Carter
Age of Indiscretion (1935) - Emma Shaw
Anna Karenina (1935) - Countess Vronsky
Three Kids and a Queen (1935) - Mary Jane 'Queenie' Baxter
Wife vs. Secretary (1936) - Mimi Stanhope
The Captain's Kid (1936) - Aunt Marcia Prentiss
Rainbow on the River (1936) - Mrs. Harriet Ainsworth
Woman in Distress (1937) - Phoebe Tuttle
A Star Is Born (1937) - Grandmother Lettie Blodgett
The Perfect Specimen (1937) - Mrs. Leona Wicks
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) - Aunt Polly
Bringing Up Baby (1938) - Aunt Elizabeth
Four Daughters (1938) - Aunt Etta
The Texans (1938) - Granna
They Made Me a Criminal (1939) - Grandma
Yes, My Darling Daughter (1939) - 'Granny' Whitman
The Kid from Kokomo (1939) - Margaret 'Maggie' / 'Ma' Manell
Daughters Courageous (1939) - Penny, the Housekeeper
Nurse Edith Cavell (1939) - Mme. Rappard
That's Right—You're Wrong (1939) - Grandma
Four Wives (1939) - Aunt Etta
Granny Get Your Gun(1940) - Minerva Hatton
Irene (1940) - Granny O'Dare
Texas Rangers Ride Again (1940) - Cecilia Dangerfield
Four Mothers (1941) - Aunt Etta
Million Dollar Baby (1941) - Cornelia Wheelwright
Playmates (1941) - Grandma Kyser
*Joan of Paris (1942) - Mlle. Rosay (final film role)
The End.'
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, May 05, 2020.
May Robson - Actress.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Profile :
*May Robson in Broadway to Hollywood (1933)
Born Mary Jeanette Robison, April 19, 1858, Moama, New South Wales, Australia
Died October 20, 1942 (aged 84), Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Resting place Flushing, New York
Occupation Actress
Years active 1883–1942
Spouse(s)
Charles L. Gore (1875–c. 1883)
Augustus H. Brown (1889–1920; his death)
-------------------------------------------------------
2. Introduction :
Children Edward Hyde Leveson Gore (1876–1954) 2 others who died during their childhood
Mary Jeanette Robison (19 April 1858 – 20 October 1942), known professionally as May Robson, was an Australian-born American-based actress, whose career spanned 58 years, starting in 1883 when she was 25 years of age. A major stage actress of the late 19th and early 20th century, Robson is best known today for the dozens of 1930s motion pictures she appeared in when she was well into her 70s, usually playing cross old women with hearts of gold.
Robson was the earliest-born person to enjoy a major Hollywood career and receive an Academy Award nomination, which she got for her leading role in Lady for a Day in 1933. She was also the first Australian to be nominated for an Oscar.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Early life :
 |
Henry Robison (1810–1860) was born in Penrith, Cumberland, England and lived in Liverpool. He served 24 years in the foreign trade of the British Merchant Navy as a mate and a sea captain. Robison retired at half-pay due to his poor health and traveled with Julia Robison to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1853 on the SS Great Britain. By April 1855, Henry was a watchmaker, jeweller, silversmith and ornamental hairworker in Melbourne. According to Robson, her parents both suffered from phthisis pulmonalis, and moved to "the bush" for their heath. Henry bought a large brick mansion in Moama, New South Wales in August 1857 and opened the Prince of Wales Hotel. From there, he co-operated Robison and Stivens, coach proprietors for the Bendigo - Moama - Deniliquin service. The hotel was Robson's first home. Henry Robison died in Moama Maiden's Punt on 27 January 1860.
On 19 November 1862, Julia married Walter Moore Miller, solicitor and mayor of Albury, New South Wales at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne. Julia, Walter, and the four children moved to Melbourne in 1866. Miller was a partner with De Courcy Ireland in the firm of Miller and Ireland in Melbourne in November 1867, and until 20 January 1870, when it was mutually dissolved.
In 1870, the family moved to London. Robson attended Sacred Heart Convent School at Highgate, north London and studied languages in Brussels. She went to Paris for her examinations in French. According to her obituary, Robson was also educated in Australia.
-----------------------------------------------------
4. Marriages and children :
Robson ran away from home to marry her first husband, 18 year-old Charles Leveson Gore, in London. They were married on 1 November 1875 at the parish church in Camden Town, London. The couple traveled on the steamer SS Vaderland and arrived in New York on 17 May 1877. The Gores purchased 380 acres of land in Fort Worth, Texas where they built a house and established a cattle ranch. According to Jan Jones, "the Gores survived two years in their prairie manor house before homesickness, rural isolation, and repeated bouts of fever convinced them to sell and try their fortunes in the more settled east." They moved to New York City with little money and Robson says that shortly after, Gore died.
Robson produced crocheted hoods and embroidery, designed dinner cards, and taught painting to support her three children. By the time she began her acting career in 1883, two of Robson's three children had died due to illness. The surviving child was Edward Hyde Leveson Gore.
Six years after beginning her stage career, Robson married Augustus Homer Brown, a police surgeon, on 29 May 1889. They remained together until his death on 1 April 1920. Robson's son, Edward Gore, was her business manager.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Career :
*May Robson in 1907
*Warren William and May Robson in Lady for a Day (1933)
*May Robson in A Star is Born (1937)
*May Robson in Four Daughters (1938)
On 17 September 1883, she became an actress in Hoop of Gold at the Brooklyn Grand Opera House stage. Her name was incorrectly spelled "Robson" in the billing, which she used from that point forward "for good luck". Over the next several decades, she flourished on the stage as a comedian and character actress. Her success was partly due to her affiliation with powerful manager and producer Charles Frohman and the Theatrical Syndicate. She established her own touring theatrical company by 1911.
She appeared as herself in a cameo in the 1915 silent film, How Molly Made Good. Robson starred in the 1916 silent film A Night Out, an adaptation of the play she co-wrote, The Three Lights.
In 1927, Robson went to Hollywood where she had a successful film career as a senior aged woman.] Among her starring roles was in The She-Wolf (1931) as a miserly millionaire businesswoman based on the real-life miser Hetty Green.
She also starred in the final segment of the anthology film If I Had a Million (1932) as a rest home resident who gets a new lease on life when she is given a $1,000,000 check by a dying business tycoon. She played the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1933), Countess Vronsky in Anna Karenina (1935), Aunt Elizabeth in Bringing Up Baby (1938), Aunt Polly in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), and a sharp-tongued Granny in A Star Is Born (1937). Robson was top-billed as late as 1940, starring in Granny Get Your Gun at age 82. Her last film was 1942's Joan of Paris.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Academy Award nomination :
*In 1933, Robson was nominated for an Academy Award at age 75 in the Best Actress category for Lady for a Day but lost to Katharine Hepburn; both actresses later appeared in the Hepburn-Grant classic film, Bringing Up Baby (1938).
 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Death :
 |
The New York Times obituary for Robson called her the "dowager queen of the American screen and stage".
---------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Works :
8.1 Stage :
The following is a partial list of her stage performances:
Called Back (1884)
An Appeal to the Muse (1885)
Robert Elsmere (1889)
The Charity Ball (1890)
Nerves, adapted from Les Femmes Nerveuses (1891)
Gloriana (1892)
Lady Bountiful (1892)
Americans Abroad (1893)
The Family Circle (1893)
The Poet and the Puppets (1893)
Squirrel Inn (1893)
No. 3A (1894)
As You Like It (1894)
Liberty Hall (1894)
The Fatal Card (1895)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
A Woman's Reason (1895)
The First Born (1897)
His Excellency, The Governor (1900)
Are You a Mason? (1901)
Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1904)
Cousin Billy (1905–1907)
The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary (1907)
The Three Lights (A Night Out) (1911)
-------------------------------------------------
8.2 Filmography :
8.2.1 Silent :
How Molly Made Good (1915) - Herself
A Night Out (1916) - Granmum
Snow White (1916) - Hex Witch(*replaced originally scheduled Alice Washburn)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) - Prostitute outside of music hall (uncredited)
Pals in Paradise (1926) - Esther Lezinsky
Rubber Tires (1927) - Mrs. Stack
The King of Kings (1927) - Mother of Gestas
The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary (1927) - Aunt Mary Watkins
The Angel of Broadway (1927) - Big Bertha
A Harp in Hock (1927) - Mrs. Banks
Turkish Delight (1927) - Tsakran
Chicago (1927) - Mrs. Morton - Matron
The Blue Danube (1928)
----------------------------------------------------
8.2.2 Sound :
The She-Wolf (1931) - Harriet Breen
Letty Lynton (1932) - Mrs. Lynton, Letty's Mothers
Red-Headed Woman (1932) - Aunt Jane
Strange Interlude (1932) - Mrs. Evans
Little Orphan Annie (1932) - Mrs. Stewart
If I Had a Million (1932) - Mrs. Mary Walker
Men Must Fight (1933) - Maman Seward
The White Sister (1933) - Mother Superior
Reunion in Vienna (1933) - Frau Lucher
Dinner at Eight (1933) - Mrs. Wendel, the cook
One Man's Journey (1933) - Sarah
Broadway to Hollywood (1933) - Veteran Actress
Beauty for Sale (1933) - Mrs. Merrick
*Lady for a Day (1933) - Apple Annie
The Solitaire Man (1933) - Mrs. Vail
Dancing Lady (1933) - Dolly Todhunter
Alice in Wonderland (1933) - Queen of Hearts
You Can't Buy Everything (1934) - Mrs. Hannah Bell
Straight Is the Way (1934) - Mrs. Horowitz
Lady by Choice (1934) - Patricia Patterson
Mills of the Gods (1934) - Mary Hastings
Grand Old Girl (1935) - Laura Bayles
Vanessa: Her Love Story (1935) - Madame Judith Paris
Reckless (1935) - Granny
Strangers All (1935) - Anna Carter
Age of Indiscretion (1935) - Emma Shaw
Anna Karenina (1935) - Countess Vronsky
Three Kids and a Queen (1935) - Mary Jane 'Queenie' Baxter
Wife vs. Secretary (1936) - Mimi Stanhope
The Captain's Kid (1936) - Aunt Marcia Prentiss
Rainbow on the River (1936) - Mrs. Harriet Ainsworth
Woman in Distress (1937) - Phoebe Tuttle
A Star Is Born (1937) - Grandmother Lettie Blodgett
The Perfect Specimen (1937) - Mrs. Leona Wicks
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) - Aunt Polly
Bringing Up Baby (1938) - Aunt Elizabeth
Four Daughters (1938) - Aunt Etta
The Texans (1938) - Granna
They Made Me a Criminal (1939) - Grandma
Yes, My Darling Daughter (1939) - 'Granny' Whitman
The Kid from Kokomo (1939) - Margaret 'Maggie' / 'Ma' Manell
Daughters Courageous (1939) - Penny, the Housekeeper
Nurse Edith Cavell (1939) - Mme. Rappard
That's Right—You're Wrong (1939) - Grandma
Four Wives (1939) - Aunt Etta
Granny Get Your Gun(1940) - Minerva Hatton
Irene (1940) - Granny O'Dare
Texas Rangers Ride Again (1940) - Cecilia Dangerfield
Four Mothers (1941) - Aunt Etta
Million Dollar Baby (1941) - Cornelia Wheelwright
Playmates (1941) - Grandma Kyser
*Joan of Paris (1942) - Mlle. Rosay (final film role)
The End.'
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