May Robson

File:May Robson - DPLA - 4c35bb41416f5a1f7a58cab5c55bb0fb (page 1).jpg

Mary Jeanette Robison was born 19 April 1858 at Moama,{{efn|The obituary for Robson in the Berkshire Evening Eagle and Billboard Magazine, as well as the summary of her life at the Library of Congress, stated that she was born in Melbourne, Victoria,{{cite web | url=http://rs5.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2013/ms013070.pdf |title=May Robson Papers: A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress|website=Library of Congress| access-date=11 November 2016 }} but the family was living in Moama, New South Wales at the time of her birth.}} in the Colony of New South Wales,{{efn|At the time, New South Wales (NSW) was a self-governing colony of Britain; Australia did not officially exist until the federation of six separate British colonies, in 1901.}} in what she described as "the Australian bush".{{cite journal|last1=Robson|first1=May|title=My Beginnings|journal=The Theatre|date=November 1907|volume=7|issue=81|pages=305–310|url=https://archive.org/details/theatremagazine07newyuoft|access-date=1 June 2015}} She was the fourth child of Julia, née Schlesinger (or Schelesinger) and Henry Robison;{{cite journal|title=May Robson, Stage, Screen Star, Is Dead: Character Actress Began Long Career in 1883|journal=Berkshire Evening Eagle|location=Pittsfield, Berkshire, Massachusetts|date=October 20, 1942|page=1}} her siblings were Williams, James and Adelaide.{{cite news | url=http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/a-town-like-moama/news-story/da525f3d5e74360f75b7c3cce4cd385a | title=A Town like Moama | website=The Daily Telegraph | date=15 January 2016 | author=Marea Donnelly, History Writer| access-date=12 November 2016 }}

Henry Robison 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.{{citation | title=Henry Robison, Master's Certificate of Service, Number 52.653, Liverpool | publisher=Registrar General of Seamen, London | date=21 February 1853 }} He retired at half-pay due to his poor health and travelled with Julia Robison to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1853 on the SS Great Britain.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28644897 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |volume=XXXIV |issue=5128 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=27 October 1853 |access-date=28 October 2016 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}} By April 1855, he was a watchmaker, jeweller, silversmith and ornamental hairworker in Melbourne.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154898394 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Age |volume=I |issue=163 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=27 April 1855 |access-date=28 October 2016 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} According to Robson, her parents both suffered from phthisis pulmonalis, and moved to "the bush" for their health. 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 & Stivens, coach proprietors for the Bendigo-Moama-Deniliquin service.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87986545 |title=Advertising |newspaper=Bendigo Advertiser |volume=VI |issue=1145 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=25 January 1859 |access-date=28 October 2016 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} The hotel was Robson's first home. Henry died in Moama Maiden's Punt on 27 January 1860.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87941411 |title=Family Notices - Henry Robison |newspaper=Bendigo Advertiser |volume=VII |issue=1463 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=1 February 1860 |access-date=28 October 2016 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia |quote= On the 27th ult., in his 49th year, at his residence, Prince of Wales Hotel, Maiden's Punt, Murray River, New South Wales, Henry Robison (of the firm of Robison and Stivens), late of Bourke-street, Melbourne, deeply regretted by a large circle of friends, leaving a wife and four children to lament their loss."}}{{efn|Nissen states that Robson was seven when her father died, but her father died in 1860 and she was born in 1858. Robson says in her biography for Theatre Magazine that she was three months old when her father died.}}

On 19 November 1862, Julia married Walter Moore Miller, solicitor and mayor of Albury, New South Wales, at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article6481376 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=5,139 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=24 November 1862 |access-date=28 October 2016 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} Julia, Walter and the four children moved to Melbourne in 1866. Miller was a partner with De Courcy Ireland in the firm of Miller & Ireland in Melbourne in November 1867, and until 20 January 1870, when it was mutually dissolved.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5811121 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=7,377 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=31 January 1870 |access-date=28 October 2016 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}

In 1870, the family moved to London.{{efn|Nissen says that the family moved to London when Robson was seven.}} Robson attended Sacred Heart Convent School at Highgate in north London and studied languages in Brussels. She went to Paris for her examinations in French. According to her obituary, she was also educated in Australia.

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.{{cite news | title=Marriages | newspaper=The Times | location=London, England | date=5 November 1875 | issue=28465 | page=1 }}{{efn|Although Robson said that she was 16 when she married, she was 17 years-of-age, based upon her date of birth, when she married Charles Gore. Her husband's name has been said to be Charles Leveson Gore,{{cite book|author=Jones, Jan|title=Renegades, Showmen & Angels: A Theatrical History of Fort Worth, 1873-2001|publisher=Texas A & M University Press|pages=37–38|isbn=0-87565-318-9|year=2006}} Charles Livingston Gore, Edward H. Gore,{{cite book|author1=Alison McKay|author2=Bayside Historical Society|title=Bayside|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q04jD4bfvakC&pg=PT132|date=August 4, 2008|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-4396-2027-4|page=132}} and E. H. Gore.{{cite news | url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1942/10/21/page/20/article/may-robson-78-film-and-stage-actress-is-dead | title=May Robson, 78, film and stage actress is dead | newspaper=Chicago Tribune | date=21 October 1942 | access-date=12 November 2016 }}}} They traveled on the steamer SS Vaderland and arrived in New York 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." They moved to New York City with little money and Robson said that Gore died shortly thereafter.{{efn| According to Jan Jones, when Gore wanted to return to England, Robson decided that she wanted to stay in New York and the couple divorced. Gore returned to London.{{cite book|author=Jan Jones|title=Renegades, Showmen & Angels: A Theatrical History of Fort Worth from 1873-2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=roHkr0fNxTwC&pg=PA38|year=2006|publisher=TCU Press|isbn=978-0-87565-318-1|page=38}} He died in the early 1880s.}}

Robson supported her children by crocheting hoods and embroidery, designing dinner cards, and teaching painting.{{cite book|title=Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties|author=Nissen, Axel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IbpwDl1nt0MC&pg=PA185|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|page=185|isbn=978-0-7864-2746-8|year=2007}} By the time she began her acting career in 1883, two of her three children had died from illnesses,{{cite journal|title=Two Brilliant Women, They are Both Bright Ornaments of the Stage: Viola Allen and May Robson|journal=The Olean Democrat|location=Olean, New York|date=November 29, 1892|page=6}}{{efn|Robson says that the children both died of scarlet fever. Axel Nissen states the causes of death as diphtheria and scarlet fever.{{cite book|author=Axel Nissen|title=Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IbpwDl1nt0MC&pg=PA189|year=2007|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-2746-8|page=189}} Who's Who on the stage states that the children's death came about as the result of poverty (i.e., not a specific cause of death, but an influencing factor).{{cite book|author1=Walter Browne|author2=Fredrick Arnold Austin|title=Who's who on the stage; the dramatic reference book and biographic al dictionary of the theatre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xIoXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA191|year=1906|publisher=W. Browne & F. A. Austin|page=191}}}} leaving only Edward Hyde Leveson Gore.{{cite book|author=Alison McKay|title=Bayside|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q04jD4bfvakC&pg=PA96|date=July 30, 2008|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-4396-2027-4|page=96}}{{efn|Her son, whose full name was Edward Hyde Leveson Gore, was born on December 2, 1876{{cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/2XDG-BGT|title=England and Wales, Birth Registration Index, 1837–1920|publisher=FamilySearch|access-date=July 4, 2014}} and died September 23, 1954{{cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VP75-3CF|title=California, Death Index, 1940–1997|publisher=FamilySearch|access-date=July 4, 2014}} Her son Edward and daughter-in-law were alive at the time of his mother's death. They had a son, Robson Gore.{{cite magazine|title=May Robson|magazine=Billboard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FwwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT26|date=October 31, 1942|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|page=27|issn=0006-2510}}}}

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.{{cite book|title=Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol 2|author1=Edward T. James |author2=Janet Wilson James |author3=Paul S. Boyer |year=1971|publisher=Radcliffe College|page=185|isbn=0-674-62734-2}}{{cite book|title=New York State journal of medicine, Volume 20|author=New York State Medical Association, Medical Society of the State of New York|year=1920|page=170|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mrhYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA170}} Robson's son, Edward Gore, was her business manager.{{cite journal|title=May Robson, Stage, Screen Star, Is Dead: Character Actress Began Long Career in 1883|journal=Berkshire Evening Eagle|location=Pittsfield, Berkshire, Massachusetts|date=October 20, 1942|page=1}}

File:May Robson.tif

File:Lady-for-a-Day-William-Robson.jpg and May Robson in Lady for a Day (1933)]]

File:May Robson in A Star is Born.jpg (1937)]]

File:May Robson in Four Daughters trailer.jpg (1938)]]

On 17 September 1883, Robison became an actress in Hoop of Gold at the Brooklyn Grand Opera House stage.{{cite book|author=George Clinton Densmore Odell|title=Annals of the New York Stage|year=1940|publisher=Columbia University Press|page=364}} Her name was misspelled "Robson" in the billing, and she used it from that point forward "for good luck".{{cite book|title=Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties|author=Nissen, Axel|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|pages=184–185|isbn=978-0-7864-2746-8|year=2007}} 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.

Robson's initial appearances in film date back as early as 1903 or 1904 with uncredited roles in Edison short film productions. She appeared as herself in a cameo in the 1915 silent film How Molly Made Good;{{cite book|editor=Grey Smith and James L. Halperin |title=Heritage Vintage Movie Posters Signature Auction #603|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BRneNDY2oeIC&pg=PA3|publisher=Heritage Capital Corporation|isbn=978-1-932899-15-3|page=3}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/498973/a-night-out|title=Screenplay Info for A Night Out (1916)|publisher=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=June 1, 2008}} 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 long time friend Marie Dressler.{{cite book|title=Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties|author=Nissen, Axel|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|page=3|isbn=978-0-7864-2746-8|year=2007}} Among her starring roles was in The She-Wolf (1931) as a miserly millionaire businesswoman, based on real-life miser Hetty Green.{{cite book|title=A Who's Who of Australian and New Zealand Film Actors: The Sound Era|author=Palmer, Scott|year=1988|page=[https://archive.org/details/whoswhoofaustral0000palm/page/142 142]|publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-2090-0|url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoofaustral0000palm/page/142}}{{cite journal|journal=The New York Times|title=The She-Wolf (1931)| author=Hall, Mordaunt|date=May 28, 1931|access-date=August 3, 2012|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9807E4DA153AEE3ABC4051DFB366838A629EDE }}

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.{{cite journal|journal=The New York Times|title=If I Had a Million (1932)|author=Hall, Mordaunt|date=December 3, 1932|access-date=August 3, 2012|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9901E1DE1F31E333A25750C0A9649D946394D6CF }} 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.{{cite book|title=American Classic Screen Features|editor=John C. Tibbetts, James M. Welsh|publisher = Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham, Maryland|year=2010|page=253|isbn=978-0-81087678-1}}{{cite book|title=Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties|author=Nissen, Axel|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|pages=3, 187–8|isbn=978-0-7864-2746-8|year=2007}}

In 1933, at age 75, Robson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Lady for a Day, but lost to Katharine Hepburn. Both actresses appeared in the Hepburn–Grant classic Bringing Up Baby (1938).{{cite book|author=Leonard Maltin|title=Leonard Maltin's 2010 Movie Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WRGnKhowF4gC&pg=PT425|date=August 4, 2009|publisher=Penguin Group US|isbn=978-1-101-10876-5|page=425}}

Robson was the first Australian to be nominated for an acting Oscar, and, for many years, was also the oldest performer nominated.{{cite book|title=Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties|author=Nissen, Axel|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|pages=3, 187|isbn=978-0-7864-2746-8|year=2007}}{{cite book|title=Katharine Hepburn: A Remarkable Woman|author=Edwards, Anne|year=2000|orig-year=1985|page=456|publisher=St. Martin's Press|location=New York|isbn=0-312-20656-9}}

Robson died in 1942 at her Beverly Hills, California, home at age 84.{{cite book|author1=Edward T. James|author2=Janet Wilson James|author3=Paul S. Boyer|title=Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary|url=https://archive.org/details/notableamericanw02jame_0|url-access=registration|date=January 1, 1971|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-62734-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/notableamericanw02jame_0/page/185 185]}} In its obituary, the Nevada State Journal said that she died of "a combination of ailments, aggravated by neuritis and advanced age."{{cite journal|title=Hollywood's Oldest Film Queen Dies; May Robson's Age is Revealed as 78|journal=Nevada State Journal|location=Reno, Nevada|date=October 21, 1942}}{{efn|She was critically ill for three weeks before her death and in ill health for months before. A biographical sketch of Robson in the Notable American Women, 1607–1950 stated that she died of cancer.}} Her remains were cremated{{cite journal|title=Robson Burial Services Set|journal=Reno Evening Gazette|location=Reno, Nevada|date=October 22, 1942|page=5}} and buried at the Flushing Cemetery in Queens, New York, next to those of her second husband, Augustus Brown.

The New York Times called Robson the "dowager queen of the American screen and stage".

The following is a partial list of her stage performances:{{cite book|title=A History of the New York Stage from the First Performance in 1732 to 1901, Volume 3|url=https://archive.org/details/ldpd_6864656_003|author=Brown, Thomas Allston|publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company|location=New York|pages=42, 63, 180, 217, 263, 265, 267, 349, 352, 366, 425–6, 427, 429, 431, 439, 523, 533, 536, 538|year=1903}}

{{Div col}}

• 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)

{{div col end}}

{{Portal|Biography}}

• List of Australian Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees

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{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|author=Margherita Arlina Hamm|title=Eminent Actors in Their Homes: Personal Descriptions and Interviews|chapter=May Robson|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CwIOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA115|year=1909|publisher=J. Pott|pages=115–124}}

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• {{IMDb name|0733480}}
• {{IBDB name}}
• {{Find a Grave|7259972}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Robson, May}}

Category:1858 births

Category:1942 deaths

Category:Australian film actresses

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:Australian silent film actresses

Category:20th-century Australian actresses

Category:Australian stage actresses

Category:Actresses from Melbourne

Category:Australian expatriate actresses in the United States

Category:Burials at Flushing Cemetery

Category:19th-century Australian actresses

Category:Colony of New South Wales people

Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players

Category:Warner Bros. contract players

Category:RKO Pictures contract players