Flora Robson

DBE
Robson in a 1940s studio publicity shot
Born	Flora McKenzie Robson (1902-03-28)28 March 1902 South Shields, County Durham, England
Died	7 July 1984(1984-07-07) (aged 82) Brighton, East Sussex, England
Alma mater	Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1921–1984

Dame Flora McKenzie Robson (28 March 1902 – 7 July 1984) was an English actress and star of the theatrical stage and cinema, particularly renowned for her performances in plays demanding dramatic and emotional intensity.^[1] Her range extended from queens to murderesses.^[2][3]

Flora McKenzie Robson was born on 28 March 1902 in South Shields, County Durham,^[4] daughter of David Robson (1864-1947) and Eliza Robson (nee McKenzie; 1870-1953) both of Scottish descent. She had six siblings.^[5] Many of her forebears were engineers, mostly in shipping.^[6] Her father was a ship's engineer who moved from Wallsend near Newcastle to Palmers Green in 1907 and Southgate in 1910, both in north London, and later to Welwyn Garden City.^[7]

She was educated at the Palmers Green High School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art,^[5] where she won a bronze medal in 1921.^[8]

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.^[6]

Robson made her stage debut in 1921.

She continued her acting career late into life, though not on the West End stage, from which she retired at the age of 67, often for American television films, including a lavish production of A Tale of Two Cities (in which she played Miss Pross).^[23] She also performed for British television, including The Shrimp and the Anemone.^[24] In the 1960s, she continued to act in the West End, in Ring Round the Moon, The Importance of Being Earnest and Three Sisters, among others.

She continued to act on film and television. She was last briefly seen as a Stygian Witch in the fantasy adventure Clash of the Titans in 1981.^[2] 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.

She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Angelique Buiton, a Haitian maid, in Saratoga Trunk (1945).^[25]

She was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1952 New Year Honours, and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in the 1960 Birthday Honours.^[26] She was also the first famous name to become president of the Brighton Little Theatre.^[27] She has a road named after her in her birthplace of South Shields.

On 4 July 1958, she received an honorary DLitt from Durham University at a congregation in Durham Castle.^[28]

Her private life was largely focused on her large family of sisters Margaret and Shela, and her nephews and nieces^{[citation needed]}.

She shared a home in Wykeham Terrace, Brighton with her sisters for 8 years before she died^[29] in Brighton, aged 82, in her sleep, of cancer.^[9][30] She was never married and had no children.^[9] The sisters died around the same time: Shela shortly before Flora, in 1984, and Margaret on 1 February 1985.^{[citation needed]}

Dame Flora Robson Avenue, built in 1962, in Simonside, South Shields, is named after her.^[31] There is a plaque on the house in Wykeham Terrace, Dyke Road, Brighton, and also one in the doorway of

There is also a plaque to commemorate the opening of the Prince Charles Cinema (Leicester Square, London) by Flora Robson.^[34]

In 1996, the British Film Institute erected a plaque at number 14 Marine Gardens, location of Flora Robson's other home in Brighton, where she lived from 1961 to 1976.^[35]

A plaque at 40 Handside Lane in Welwyn Garden City records Flora Robson living there from 1923 to 1925.^[36]

A blue plaque sponsored by Southgate District Civic Trust and Robson's former school Palmers Green High School was unveiled at her family home from 1910 to 1921, The Lawe, 65, The Mall, Southgate, on 25 April 2010.^[5]

Robson attended the opening of the Flora Robson Playhouse in Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 1962, which was named in her honour.^[37] The building was demolished in 1971 and the theatre company it housed relocated to the new University Theatre.^{[citation needed]}

• Queen Margaret in
  Will Shakespeare at the Shaftesbury Theatre
  , London, 1921
• Shakespearean repertory with Ben Greet's company, 1922
• JB Fagan's company at the Oxford Playhouse, 1923
• Two seasons at the Festival Theatre, Cambridge, 1929–30
• Abbey Putnam in Desire Under the Elms at the Gate Theatre, London, 1931
• Herodias in Salome at the Gate Theatre, London, 1931
• Mary Paterson in The Anatomist at the Westminster Theatre, London, 1931
• Stepdaughter in Six Characters in Search of an Author at the Westminster Theatre, London, 1932
• Bianca in
  St. James' Theatre
  , London, 1932
• Olwen Peel in Dangerous Corner at the Lyric Theatre, London, 1932
• Eva in For Services Rendered at the Globe Theatre, London, 1932
• Ella Downey in All God's Chillun Got Wings at the Embassy Theatre, Swiss Cottage, 1933
• A season at the
  Old Vic
  , London, 1933–34
• Mary Read in
  His Majesty's Theatre
  , London 1934
• Lady Catherine Brooke in
  St. Martin's Theatre
  , London, 1937
• Ellen Creed in
  Henry Miller's Theatre
  , New York, 1940
• Sarah, Duchess of Malborough in Anne of England at the St. James Theatre, New York, 1941
• Rhoda Meldrum in The Damask Cheek at the Playhouse Theatre, New York, 1942–43
• Thérèse Raquin in Guilty at the
  Lyric, Hammersmith
  , 1944
• Agnes Isit in A Man About the House at the Piccadilly Theatre, 1946
• Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at the National Theatre, New York, 1948
• Lady Cicely Waynflete in Captain Brassbound's Conversion at the Lyric, Hammersmith, 1948
• Christine in Black Chiffon, at the Westminster Theatre, 1949 and the 48th Street Theatre, New York, 1950
• Lady Catherine Brooke in Autumn at the Q Theatre, London, 1951
• Paulina in
  Phoenix Theatre
  , London, 1951
• The Return at the Duchess Theatre, London, 1953–54
• Janet in The House by the Lake at the Duke of York's Theatre, London, 1956
• Mrs Alving in Ghosts at the Old Vic, 1958–59 and the Prince's Theatre, London, 1959
• Miss Tina in The Aspern Papers at the Queen's Theatre, London, 1959 and on tour to South Africa, 1960
• Grace Rovarte in Time and Yellow Roses at the St. Martin's Theatre, London, 1961
• Miss Moffatt in
  The Corn is Green
  at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing, the Flora Robson Playhouse, Newcastle upon Tyne and on tour to South Africa, 1962
• Gunhild in John Gabriel Borkman at the Duchess Theatre, London, 1963
• Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Flora Robson Playhouse, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1964
• Hecuba in
  Edinburgh Festival
  , 1966
• Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 1968
• Mother in Ring Round the Moon at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 1968
• Agatha Payne in The Old Ladies at the Duchess Theatre, London, 1969
• Elizabeth I in Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England at the Edinburgh Festival, 1970

References

1. ^ League, The Broadway. "Flora Robson – Broadway Cast & Staff - IBDB". www.ibdb.com.
2. ^ ^{a b} "BFI Screenonline: Robson, Flora (1902-1984) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk.
3. ISBN 9781349099306
   – via Google Books.
4. ^ GRO Register of Births: JUN 1902 10a 829 S. SHIELDS – Flora McKenzie Robson
5. ^
   Enfield Independent
   . 27 April 2010.
6. ^ ^{a b} Chronicle, Evening (2 August 2012). "Chronicle's 100 Greatest Geordies: No's 95 to 91".
7. ^ ^{a b} "Google Groups". groups.google.com.
8. ISBN 9781135355333
   . Retrieved 27 September 2017.
9. ^ ^{a b c d e} Howe, Marvine (8 July 1984). "Dame Flora Robson is Dead; A Leading Actress in Britain". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
10. ^ "Flora Robson - Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos - AllMovie". AllMovie.
11. ^ "Catherine the Great (1934)". Archived from the original on 15 August 2016.
12. ^ "Saratoga Trunk (1945) - Sam Wood - Awards - AllMovie". AllMovie.
13. ^ "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; Shaw's 'Caesar and Cleopatra' as Film Opens at the Astor-- Rains and Leigh Co-Stars --New Bill at Loew's State At Loew's State - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. 28 July 2022.
14. ^ "Flora Robson". Archived from the original on 25 July 2017.
15. ^ "Filmography for Flora Robson". Turner Classic Movies.
16. ^ "Dame Flora Robson Dies At 82". 8 July 1984 – via www.washingtonpost.com.
17. ISBN 9788867803781
    – via Google Books.
18. ^ "Flora Robson - Theatricalia". theatricalia.com.
19. ISBN 9789004299818
    – via Google Books.
20. ISBN 9781408145913
    – via Google Books.
21. ^ "The Theatre » 17 Oct 1931 » The Spectator Archive".
22. ISBN 9781847146120
    – via Google Books.
23. ^ "A Tale of Two Cities (1980) - Jim Goddard - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.
24. ^ "Eustace and Hilda: The Shrimp and the Anemone". 24 November 1977. p. 51 – via BBC Genome.
25. ^ "1946 Academy Awards® Winners and History". www.filmsite.org.
26. ^ "Flora Robson". Turner Classic Movies.
27. ^ "Stage and screen actress". My Brighton and Hove. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
28. ^ "The Durham Record". 2 October 2014 – via dre.durham.gov.uk. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
29. ^ Daily Express newspaper (26 July 2009). "Where Dame Flora trod the floorboards". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
30. ^ "Legend in Her Lifetime". The Shields Gazette. South Shields. 28 March 2002. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
31. ^ StreetCheck. "Interesting Information for Dame Flora Robson Avenue, South Shields, NE34 9RB Postcode". StreetCheck.
32. ^ "Flora Robson grey plaque". openplaques.org.
33. ^ "Flora Robson white plaque". openplaques.org.
34. ^ "Dame Flora Robson". London Remembers.
35. ^ Stuff, Good. "Flora Robson film cell plaque in Brighton". www.blueplaqueplaces.co.uk.
36. ^ "History - Web Designer in Welwyn Garden City - 01727 825934 - Value for Money". www.lemsfordonline.co.uk.
37. ^ "Dame Flora will Open Theatre Named After Her". The Stage. 2 August 1962.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flora Robson.

• Flora Robson at
  IMDb
• Flora Robson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Flora Robson at the BFI's Screenonline
• Flora Robson performances in the Theatre Archive, University of Bristol