May Whitty facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
May Whitty
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Mary Louise Whitty
19 June 1865 Liverpool, Lancashire, England
|
| Died | 29 May 1948 (aged 82) |
| Occupation | stage and screen Actress |
| Years active | 1881–1948 |
| Spouse(s) |
Ben Webster
(m. 1892; died 1947) |
| Children | 2, including Margaret |
Dame Mary Louise Webster, known as May Whitty, was a famous English actress. She was born on June 19, 1865, and passed away on May 29, 1948. She was one of the very first women in entertainment to be given the special title of "Dame." This is a high honor, like being a "Sir" for men. May Whitty had a long and successful career on stage and later in Hollywood movies.
Contents
Early Life and Stage Career
May Whitty was born in Liverpool, England. Her father, William Alfred Whitty, owned a newspaper. Her grandfather, Michael James Whitty, was a police chief and started the Liverpool Daily Post newspaper.
May Whitty started acting on stage in Liverpool in 1881. She then moved to London to perform in the famous West End. In 1892, she married another actor, Ben Webster.
In 1895, May and Ben visited the United States. May performed on Broadway, which is New York City's famous theater district. They had a son who sadly died at birth. Their only other child, a daughter named Margaret Webster, was born in New York in 1905. Margaret also became a successful theater producer.
May Whitty continued her acting career for her whole life. In 1910, she started playing older characters. During World War I, she helped organize the Women's Emergency Corps. She also performed for important people, like the Queen, in plays such as Pride and Prejudice. Her husband, Ben Webster, often acted alongside her.
Special Honor
In 1918, May Whitty received a very special award. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). This was to recognize her amazing charity work during World War I. She helped with funds for women's employment and British hospitals. She was one of the first two actresses ever to receive this honor, along with opera singer Nellie Melba.
Hollywood Films
When May Whitty was 72 years old, she started acting in Hollywood films. Her first big movie role was in Night Must Fall (1937). She had played this role on stage before. For this movie, she was even nominated for an Oscar!
This led to many more movie roles. She became known for playing characters like the mysterious Miss Froy in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938).
In 1939, May Whitty moved to the United States permanently. She continued to act in both plays and movies. She often played wealthy older women. One of her most famous movie roles was Lady Beldon in Mrs. Miniver (1942). For this role, she received her second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
May Whitty kept acting until the end of her life. She passed away on May 29, 1948, in Beverly Hills, California, from cancer. She was 82 years old. Her husband, Ben, had passed away the year before. There is a special plaque in London that remembers her and her husband.
Filmography
- Enoch Arden (1914) as Miriam Lane
- The Little Minister (1915) as Nanny Webster
- Colonel Newcombe, the Perfect Gentleman (1920) as Mrs. Mackenzie
- Keep Your Seats Please (1936) as Aunt Georgina Withers
- Night Must Fall (1937) as Mrs. Bramson
- Conquest (1937) as Maria Letizia Buonaparte
- I Met My Love Again (1938) as Aunt William
- The Lady Vanishes (1938) as Miss Froy
- Raffles (1939) as Lady Melrose
- Return to Yesterday (1940) as Mrs. Truscott
- A Bill of Divorcement (1940) as Aunt Hester Fairfield
- One Night in Lisbon (1941) as Florence
- Suspicion (1941) as Mrs. Martha McLaidlaw
- Mrs. Miniver (1942) as Lady Beldon
- Thunder Birds (1942) as Lady Jane Stackhouse
- Forever and a Day (1943) as Mrs. Lucy Trimble
- Slightly Dangerous (1943) as Baba
- Crash Dive (1943) as Grandmother
- The Constant Nymph (1943) as Lady Constance Longborough
- Stage Door Canteen (1943) as Herself
- Lassie Come Home (1943) as Dally
- Flesh and Fantasy (1943) as Lady Pamela Hardwick (Episode 2)
- Madame Curie (1943) as Madame Eugene Curie
- Gaslight (1944) as Miss Bessie Thwaites
- The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) as Nanny
- My Name Is Julia Ross (1945) as Mrs. Hughes
- Devotion (1946) as Lady Thornton
- Green Dolphin Street (1947) as Mother Superior
- This Time for Keeps (1947) as Grandmother Cambaretti
- If Winter Comes (1947) as Mrs. Perch
- The Sign of the Ram (1948) as Clara Brastock
- The Return of October (1948) as Aunt Martha Grant (final film role)
See also
In Spanish: May Whitty para niños
- List of actors with Academy Award nominations
Works consulted
- Casson, Lewis (2004). "Webster, Benjamin (1864–1947)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. DOI:10.1093/ref:odnb/36806.
- Gaye, Freda, ed. (1967). Who's Who in the Theatre (fourteenth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. OCLC 5997224.
- Nissen, Axel (2007). Actresses of a Certain Character: forty familiar Hollywood faces from the thirties to the fifties. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.. p. 209. ISBN 978-0786427468. https://books.google.com/books?id=IbpwDl1nt0MC.
- Parker, John, ed. (1922). Who's Who in the Theatre (fourth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. OCLC 473894893.
- Wearing, J.P. (1976). The London Stage, 1890–1899: a Calendar of Plays and Players. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810809109. https://archive.org/details/londonstage189010001wear.
- Wearing, J.P. (1981). The London Stage, 1900–1909: a Calendar of Plays and Players. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810814035.
- Wearing, J.P. (1982). The London Stage, 1910–1919: a Calendar of Plays and Players. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810815964.
- Wearing, J.P. (1984). The London Stage, 1920–1929: a Calendar of Plays and Players. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810817159.
- Wearing, J.P. (1990). The London Stage, 1930–1939: a Calendar of Plays and Players. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810823495.
