May Whitty

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.

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.

First toured on stage in the United States in 1895 with Sir Henry Irving.

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 Night Must Fall (1937); Miss Froy in The Lady Vanishes (1938), wherein she plays the title character, enduring great physical exertion while maintaining her poise and dignity; and Lady Beldon in Mrs.

She proved herself equally capable of playing working-class roles, such as the dowdy phony psychic in The Thirteenth Chair (1937).

Besides two Oscar nominations, she also won the National Board of Review best acting award for the 1937 film Night Must Fall (1937).

During the 1940s she starred in three films for which the leading lady won a Best Actress Oscar: Joan Fontaine for Suspicion (1941), Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver (1942), and Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight (1944).

Appears in four Best Picture Oscar nominees: Suspicion (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1943) and Gaslight (1944). The films were released in consecutive years from 1941 to 1944. Mrs. Miniver was the only winner in this category.

Miniver (1942), a role which garnered an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

Margaret penned her mother's biography, The Same Only Different, published in 1969.

Mother of actress-director Margaret Webster, who died in 1972.