Flora Robson

Flora Robson
as Elizabeth I of England in Fire Over England (1937)
Born	Flora McKenzie Robson 28 March 1902(1902-03-28) South Shields, County Durham), England
Died	7 July 1984(1984-07-07) (aged 82) Brighton, Sussex, England
Years active	1931–1981
Spouse	none

Dame Flora McKenzie Robson DBE (28 March 1902 – 7 July 1984) was an English actress, renowned as a character actress, who played roles ranging from queens to villainesses.

Early life

She was born in South Shields, County Durham^[1] of Scottish descent. Many of her forebears were engineers, mostly in shipping. Her father was a ship's engineer who moved from Wallsend to Palmers Green in 1907 and Southgate in 1910 and later Welwyn Garden City. She had six siblings.

She was educated at the Palmers Green High School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Her father discovered that Flora had a talent for recitation and, from the age of five, she was taken around by horse and carriage to recite, and to compete in recitations. This established a pattern that remained with her.

Robson made her stage debut in 1921, at aged 19. Standing 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m), but lacking the glamorous looks of a leading lady (with her high forehead, wide mouth and imposing nose), she specialised in character roles, notably that of Queen Elizabeth I in both Fire Over England (1937) and The Sea Hawk (1940). At the age of 32, Robson played the Empress Elizabeth in Alexander Korda's Catherine the Great (1934). She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Ingrid Bergman's servant in Saratoga Trunk (1945). That same year audiences in the U.K. and the U.S. watched her hypnotic performance as nursemaid and royal confidante Ftatateeta, to Vivien Leigh's Queen Cleopatra, in the screen adaptation of George Bernhard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra (1945).

After the war, demonstrating her range, she appeared in Holiday Camp (1947), the first of a series of films which featured the very ordinary Huggett family; as Sister Philippa in Black Narcissus (1947); as a magistrate in Goodtime Girl (1948); as a prospective Labour MP in Frieda (1947); and in costume melodrama, Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948). Her other film roles included the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1972), Livia in the abortively-attempted I, Claudius (1937), Miss Milchrest in Murder at the Gallop (1963).

She acted late into life, latterly for American television films, including a lavish production of A Tale of Two Cities (in which she played Miss Pross). She also gave performances for British television, including The Shrimp and the Anemone. She also continued to act in the West End, in such plays as Ring Round the Moon, The Importance of Being Earnest and Three Sisters.

Robson essentially retired from the theatre in the early 1970s, her last role being as a Stygian Witch in the fantasy adventure Clash of the Titans in 1981. Both the BBC and ITV made special programmes to celebrate her 80th birthday in 1982 and the BBC ran a short season of her best films.

Honours

She was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1952, and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1960, an award which was partly for her charity work, largely unnoticed, which she carried on until her death, often for small and rather obscure charities rather than the grand ones which would have given her more publicity. She was also the first famous name to become President of the Brighton Little Theatre. She had a street named after her, Dame Flora Robson Avenue, in Simonside, South Shields, England.

On 4 July 1958, she received an honorary DLitt from Durham University at a congregation in Durham Castle.

Personal life and death

Her private life was largely focused on her large family of sisters, nephews and nieces, who used the home in Wykeham Terrace, Brighton, which she shared with sisters, Margaret and Shela.

She died in Brighton, possibly from cancer, aged 82, although the exact cause was never revealed. She had never married or had children. The two sisters, with whom she shared her life and home, died around the same time: Shela shortly before Flora (in 1984) and Margaret (on 1 February 1985).

Legacies

Dame Flora Robson Avenue, built in 1962, in Simonside, South Shields is named after her. There is a plaque on their house in Wykeham Terrace, Dyke Road, Brighton, and also one in the doorway of St. Nicholas's Church, just up the hill from their house and of which Flora Robson was a great supporter.

There is also a plaque to commemorate the opening of the Prince Charles Theatre (Leicester Square, London) by Flora Robson.

In 1996, the British Film Institute erected a plaque at number 14 Marine Gardens, location of Flora's other home in Brighton, where she lived from 1961 to 1976.

A plaque at 40 Handside Lane in Welwyn Garden City records Flora Robson living there from 1923 to 1925.

A blue plaque sponsored by Southgate District Civic Trust and Palmers Green High School was unveiled at Flora Robson's family home from 1910 to 1921, The Lawe, 65, The Mall, Southgate on 25 April 2010.

Partial filmography

References

External links

Biography portal

• Flora Robson at the Internet Movie Database
• Flora Robson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Flora Robson performances in the Theatre Archive, University of Bristol