Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Dame May Whitty (June 19, 1865 - May 29, 1948 in
film|1948) was a United Kingdom|British theater
and film|cinema actor|actress. 

Born Mary Whitty in Liverpool, England, Mary
Whitty made her first stage appearance in
Liverpool in 1881 before moving to London to
appear on the West End. She married the
actor-manager  Ben Webster (actor) in 1892 and in
1895 they visited the United States where Whitty
appeared on Broadway. Their only child, a daughter
born in the U.S. in 1905, Margaret Webster, was a
stage actress. Dame May's stage career continued
for the rest of her life.

In 1918 she was made Dame of the British Empire
(DBE) in recognition for her charitable work
during World War I, and for her contributions to
acting. 

She made her first major Hollywood film
appearance, recreating her stage role in the film
Night Must Fall (1937 in film|1937) (which also
starred Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell,
and received a nomination for an Academy Award for
Best Supporting Actress. This led to several
supporting roles in films including that of the
missing spy, "Miss Froy", in Alfred Hitchcock's
The Lady Vanishes (1938 in film|1938).  She moved
permanently to the U.S. (although she never become
as U.S. citizen) in 1939 and appeared both on
stage and in Hollywood films where she usually
played wealthy dowagers. It was one such part, as
"Lady Beldon" in Mrs Miniver (1942 in film|1942),
that brought her a second Academy Award nomination
for Best Supporting Actress.

She continued to act for the remainder of her life
and died in Beverly Hills, California from cancer
at the age of 82; her husband, Ben Webster
(actor), had died the previous year during
surgery.

Quote

"I have everything Betty Grable has - I've just
had it longer".