Dame Flora McKenzie Robson (28 March 19027 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.
Early life
Flora McKenzie Robson was born on 28 March 1902 in South Shields, County Durham,[GRO Register of Births: JUN 1902 10a 829 S. SHIELDS – Flora McKenzie Robson] daughter of David Robson (1864-1947) and Eliza Robson (nee McKenzie; 1870-1953) both of Scottish descent. She had six siblings.[ 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.][
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She was educated at the Palmers Green High School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art,
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.[ By the 1930s she was appearing in several prominent films both in the UK and in Hollywood, alongside such stars as Laurence Olivier, Paul Muni and George Raft. Her most notable role was that of Queen Elizabeth I in both Fire Over England (1937) and The Sea Hawk (1940).]
After the Second World 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 Good-Time Girl (1948); as a prospective Labour MP in Frieda (1947); and in the costume melodrama Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948).
She 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. After touring in minor parts with Ben Greet's Shakespeare company she may have played small parts for two seasons in the new repertory company at Oxford, but her contract was not renewed.[ She was told that they required a prettier actress.][ Tyrone Guthrie, due to direct a season at the new Festival Theatre, Cambridge, asked her to join his company.]
In 1931, she was cast as the adulterous Abbie in Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms.
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).
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.
Awards and honours
She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Angelique Buiton, a Haitians maid, in Saratoga Trunk (1945).
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.
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 Margaret and Shela, and her nephews and nieces.
She shared a home in Wykeham Terrace, Brighton with her sisters for 8 years before she died
Legacies
Dame Flora Robson Avenue, built in 1962, in Simonside, South Shields, is named after her.
There is also a plaque to commemorate the opening of the Prince Charles Cinema (Leicester Square, London) by Flora Robson.
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.
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 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.
Robson attended the opening of the Flora Robson Playhouse in Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 1962, which was named in her honour.
Filmography
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| Also in The Epic that Never Was |
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| Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
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| TV movie |
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| final film role |
Partial television credits
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| 2 episodes |
| 1 episode |
| 1 episode |
| 8 episodes |
| 1 episode |
| Miniseries, 4 episodes |
| 5 episodes |
| 3 episodes |
Theatre performances
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Queen Margaret in Will Shakespeare at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London, 1921
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Shakespearean repertory with Ben Greet's company, 1922
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JB Fagan's company at the Oxford Playhouse, 1923
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Two seasons at the Festival Theatre, Cambridge, 1929–30
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Abbey Putnam in Desire Under the Elms at the Gate Theatre, London, 1931
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Herodias in Salome at the Gate Theatre, London, 1931
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Mary Paterson in The Anatomist at the Westminster Theatre, London, 1931
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Stepdaughter in Six Characters in Search of an Author at the Westminster Theatre, London, 1932
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Bianca in Othello at the St. James' Theatre, London, 1932
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Olwen Peel in Dangerous Corner at the Lyric Theatre, London, 1932
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Eva in For Services Rendered at the Gielgud Theatre, London, 1932
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Ella Downey in All God's Chillun Got Wings at the Embassy Theatre, Swiss Cottage, 1933
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A season at the Old Vic, London, 1933–34
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Mary Read in Mary Read at His Majesty's Theatre, London 1934
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Lady Catherine Brooke in Autumn at the St. Martin's Theatre, London, 1937
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Ellen Creed in Ladies in Retirement at the Henry Miller's Theatre, New York, 1940
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Sarah, Duchess of Malborough in Anne of England at the St. James Theatre, New York, 1941
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Rhoda Meldrum in The Damask Cheek at the Playhouse Theatre, New York, 1942–43
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Thérèse Raquin in Guilty at the Lyric, Hammersmith, 1944
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Agnes Isit in A Man About the House at the Piccadilly Theatre, 1946
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Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at the National Theatre, New York, 1948
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Lady Cicely Waynflete in Captain Brassbound's Conversion at the Lyric, Hammersmith, 1948
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Christine in Black Chiffon, at the Westminster Theatre, 1949 and the 48th Street Theatre, New York, 1950
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Lady Catherine Brooke in Autumn at the Q Theatre, London, 1951
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Paulina in The Winter's Tale at the Phoenix Theatre, London, 1951
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The Return at the Duchess Theatre, London, 1953–54
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Janet in The House by the Lake at the Duke of York's Theatre, London, 1956
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Mrs Alving in Ghosts at the Old Vic, 1958–59 and the Prince's Theatre, London, 1959
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Miss Tina in The Aspern Papers at the Sondheim Theatre, London, 1959 and on tour to South Africa, 1960
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Grace Rovarte in Time and Yellow Roses at the St. Martin's Theatre, London, 1961
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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
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Gunhild in John Gabriel Borkman at the Duchess Theatre, London, 1963
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Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Flora Robson Playhouse, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1964
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Hecuba in The Trojan Women at the Edinburgh Festival, 1966
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Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 1968
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Mother in Ring Round the Moon at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 1968
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Agatha Payne in The Old Ladies at the Westminster Theatre and the Duchess Theatre, London, 1969
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Elizabeth I in Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England at the Edinburgh Festival, 1970
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