May Robson

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May Robson (before 1910)

May Robson (born April 19, 1858 in Melbourne , Victoria , † October 20, 1942 in Beverly Hills , California ; actually Mary Jeanette Robison ) was an Australian actress . She is the oldest person of the year who was ever nominated for an Oscar . Films like Lady for a Day and Leopards Don't Kiss them achieved greater popularity in the 1930s.

life and career

May Robson was born the fourth child of Captain Henry Robinson and his wife Julia. Her father had previously served in the British Royal Navy but retired in Australia due to poor health and passed away when May Robson was only seven years old. The family then moved to England . At the age of only 16 she married her first husband Charles Livingstone Gore in London , who moved with her to New York and died there in 1882. Without financial means or a husband, she had to support her three children on her own, for which she initially worked as an art teacher. Robson became an actress in 1883. Two of their children died of diphtheria and scarlet fever , only their son Edward Gore survived. In 1889 she married Augustus Homer Brown, a police officer, to whom she remained married until his death in 1920.

Her acting career has focused on the theater for most of 56 years, Robson was successful both as a character actress and as a comedian. Her collaborations with theater producer Charles Frohman were particularly regular and successful . She later also owned her own theater company. In 1915 she had a guest appearance in How Molly Made God , but her film appearances in silent films were rare. From 1927 she established herself in Hollywood as one of the most successful actresses of her generation, including in films like I dance only for you and Dinner at eight .

With 75 years Robson was in 1933 for the representation of an Apple saleswoman in Lady for a Day as best actress for Oscar nomination. This made her the oldest person to be nominated for an Oscar for a few years. She is the oldest Oscar-nominated person of all time. The popular actress was also seen in other comedies in the following years, for example in His Secretary as the mother of Clark Gable and in Leopard Do Not Kiss as Katharine Hepburn's resolute millionaire aunt. She often played strict old women with good hearts, for example as Aunt Polly in the 1938 film adaptation of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer . Robson was also regularly seen in more serious roles, for example in the literary film adaptation Anna Karenina as Countess Wronsky next to Greta Garbo and in A Star Rises as a Sharp-tongued Grandmother. At the age of 82, she played the leading roles in the crime film Granny, Get you Gun together with Harry Davenport .

Her last of over 60 films was Joan of Paris with Michèle Morgan and Paul Henreid . It was published in the year she died. May Robson died of cancer on October 20, 1942 at the age of 84. In her obituary, the New York Times called Robson the "queen mother of the American screen and stage". She was buried in Flushing Cemetery in Queens .

Filmography (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Axel Nissen: Actresses of a Certain Character. Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties. McFarland, Jeffersson NC et al. 2007, ISBN 978-0-7864-2746-8 , p. 184.
  2. ^ Jan L. Jones: Renegades, Showmen & Angels. A Theatrical History of Fort Worth from 1873-2001. Texas Christian University Press, Fort Worth TX 2006, ISBN 0-87565-318-9 , pp. 37-38.
  3. ↑ Axel Nissen: Actresses of a Certain Character. Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties. McFarland, Jeffersson NC et al. 2007, ISBN 978-0-7864-2746-8 , p. 185.
  4. ^ Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, Paul S. Boyer (Eds.): Notable American Women, 1607-1950. A Biographical Dictionary. Volume 3: P - Z. Prepared under the Auspices of Radcliffe College. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA et al. 1971, ISBN 0-674-62734-2 , p. 185.
  5. ^ Jan L. Jones: Renegades, Showmen & Angels. A Theatrical History of Fort Worth from 1873-2001. Texas Christian University Press, Fort Worth TX 2006, ISBN 0-87565-318-9 , pp. 37-38.
  6. ↑ Axel Nissen: Actresses of a Certain Character. Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties. McFarland, Jeffersson NC et al. 2007, ISBN 978-0-7864-2746-8 , p. 184.

Web links

Commons : May Robson  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Robson, May
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Robinson, Mary Jeanette (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian actress
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Melbourne , Australia
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1942
Place of death Beverly Hills , California, USA