An Actress with Character…
May Robson…. |
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Mary Jeanette Robison had no intention of becoming an actress!
This endearing star was born on April 19, 1858 in Melbourne, Australia and came to this country in her late teens after being educated in Europe. But she learned that life’s highway has a few hidden curves. She married British inventor Edward Gore at 22, became a mother by 23 and was a widow with 3 small children at 25.
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May in 1916 |
....in later years. |
So the plucky gal put her creative hands to work making clothes and designing jewelry to earn enough money to feed her little family. She was living in New York City when her husband died so Mary found most of her clients in the Broadway theatrical community. It wasn’t long before they began to encourage and even prod her to look to acting as a career and, in 1888, she upstaged them all when she made her stage debut in the Broadway production of “Partners”. Her name change was the result of a misprint on a theater program but she decided to keep it that way.
 May and Blanche in "If I Had A Million" 1932 |
A year later, May remarried but her career on Broadway went on for another 23 years. Then her children grown, May turned her attention to the silver screen. She made her silent film debut in 1916 as Granmum in “A Night Out”. It was the screen version of an original play, one May had written herself, and it gave her the added status of playwright as well as respected character actress.
But sadly she found herself a widow again when her husband of 33 years, A. H. Brown died in 1922.
 May and Helen Hayes in "The White Sister" 1933 |
After making 8 silent films from 1915 to 1928 May made her first ‘talkie’ in 1931 titled “She Wolf”. It was the beginning of a very busy decade. She made 45 films in the 1930s alone. One film in particular caught the attention of critics. It was “If I Had a Million” in 1932, an 8-story anthology bound together by the events surrounding a supposedly dying millionaire out to fox his greedy heirs by giving away his fortune to strangers. The last segment, considered the most touching one, starred May as a rebellious inmate of a home for old convicts. Constantly bullied by the matron (Blanche Federici), May uses her bonanza to buy the home and convert it into a luxury resort where the matron was paid to sit and watch the festivities.
 ....with Jean Parker in "Lady For A Day" 1933 |
May had a banner year in 1933 with 11 films released by years end. Time said of her “May Robson will soon be one of the small company of actresses who have become Hollywood stars not because they are handsome but because, in a lifetime of practice, they have learned to act.” She was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Apple Annie in Frank Capra’s “Lady for a Day” but lost to Kate Hepburn’s “Morning Glory”. She was the first Australian-born actor ever to be nominated for an acting award and also, at 75, the oldest to date. Capra remade that film in 1961 as “A Pocketful of Miracles” with Bette Davis as Apple Annie.
 ....with Errol Flynn and Joan Blondell in "Perfect Specimen" |
May continued in films into the 1940s., playing dowagers, grand dames and grandmothers in both starring and supporting roles. She starred in “Granny, Get Your Gun” in 1940 at the age of 82. Her last film was “Joan of Paris” in 1942 starring Paul Henreid, Michelle Morgan and Alan Ladd in the bit part that made him a star.
 ...with Paul Henried in "Joan of Paris" 1942 |
May Robson died later that same year on October 20th, 1942 in Beverly Hills from natural causes. She was 84 years old and left a legacy of over 63 films, all of them memorable. May is buried next to her husband Augustus Homer Brown in Flushing Cemetery in Queens, New York. The name on the stone is Mary Jeanette Brown.
 Her grave in Flushing Cemetery |