May Robson

**May Robson** (*born Mary Jeanette Robison*) was an Australian‑born actress whose career spanned nearly six decades, beginning on the American stage in 1883 when she was twenty‑five and continuing in Hollywood well into her eighties. Born on 19 April 1858 in the bush town of Moama, New South Wales, she was the fourth child of Julia Schlesinger and Henry Robison, a former British sea captain turned watchmaker and hotelier. After a peripatetic childhood that took her from Melbourne to London and Brussels, she married Charles Leveson Gore in 1875, emigrated to the United States, and attempted cattle ranching in Texas before returning to New York, where she supported her three children by crocheting and teaching painting while launching her stage career.

Robson quickly became a respected comic and character actress, benefitting from the patronage of manager Charles Frohman and forming her own touring company in 1911. She transitioned to film in the silent era, appearing uncredited in Edison shorts and later starring in features such as *A Night Out* (1916) and *Snow White* (1916). The move to Hollywood in 1927 marked the most prolific period of her screen work; she delivered memorable performances as the miserly millionaire in *The She‑Wolf* (1931), the Queen of Hearts in *Alice in Wonderland* (1933), and the sharp‑tongued Granny in *A Star Is Born* (1937). At age 75 she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for *Lady for a Day*, becoming the first Australian nominee and, for many years, the oldest performer ever nominated. She remained active until her final film, *Joan of Paris* (1942), and died on 20 October 1942 in Beverly Hills, leaving a legacy as the “dowager queen of the American screen and stage.”