Actors - May Robson

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	Actors - May Robson

May Robson (April 19, 1858 - October 20, 1942) was an Australian-born actress and playwright.

Stage Career

A major stage actress of the late 19th and early 20th century, Robson is best known today for the dozens of 1930's motion pictures she appeared in when she was well into her seventies usually playing cross old ladies with hearts of gold. Born Mary Jeannette Robinson in Melbourne, Australia, she starred in the movie version of the play she wrote, A Night Out
, in 1915.

Career

She made several silent films, then successfully transitioned to talkies. She made 45 films during the 1930s, taking such roles as The Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1933 movie), Countess Vronsky in Anna Karenina (1935 film), Aunt Elizabeth in Bringing Up Baby, Aunt Polly in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and was at her sharp-tongued best as Granny in A Star is Born (1937 film).

Generally a featured actress in films, the seventyish Robson also starred in over a dozen during this period and in 1933 she was nominated at age 75 for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Lady for a Day
. Of all actors ever nominated for Academy Awards, Robson has the earliest birthdate and for many years held the record for the oldest performer nominated for an Oscar. The actress was top billed as late as 1940, starring in Granny Get Your Gun at age 82.

She died at the age of 84 of natural causes, still making movies in her final year, and was buried in Cypress Hills, Queens, New York.

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