1. Dame Flora McKenzie Robson was an English actress and star of the theatrical stage and cinema, particularly renowned for her performances in plays demanding dramatic and emotional intensity.
19 Facts About Flora Robson
1. 2.
Flora McKenzie Robson was born on 28 March 1902 in South Shields, County Durham, daughter of David Robson and Eliza Robson both of Scottish descent.
3.
Flora Robson's 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.
4.
Flora Robson was educated at the Palmers Green High School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she won a bronze medal in 1921.
5.
Flora Robson's 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.
6.
In 1934, Robson played the Empress Elizabeth in Alexander Korda's The Rise of Catherine the Great.
7.
Flora Robson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Angelique Buiton, a servant, in Saratoga Trunk.
8.
Flora Robson struggled to find a footing in the theatre after she graduated from RADA with a bronze medal since she lacked the conventional good looks which were then an absolute requisite for actresses in dramatic roles.
9.
Flora Robson was told that they required a prettier actress.
10.
Flora Robson followed with Isabella in Measure for Measure with Robert Donat, Pirandello's Naked, the title role in Iphigenia in Tauris, Varya in The Cherry Orchard, and Rebecca West in Henrik Ibsen's Rosmersholm.
11.
Flora Robson 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.
12.
Flora Robson performed for British television, including The Shrimp and the Anemone.
13.
Flora Robson was last briefly seen as a Stygian Witch in the fantasy adventure Clash of the Titans in 1981.
14.
Flora Robson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Angelique Buiton, a Haitian maid, in Saratoga Trunk.
15.
Flora Robson was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1952 New Year Honours, and raised to Dame Commander in the 1960 Birthday Honours.
16.
Flora Robson was the first famous name to become president of the Brighton Little Theatre.
17.
Flora Robson has a road named after her in her birthplace of South Shields.
18.
Flora Robson shared a home in Wykeham Terrace, Brighton with her sisters for 8 years before she died in Brighton, aged 82, in her sleep, of cancer.
19.
Dame Flora Robson Avenue, built in 1962, in Simonside, South Shields, is named after her.