May Whitty

About May Whitty

Who is it?: Actress
Birth Day: June 19, 1865
Birth Place:  Liverpool, Merseyside, England, United Kingdom
Died On: 29 May 1948(1948-05-29) (aged 82)\nBeverly Hills, California, US
Birth Sign: Cancer
Occupation: Actress
Years active: 1881–1948
Spouse(s): Ben Webster (m. 1892; his death 1947)
Children: 2
Relatives: Margaret Webster (daughter)

May Whitty Net Worth

May Whitty was born on June 19, 1865 in  Liverpool, Merseyside, England, United Kingdom, is Actress. 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 the leading British 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 high-born roles, sometimes crotchety, sometimes imperious, but often warm-hearted. 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) where she plays the title character enduring great physical exertion while maintaining her poise and dignity, and as Lady Beldon in Mrs. 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 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).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 completed 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."
May Whitty is a member of Actress

💰 Net worth: Under Review

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Biography/Timeline

1837

Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, to william Alfred Whitty (ca. 1837–1876) and Mary Louisa (née Ashton, ca. 1837–1894), she made her first stage appearance in Liverpool in 1881, later moving to London to appear in the West End.

1892

She married actor-manager Ben Webster in 1892 in St Giles's Parish Church, London, and in 1895 they visited the United States, where Whitty appeared on Broadway. Their first child, a son, died at birth. Their only surviving child, a daughter born in the USA in 1905, Margaret Webster, was a stage Actress and held dual US/UK citizenship. Whitty's stage career continued for the rest of her life. In March 1910, she made her transition to middle-aged and elderly character roles, playing Amelia Madras in Harley Granville-Barker's four-act comedy The Madras House. In March 1922, she played the role of Mrs. Bennet before the Queen in a benefit performance of Pride and Prejudice. She acted opposite her husband, who performed its Mr. Darcy.

1918

In the 1918 New Year Honours, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE, gazetted under her legal married name Mary Louise Webster) in recognition of her charitable work during the First World War. She was the first film and stage Actress to receive a damehood, along with the opera singer Nellie Melba, who was also thus honoured in 1918.

1937

She made her first major Hollywood film appearance recreating her stage role in the film Night Must Fall (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 vanishing lady, Miss Froy, in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938).

1939

She moved permanently to the USA (although she never became a US citizen) in 1939 and appeared both on stage and in Hollywood films, usually playing wealthy dowagers. It was one such part, as Lady Beldon in Mrs. Miniver (1942), that brought her a second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.