May Whitty

May Whitty was born on Jun 19, 1865 in UK. May Whitty's big-screen debut came with Keep Your Seats, Please! directed by Monty Banks in 1936. May Whitty is known for Gaslight directed by George Cukor, Charles Boyer stars as Gregory Anton and Ingrid Bergman as Paula Alquist. May Whitty has got 1 awards and 2 nominations so far. The most recent award May Whitty achieved is National Board of Review, USA. The upcoming new movie May Whitty plays is The Return of October which will be released on Oct 26, 1948.

Born Mary Whitty on June 19, 1865, to a Liverpool newspaper editor and his wife, she became known as May Whitty to the world. She first stepped on the London stage in 1882. She worked as an understudy at the St. James Theatre and then began playing leading roles when she joined a traveling stock company. After nearly 25 years as one of Britain's leading stage actresses, she appeared in her first film, Enoch Arden (1914), in Great Britain. She did not care much for the experience and appeared in only a few silent films afterward. In 1918, based on her service to the arts and for performing for the troops during World War I, she was named Dame Commander of the British Empire by King George. After a string of 1930s Broadway successes, she went to Hollywood, following the example of many of her British contemporaries. She found herself usually cast in highborn roles, sometimes crotchety, sometimes imperious, but often warmhearted. Classic examples of these were the crotchety Mrs. Bramson, an invalid who falls for the homicidal Robert Montgomery, in La force des ténèbres (1937); Miss Froy in Une femme disparaît (1938), wherein she plays the title character, enduring great physical exertion while maintaining her poise and dignity; and Lady Beldon in Madame Miniver (1942), a role which garnered an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. She proved herself equally capable of playing working-class roles, such as the dowdy phony psychic in La treizième chaise (1937). Besides two Oscar nominations, she also won the National Board of Review best acting award for the 1937 film La force des ténèbres (1937).In 1892, she married London producer Ben Webster. They were the parents of a daughter, Margaret Webster, who became a playwright and actress in her own right. Margaret penned her mother's biography, The Same Only Different, published in 1969. Whitty died at the age of 82 from cancer in Beverly Hills shortly after completing her scenes in the film The Sign of the Ram (1948). She once said, "I've got everything Betty Grable has...only I've had it longer."