May Whitty

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May Whitty

Dame May Whitty DBE (born June 19, 1865 in Liverpool - † 29 May 1948 in Beverly Hills , Los Angeles , California ; actually Mary Louise Whitty ) was a British actress .

biography

May Whitty was born Mary Louise Whitty in Liverpool in 1865 . The daughter of the publisher of the Liverpool Post first appeared in a public ballet performance in 1881 at the age of 16 . In 1882 Whitty made her debut in London's West End . She later received an engagement at the St. James Theater, where she was, however, often subscribed to the part of the second cast. Whitty then joined a traveling theater, where she got leading roles and established herself in the following decades as one of the most famous theater actresses in Great Britain. In 1895 she traveled to the USA for the first time , where she made her debut on New York's Broadway . Her film career began in 1914 with a supporting role in Percy Nash's silent film Enoch Arden , which was inspired by a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson . A year later she acted again under Nash's direction in the romantic drama The Little Minister , which is based on the play of the same name by the renowned playwright JM Barrie . During the First World War , May Whitty et al. a. troop support. At the age of 53, she received the Order of the British Empire in 1918 in recognition of her charitable and artistic work .

After the silent film Colonel Newcombe, the Perfect Gentleman (1920) by Fred Goodwins , May Whitty concentrated more on her theater career in the 1920s. From the 1930s, the British actress celebrated great success on New York's Broadway. After a supporting role in John Van Druten's drama There's Always Juliet (1932), she appeared from 1936 in the play Night Must Fall at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. The part of the quarrelsome invalid Mrs. Bramson , who succumbs to the charms of a seedy young man, Whitty also played in 1937 in the film version of the same name by Richard Thorpe . For her debut in talkies and her first American film, she received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards in 1938 (official counting 1937) , but had to admit defeat to the American Alice Brady (Chicago) . After that, May Whitty devoted himself to film work on both sides of the Atlantic. She was often cast in the role of the imperious or warm-hearted aristocrat, but she also mimed women from the British working class, as in George B. Seitz 'drama The Thirteenth Chair (1937), in which she was seen as an inelegant, false medium .

Whitty played one of her best-known roles in 1938, directed by Alfred Hitchcock . In the crime comedy A Lady Disappears , she can be seen in the title role of the amiable Miss Froy , who disappears without a trace during a train ride with a young English woman. A year later she moved to the USA and played roles in Hollywood from then on. In 1943, May Whitty received another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lady Beldon in William Wyler's war drama Mrs. Miniver . However, the film award was awarded to her film colleague Teresa Wright . May Whitty, who starred alongside well-known screen stars such as Ingrid Bergman , Charles Boyer , Joan Fontaine , Greta Garbo , Greer Garson , Cary Grant , Maureen O'Hara and Lana Turner , was also an active member of the 1940s Hollywood community. In addition to her work in theater and film, she has also appeared on radio shows such as Suspense , Screen Guild Theater and The Frank Sinatra Show . In 1945, due to her international fame, she starred in the theatrical performance of Night Must Fall in Gregory Peck , Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer's newly founded La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego .

From 1892 until his death, May Whitty was married to Ben Webster (1864-1947), a London theater producer and actor, with whom she was suspected in Enoch Arden , again under Hitchcock's direction (1941) or in the Lassie film Heimweh (1943 ) also acted together in front of the camera. The only child born from the marriage was Margaret Webster (1905–1972), a British-American actress and playwright. Whitty, who once even claimed to be: "I got everything Betty Grable has - only, I have had it longer" (original sound: "I've got everything Betty Grable has - only I've had it longer ") , Died of cancer shortly after finishing filming of John Sturge's drama The Sign of the Ram at the age of 82 . In 1969 Margaret Webster published her mother's biography under the title The Same Only Different .

Filmography (selection)

Plays (selection)

  • 1908: Irene Wycherley
  • 1932: There's Always Juliet
  • 1936: Night Must Fall
  • 1938: Yr. Obedient Husband
  • 1940: Romeo and Juliet
  • 1941: The Trojan Women
  • 1945: Therese

Awards

literature

  • Webster, Margaret: The same only different: five generations of a great theater family . Knopf, New York 1969 (English edition)
  • Johns, Eric: Dames of the theater . Arlington House, New Rochelle (NY), 1975. ISBN 0-87000-310-0 (English edition)

Web links

Commons : May Whitty  - Collection of Images
personal data
SURNAME Whitty, May
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Whitty, Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress
DATE OF BIRTH June 19, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Liverpool , England , UK
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1948
Place of death Beverly Hills , Los Angeles , California , United States