May Robson

Mary Jeanette Robison (19 April 1858 – 20 October 1942), known professionally as May Robson, was an Australian-born America-based actress whose career spanned 58 years, starting in 1883 when she was 25. A major stage actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, she is remembered for the dozens of films she appeared in during the 1930s, when she was in her 70s.

Robson was the earliest-born person, and the first Australian to be nominated for an Academy Award (for her leading role in Lady for a Day in 1933).

Early life

Mary Jeanette Robison was born 19 April 1858 in Moama, (The obituary for Robson in the Berkshire Evening Eagle and Billboard Magazine, but the family was living in Moama, New South Wales at the time of her birth.) She was the fourth child of Julia, née Schlesinger (or Schelesinger) and Henry Robison;

Henry Robison was born in Penrith, Cumberland, England He retired at half-pay due to his poor health By April 1855, he 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 health. The hotel was Robson's first home. (Nissen states that Robson was seven when her father died, Julia, Walter and the four children moved to Melbourne in 1866.)

In 1870, the family moved to London. They traveled on the steamer SS Vaderland and arrived in New York City on 17 May 1877. They 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." He died in the early 1880s. leaving only Edward Hyde Leveson Gore.

Six years after beginning her stage career, Robson married Augustus Homer Brown, a police surgeon, on 29 May 1889. They were together until his death on 1 April 1920. Robson's son, Edward Gore, was her business manager. Her name was misspelled "Robson" in the billing, and she used it 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 due partly to her affiliation with powerful manager and producer Charles Frohman and the Theatrical Syndicate. She established her own touring theatrical company in 1911. which was probably her first feature film and starred in the 1916 silent film A Night Out, an adaptation of the play she co-wrote, The Three Lights. She picked up another film role in 1916, appearing in the Marguerite Clark version of Snow White, and in 1919, made a guest appearance in the Jack Pickford In Wrong. Respected and firmly established in the theatre, Robson's fame and recognition allowed her to appear in films uncredited. As so many silent films are missing or lost, she may have appeared in many more.

In 1927, she went to Hollywood, where she began a successful film career as a senior woman, often in comedic roles and nearly rivaling her longtime friend Marie Dressler. Among her starring roles was in The She-Wolf (1931) as a miserly millionaire businesswoman, based on 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 receives a $1,000,000 check from 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). She was top-billed as late as 1940, starring in Granny Get Your Gun at 82. Her last film was 1942's Joan of Paris.

Academy Award nomination In 1934, at age 75, Robson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Lady for a Day, but lost to Katharine Hepburn.

Robson was the first Australian to be nominated for an acting Oscar, and for many years was also the oldest performer nominated.

Death Robson died in 1942 at her Beverly Hills, California, home at age 84. In her obituary, the Nevada State Journal said that she died of "a combination of ailments, aggravated by neuritis and advanced age." (She was critically ill for three weeks before her death and in ill health for months before.) and buried at the Flushing Cemetery in Queens, New York, next to those of her second husband, Augustus Brown.

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) The Billionaire (1902) Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1904) Cousin Billy (1905–1907) The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary (1907) The Three Lights (A Night Out) (1911)

Filmography

Silent Year Film Role Notes1906 The Terrible Kids Short1907 Getting Evidence Short1915 How Molly Made Good Herself 1916 A Night Out Granmum Snow White Hex Witch Replaced originally scheduled Alice Washburn 1919 In Wrong Woman visiting store Uncredited1920 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Prostitute outside of music hall Uncredited1926 Pals in Paradise Esther Lezinsky 1927 Rubber Tires Mrs. Stack The King of Kings Mother of Gestas The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary Aunt Mary Watkins The Angel of Broadway Big Bertha A Harp in Hock Mrs. Banks Turkish Delight Tsakran Chicago Mrs. Morton - Matron 1928 The Blue Danube

Sound Year Film Role Notes1931 The She-Wolf Harriet Breen 1932 Letty Lynton Mrs. Lynton, Letty's Mother Red-Headed Woman Aunt Jane Strange Interlude Mrs. Evans Little Orphan Annie Mrs. Stewart If I Had a Million Mrs. Mary Walker 1933 Men Must Fight Maman Seward The White Sister Mother Superior Reunion in Vienna Frau Lucher Dinner at Eight Mrs. Wendel, the cook One Man's Journey Sarah Broadway to Hollywood Veteran Actress Beauty for Sale Mrs. Merrick Lady for a Day Apple Annie Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress The Solitaire Man Mrs. Vail Dancing Lady Dolly Todhunter Alice in Wonderland Queen of Hearts 1934 You Can't Buy Everything Mrs. Hannah Bell Straight Is the Way Mrs. Horowitz Lady by Choice Patricia Patterson Mills of the Gods Mary Hastings 1935 Grand Old Girl Laura Bayles Vanessa: Her Love Story Madame Judith Paris Reckless Granny Strangers All Anna Carter Age of Indiscretion Emma Shaw Anna Karenina Countess Vronsky Three Kids and a Queen Mary Jane 'Queenie' Baxter 1936 Wife vs. Secretary Mimi Stanhope The Captain's Kid Aunt Marcia Prentiss Rainbow on the River Mrs. Harriet Ainsworth 1937 Woman in DistressPhoebe Tuttle A Star Is Born Grandmother Lettie Blodgett The Perfect Specimen Mrs. Leona Wicks 1938 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Aunt Polly Bringing Up BabyAunt Elizabeth Four Daughters Aunt Etta The Texans Granna 1939 They Made Me a Criminal Grandma Yes, My Darling Daughter 'Granny' Whitman The Kid from Kokomo Margaret 'Maggie' / 'Ma' Manell Daughters Courageous Penny, the Housekeeper Nurse Edith Cavell Mme. Rappard That's Right—You're Wrong Grandma Four Wives Aunt Etta 1940 Granny Get Your Gun Minerva Hatton Irene Granny O'Dare Texas Rangers Ride Again Cecilia Dangerfield 1941 Four Mothers Aunt Etta Million Dollar Baby Cornelia Wheelwright Playmates Grandma Kyser 1942 Joan of Paris Mlle. RosayFinal film role