Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia May Robson (19 April 1858 - 20 October 1942) was an actress and playwright. A major stage actress of the late 19th and early 20th century, Robson is best known today for the dozens of 1930s motion pictures she appeared in when she was well into her seventies, usually playing cross old ladies with hearts of gold.
Known For
Complete Filmography

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
1983
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival fo...

Joan of Paris
1942
as Mlle. Rosay
An RAF squadron is brought down over occupied France. The flyers get to Paris in spite of the fact that the youngest, Baby, is injured. He must be hid...

Playmates
1941
as Grandma Kyser
Lulu Monahan, the press agent for John Barrymore, is attempting to get a sponsor for a radio program. To that end, she and the agent for bandleader Ka...

Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 1
1941
as Herself
Hedda Hopper guides us through some of Hollywood's sights; the home of William S. Hart and a Kay Kyser recording-session being among them.

Million Dollar Baby
1941
as Cornelia Wheelwright
A sudden windfall has unexpected consequences on a working class girl during the Great Depression.

Four Mothers
1941
as Aunt Etta
Four married sisters face motherhood, financial, marital and family issues together.

Breakdowns of 1940
1940
as Self
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1940.

The Texas Rangers Ride Again
1940
as Cecilia Dangerfield
With thousands of cattle being rustled from White Sage ranch the 1930's Texas Rangers are called in. They manage to get one of their agents into the g...

Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940
as Self
This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeche...

Irene
1940
as Granny O'Dare
Upholsterer's assistant Irene O'Dare meets wealthy Don Marshall while she is measuring chairs for Mrs. Herman Vincent at her Long Island estate. Charm...

Granny Get Your Gun
1940
as Minerva Hildegard Hatton
An elderly woman turns sheriff to clear her granddaughter of murder charges.

Breakdowns of 1939
1939
as Self
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1939.

Four Wives
1939
as Aunt Etta
In this sequel to Four Daughters, Ann struggles to move on after the death of her husband as she falls in love with Felix, but on the day of her enga...

That's Right – You're Wrong
1939
as Grandma
J. D. Forbes, head of the almost-bankrupt Four Star Studios in Hollywood contacts band leader Kay Kyser, who puts on a radio and-live theatre program ...

Nurse Edith Cavell
1939
as Mme. Rappard
British nurse Edith Cavell is stationed at a hospital in Brussels during World War I. When the son of a former patient escapes from a German prisoner-...

Daughters Courageous
1939
as Penny, the Housekeeper
Nan Masters, a single mother living with her four marriageable daughters, plans to marry Sam Sloane, businessman. Out of the blue her first husband Ji...

The Kid from Kokomo
1939
as Margaret 'Maggie' / 'Ma' Manell
Gruff boxing manager "Square Shooting Murph" Murphy manages a naive boxer from Indiana, Homer Baston.Homer is willing to give up his boxing career sea...

Yes, My Darling Daughter
1939
as 'Granny' Whitman
Ellen is a free spirited young woman in love with Doug. Sadly he must leave America for a two year job in Belgium. Ellen and Doug decide to spend thei...

They Made Me a Criminal
1939
as Grandma Rafferty
A boxer flees, believing he has committed a murder while he was drunk.

The Texans
1938
as Granna
After the Civil War, an ex-Confederate soldier faces new battles, including the elements and a carpetbagger intent on destroying him.

Four Daughters
1938
as Aunt Etta
Musician Adam Lemp and his four equally musical daughters, Emma, Ann, Kay, and Thea, live happily together. Each daughter has an upstanding young man ...

Bringing Up Baby
1938
as Elizabeth Random
David Huxley is waiting to get a bone he needs for his museum collection. Through a series of strange circumstances, he meets Susan Vance, and the duo...

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1938
as Aunt Polly
Tom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry Finn have great adventures on the Mississippi River, pretending to be pirates, attending their own funeral and witn...

The Perfect Specimen
1937
as Mrs. Leona Wicks
Raised in seclusion to be the epitome of mental, physical and moral perfection, Gerald Beresford Wicks is resigned to following his grandmother's wish...

A Star Is Born
1937
as Lettie Blodgett
Esther Blodgett is just another starry-eyed farm kid trying to break into the movies. Waitressing at a Hollywood party, she catches the eye of her ido...

Woman in Distress
1937
as Phoebe Tuttle
Investigating rumors that a priceless Rembrandt, believed destroyed years ago, is actually in the possession of an elderly spinster, a male newspaper ...

Rainbow on the River
1936
as Mrs. Harriet Ainsworth
A young boy is forced to leave his family in the South and move in with relatives he doesn't know in New York.

The Captain's Kid
1936
as Aunt Marcia Prentiss
In this children's adventure, the children of a small town are enthralled by the tales of the town drunk.

Wife vs. Secretary
1936
as Mimi Stanhope
Linda, the wife of a publishing executive, suspects that her husband Van’s relationship with his attractive secretary Whitey is more than professional...

3 Kids and a Queen
1935
as Mary Jane 'Queenie' Baxter
An eccentric, wealthy spinster, 'Queenie' Baxter is erroneously presumed to be kidnapped. She subsequently pretends to indeed be kidnapped, , in order...

Anna Karenina
1935
as Countess Vronsky
In 19th century Russia a woman in a respectable marriage to a senior statesman must grapple with her love for a dashing soldier.

Age of Indiscretion
1935
as Emma Shaw
A book publisher finds his business floundering, which prompts his socially ambitious wife to desert him for a society millionaire, leaving him with t...

Reckless
1935
as Mrs. Granny Leslie
A theatrical star, born on the wrong side of the tracks, marries a drunken blue-blood millionaire.

Strangers All
1935
as Anna Carter
Domestic drama about an elderly woman and her four squabbling adult children.

Vanessa: Her Love Story
1935
as Judith Paris
The Victorian wife of a mad baron waits years for a British soldier sent to Egypt.

Grand Old Girl
1935
as Laura Bayles
An elderly schoolteacher is determined to rid her town of the local gambling den.
Movies on Sundays
1935
as Herself (uncredited)
A short, introduced in Pennsylvania when the state had laws disallowing the screening of films on Sunday, to sway voters on a referendum to allow such...

Mills of the Gods
1934
as Mary Hastings
Fay Wray plays Jean Hastings, the wealthy and spoiled scion of a factory-owning family led by her irrepressible grandmother. Sparks fly when Jean meet...

Lady by Choice
1934
as Patricia 'Patsy' Patterson
To improve her image, a fan dancer "adopts" an old woman to be her mother.

The Hollywood Gad-About
1934
as Self (uncredited)
A parade highlights the Screen Actors Guild's Film Stars Frolic, hosted by Walter Winchell as Master of Ceremonies.

Straight Is the Way
1934
as Mrs. Horowitz
Just out of prison, Benny Horowitz tries to go straight. Things are complicated by his former girlfriend and his former gangster buddies.

You Can't Buy Everything
1934
as Mrs. Hannah Bell
A scorned woman dreams of revenge on the man who betrayed her.

Dinner at Eight
1933
as Mrs. Wendel
An ambitious New York socialite plans an extravagant dinner party as her businessman husband, Oliver, contends with financial woes, causing a lot of t...

Alice in Wonderland
1933
as Queen Of Hearts
In Victorian England, a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland, populated by even more fantastic characters.

Dancing Lady
1933
as Dolly Todhunter
Janie lives to dance and will dance anywhere, even stripping in a burlesque house. Tod Newton, the rich playboy, discovers her there and helps her get...

The Solitaire Man
1933
as Mrs. Vail
An almost-retired jewel thief plans to marry Helen, his partner in crime. Their plans are shattered when Bascom, a gang member, arrives with a stolen ...

Broadway to Hollywood
1933
as Veteran Actress
In this through-the-years saga about a show business family, the fame of husband and wife vaudeville headliners of the 1880s is eclipsed by their son.

Lady for a Day
1933
as Apple Annie
Never-wed, poor, rough around the edges Apple Annie has always written to her daughter, Louise, in Spain that she is married and a member of New York'...

Beauty for Sale
1933
as Mrs. Merrick
A beautiful woman lands a job at an exclusive salon that deals with the wives of wealthy businessmen. Her contact with these men leads to a series of ...

One Man's Journey
1933
as Sarah
Dr. Eli Watt, a widower, comes to a small town, considering himself a failure in his attempt to have a meaningful career in New York. He raises his so...

Reunion in Vienna
1933
as Frau Lucher
An exiled archduke (John Barrymore) tries to renew romance with a former lover (Diana Wynyard) now wed to a psychiatrist (Frank Morgan).

The White Sister
1933
as Mother Superior
An Italian aristocrat enters a nunnery, thinking her pilot lover has been killed in the war.

Men Must Fight
1933
as Maman Seward
Prophetic tale of a mother in 1940 trying to keep her son out of war.

Strange Interlude
1932
as Mrs. Evans
After Nina Leeds finds out that insanity runs in her husband's family, she has a love child with a handsome doctor and lets her husband believes the c...

If I Had a Million
1932
as Mrs. Mary Walker
An elderly business tycoon, believed to be dying, decides to give a million dollars each to eight strangers chosen at random from the phone directory.

Little Orphan Annie
1932
as Mrs. Stewart
Millionaire Daddy Warbucks goes bust in the Great Depression and is forced to abandon his adopted daughter, Annie. While he's out west working on ano...

Red-Headed Woman
1932
as Aunt Jane
Lil works for the Legendre Company and causes Bill to divorce Irene and marry her. She has an affair with businessman Gaerste and uses him to force so...

Letty Lynton
1932
as Mrs. Lynton, Letty's Mothers
Socialite Letty Lynton is returning to New York, abandoning one-time lover Emile Renaul in South America, when she strikes up a shipboard romance with...

The She-Wolf
1931
An unprincipled female financier tries to get even with a rival railroad buyer.

Chicago
1927
as Mrs. Morton - Matron
Based on a true story, two-timing boozing wife Roxie Hart kills her lover in cold blood after he leaves her, and finagles her way out being indicted. ...

A Harp in Hock
1927
as Mrs. Banks
A Harp in Hock, also known as The Samaritan, is a lost 1927 American silent melodrama film directed by Renaud Hoffman, produced by DeMille Pictures, a...

The Angel of Broadway
1927
as Big Bertha
Babe Scott, a cabaret dancer who is constantly searching for sensational material to shock her customers, conceives of burlesquing a Salvation Army gi...

The King of Kings
1927
as Mother of Gestas
The King of Kings is the Greatest Story Ever Told as only Cecil B. DeMille could tell it. In 1927, working with one of the biggest budgets in Hollywoo...

Rubber Tires
1927
as Mrs. Stack
When the Stack family suffers some financial setbacks, daughter Mary Ellen suggests they buy a car and relocate to California. Unbeknownst to them, th...

Pals in Paradise
1926
as Esther Lezinsky
Bill Harvey discovers a lost mine, rich with gold. Geraldine "Jerry" Howard has the claim to it left her by her father. Bill tells her that the death ...

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1920
as Prostitute at Clinic (uncredited)
A doctor's research into the roots of evil turns him into a hideous depraved fiend.

A Night Out
1916
as Granmum
A grandmother has an adventure for the first time in her life when she decides to have a night out.

A Night Out
1916
Theatre Play
A grandmother has an adventure for the first time in her life when she decides to have a night out.

How Molly Malone Made Good
1915
as Herself
Molly, an Irish girl just hired by a New York newspaper, is assigned as a test a chain interview of celebrities that must be accomplished within a set...

When Knights Were Bold
1908
Two noblemen fight over a lady.