# May Whitty

Dame Mary Louise Webster, (née Whitty; 19 June 1865 – 29 May 1948), known professionally as May Whitty and later, for her charity work, Dame May Whitty, was an English stage and film actress. She was one of the first two women entertainers to become a Dame. The British actors' union Equity was established in her home in 1930.
Her film roles included Alfred Hitchcock's thriller The Lady Vanishes (1938) in which she played Miss Froy, a British spy posing as a governess who disappears on a train. After a successful career both on the West End stage and in British films, she moved over to Hollywood films at the age of 72.

## Background

Whitty was born in Liverpool, England, to William Alfred Whitty (circa 1837–1876), a newspaper proprietor, and Mary Louisa (née Ashton, circa 1837–1894). Her grandfather was Michael James Whitty, Chief Constable in Liverpool and founder of the Liverpool Daily Post. She made her first stage appearance in Liverpool in 1881, later moving to London to appear in the West End.
She married the actor-manager Ben Webster on 3 August 1892 in St Giles's Parish Church, London. 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 New York in 1905, Margaret Webster, was a producer who held dual US and UK citizenship. She was chair of the Actresses' Franchise League (AFL).
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. During World War I she was active in the AFL, working there to help organize the Women's Emergency Corps. 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 played Mr. Darcy.

## Honours

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 for the Three Arts Women's Employment Fund and the British Women's Hospitals Committee. She was the first stage and film actress to receive a damehood, along with the opera singer Nellie Melba, who was also thus honoured in 1918.

## Film career and death

   I've got everything Betty Grable has—I've just had it longer.
Whitty made her Hollywood film debut at the age of 72, recreating her 1935 stage role in the Hollywood film Night Must Fall (1937), which also starred Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell. She received an Oscar nomination. This led to several supporting roles in films, including that of the vanishing lady, Miss Froy, in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938).
In 1939, Whitty permanently moved to the United States - although she never became a US citizen; 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.
She continued to act for the remainder of her life, and died on 29 May 1948 in Beverly Hills, California, from cancer at the age of 82; her husband had died the previous year during surgery. She is commemorated with a plaque at St Paul's parish church in Covent Garden, London, alongside the plaque to her husband.

## Stage roles

Dates are of the first performance.
| Date (year, month, day) | Title | Author(s) | City | Theatre | Role |
| 1890-02-14 | The Home Feud | Walter Frith | London | Comedy | Helen Joliffe |
| 1890-07-04 | Vanity of Vanities | Justin Huntly McCarthy | London | Shaftesbury | Princess Nicholas |
| 1891-01-07 | Private Enquiry | F. C. Burnand (based on Albert Valabrègue’s La Sécurité des Familles) | London | Royal Strand | Mrs. Buckleigh |
| 1891-02-14 | Turned Up | Mark Melford | London | Royal Strand | Sabina Medway |
| 1891-04-01 | Linda Grey | Sir Charles L. Young | London | Princes | Lady Broughton |
| 1891-04-15 | Our Daughters | T.G. Warren & Willie Edouin | London | Royal Strand | Nellie Mayhew |
| 1891-07-01 | Mrs. Annesley | J. F. Cooke | London | Criterion | Estelle Brandreth |
| 1891-07-27 | Fate and Fortune, or, The Junior Partner | James J. Blood | London | Princess's | Grace Hasluck |
| 1892-01-06 | The Showman’s Daughter | Frances Hodgson Burnett | London | Royalty | Linda Hurst |
| 1892-02-16 | The Silver Shield | Sydney Grundy | London | Vaudeville | Lucy Preston |
| 1892-05-10 | A Caprice | Justin Huntly McCarthy, adapted from Alfred de Musset's Un Caprice | London | Vaudeville | Mathilde |
| 1892-05-25 | The Noble Art | Eille Norwood | London | Terry's | Gertie Fullalove |
| 1892-05-26 | In the Season | Langdon Elwyn Mitchell | London | Vaudeville | Sybil March |
| 1892-09-14 | Our Boys | Henry James Byron | London | Vaudeville | Mary Melrose |
| 1893-01-28 | The Guv’Nor | Robert Reece (writing under the pseudonym E.G. Lankester) | London | Vaudeville | Aurelia |
| 1893-02-16 | Flight | Walter Frith | London | Terry's | Mrs. Amherst |
| 1893-06-09 | The Younger Son | R.S. Sievier | London | Gaiety | Evelyn Brookfield |
| 1893-06-19 | The Adventures of a Night | Meyrick Milton, adaptated from Los Empenos de Seis Horas by Pedro Calderón de la Barca | London | Royal Strand | Donna Bianca |
| 1893-12-21 | Beauty’s Toils | Charles S. Fawcett, founded on Her Fatal Beauty by W.B. Maxell | London | Royal Strand | Ethel Cumming |
| 1894-07-02 | Our Flot | Mrs. H. Musgrave | London | Royal Strand | Margery Sylvester |
| 1895-03-12 | A Loving Legacy | Fred W. Sidney | London | Royal Strand | Kitty O'Rourke |
| 1895-04-15 | Fanny | George Robert Sims and Cecil Raleigh | London | Royal Strand | Grace Dormer |
| 1895-04-15 | The Backslider | Osmond Shillingford | London | Royal Strand | Mrs. Agatha Dolomite |
| 1895-06-27 | Louis XI | Dion Boucicault, adaptated by Saimir Delavigne | London | Lyceum | Marie |
| 1895-07-12 | The Lyons Mail | Charles Reader, adaptation of Le Courrier de Lyon by Émile Moreau, Giraudin & Delacour | London | Lyceum | Julie Lesurques |
| 1895-07-15 | The Corsican Brothers | Dion Boucicault, adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's The Corsican Brothers | London | Lyceum | Emelie de l'Esparre |
| 1895-07-24 | Macbeth | William Shakespeare | London | Lyceum | A gentlewoman |
| 1896-12-03 | A Princess of Orange | Fred James | London | Lyceum | Louise, Princess of Orange |
| 1896-12-10 | An Old Song | Rev. Freeman Wills and A. Fitzmaurice King | London | Criterion | Signora Sara Rosetti |
| 1897-12-23 | Secret Service: A Romance of the Southern Confederacy | William Gillette | London | Adelphi | Edith Varney |
| 1898-12-03 | Cupboard Love | Henry V. Esmond | London | Court | Rosamond Pilliner |
| 1899-06-06 | The Heather Field | Edward Martyn | London | Terry's | Grace Tyrrell |
| 1899-09-04 | The Last Chapter | George H. Broadhurst | London | Royal Strand | Katherine Blake |
| 1901-05-11 | Toff Jim | Fred Wright | London | Apollo | Primrose |
| 1908-01-20 | Irene Wycherley | Anthony P. Wharton | New York | Astor | Carrie Hardinge |
| 1910-03-01 | The Sentimentalists | George Meredith | London | Duke of York's | Dame Dresden |
| 1910-03-10 | The Madras House | Harley Granville-Barker | London | Duke of York's | Amelia Madras |
| 1910-04-05 | Trelawny of the Wells | Arthur Wing Pinero | London | Duke of York's | Miss Trafalgar Gower |
| 1910-11-18 | The Home Coming | Cicely Hamilton | London | Aldwych | Mrs. Daly |
| 1911-05-08 | The First Actress | Christabel Marshall | London | Kingsway | Peg Woffington |
| 1911-05-12 | The Baron’s Wager | Charles Young | London | Playhouse | Clothislde, Marquise de Marsay |
| 1912-02-01 | The Bear-Leaders | R. C. Carton | London | Comedy | Dowager Countess of Grimsdal |
| 1912-02-09 | Edith | Elizabeth Baker | London | Princess's | Mrs. Stott |
| 1912-08-12 | Ready Money | James Montgomery | London | New | Mrs. John Tyler |
| 1913-03-31 | A Matter of Money (first played in Glasgow under the title The Cutting of the Know) | Cicely Hamilton | London | Little | Mrs. Channing |
| 1913-03-11 | Open Windows | A.E.W. Mason | London | St. James's | Lady Cluffe |
| 1913-10-04 | The Grand Seigneur | Edward Ferris and Bertram P. Matthews | London | Savoy | Comtesse Malise |
| 1914-09-08 | The Impossible Woman | C. Haddon Chambers | London | Savoy | Mrs. Talcot |
| 1915-04-15 | The Green Flag | Keble Howard | London | Vaudeville | Mrs. Kesteven |
| 1915-10-16 | Iris Intervenes | John Hastings Turner | London | Kingsway | Mary Cumbers |
| 1916-02-28 | The Arm of the Law | Arthur Bourchier, adapted from La Robe Rouge by Eugène Brieux | London | His Majesty's | Mme. Vagret |
| 1916-05-28 | The Eternal Snows | Michael Orme [pseudonym of Alix Augusta Grein] | London | Criterion | Mary Chartwell |
| 1917-04-09 | The Passing of the Third Floor Back | Jerome K. Jerome | London | Playhouse | Cheat, Mrs. Sharpe, Lady of the House |
| 1917-07-27 | Trelawny of the Wells | Arthur W. Pinero | London | New | Miss Trafalgar Gower |
| 1917-09-07 | Trelawny of the Wells | Arthur W. Pinero | London | New | Miss Trafalgar Gower |
| 1922-03-01 | The Enchanted Cottage | Arthur Pinero | London | Duke of York's | Mrs. Corsellis |
| 1922-03-24 | Pride and Prejudice | Eileen H.A. Squire & J.C. Squire, adapted from Jane Austen's novel | London | Palace | Mrs. Bennett |
| 1922-05-18 | Life's a Game | Michael Orme [pseud. Alix Augusta Grein] | London | Kingsway | Lady Raunds |
| 1922-12-04 | Destruction | Agnese de Llana | London | Royalty | Ella Singleton |
| 1924-09-18 | The Fool | Channing Pollock | London | Apollo | Mrs. Henry Gilliam |
| 1925-05-11 | My Lady's Dress | Edward Knblock | London | Adelphi | La Grisa |
| 1925-06-22 | March Hares (The Temperamentalists) | Harry Wagstaff Gribble | London | Little | Mrs. Janet Rodney |
| 1925-09-22 | The Last of Mrs. Cheyney | Frederick Lonsdale | London | St. James's | Mrs. Ebley |
| 1927-12-27 | Sylvia | James Dyrenforth | London | Vaudeville | Mrs. Considine |
| 1928-04-19 | Come With Me | Basil Dean and Margaret Kennedy | London | New | Lady Alethea Zaidner |
| 1929-06-01 | Sybarites | H. Dennis Bradley | London | Arts | Lady Byfleet |
| 1929-07-24 | Gentlemen of the Jury | Francis A. Campton | London | Arts | Lady Blakeney |
| 1929-09-05 | Dear Brutus | J. M. Barrie | London | Playhouse | Mrs. Coade |
| 1929-12-03 | The Major Explains | W.R. Walkes | London | Prince of Wales | [unnamed role] |
| 1929-12-03 | The Amorists | H. Dennis Bradley | London | Royalty | Lady Byfleet |
| 1930-12-26 | A Business Marriage | Anonymous | London | Court | Mrs. Mabley Jones |
| 1931-10-12 | There's Always Juliet | John Van Druten | London | Apollo | Florence |
| 1931-10-12 | There's Always Juliet | John Van Druten | New York | Empire | Florence |
| 1932-08-16 | Behold, We Live | John van Druten | London | St. James's | Dame Frances Evers |
| 1932-10-02 | Please Don’t Be Nervous | Ann Stephenson | London | Shaftesbury | Mother |
| 1933-08-08 | In Vino Veritas | Walter Hudd | London | Arts | Oakley |
| 1933-08-08 | The Long Christmas Dinner | Thornton Wilder | London | Arts | Mother Bayard |
| 1933-08-01 | The Lake | Dorothy Massingham (with Murray Macdonald) | London | Arts | Mildred Surrege |
| 1933-08-01 | The Lake | Dorothy Massingham (with Murray Macdonald) | London | Westminster | Mildred Surrege |
| 1933-11-29 | Man Proposes | Warren Chetham-Strode | London | Wyndham's | Mary Railton |
| 1934-05-03 | The Voysey Inheritance | Harley Granville-Barker | London | Sadler's Wells | Mrs. Voysey |
| 1934-06-14 | Meeting At Night | Marjorie Sharp | London | Globe | Mrs. Crowborough |
| 1934-07-04 | The Maitlands | Ronald Mackenzie | London | Wyndham's | May Maitland |
| 1934-11-08 | It Happened To Adam | David Boehm | London | Duke of York's | Mrs. Sloane |
| 1935-03-11 | Ringmaster | Keith Winter | London | Shaftesbury | Mrs. West |
| 1935-04-07 | One Must Go On | George Porter | London | Comedy | Mrs. John Brown |
| 1935-05-31 | Night Must Fall | Emlyn Williams | London | Duchess | Mrs. Bramson |
| 1935-12-01 | Farm of Three Echoes | Noel Langley | London | Wyndham's | Ouma Gerart |
| 1936-09-28 | Night Must Fall | Emlyn Williams | New York | Ethel Barrymore | Mrs. Bramson |
| 1938-01-10 | Your Obedient Husband | Horace Jackson | New York | Broadhurst | Mrs. Scurlock |
| 1938-05-23 | Here's To Our Enterprise | Edward Knoblock | London | Lyceum | [herself] |
| 1940-05-09 | Romeo and Juliet | William Shakespeare | New York | 51st Street | Nurse to Juliet |
| 1941-04-08 | The Trojan Women | Euripides | New York | Cort | Hecuba |
| 1945-10-09 | Therese | Thomas Job, based on Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola | New York | Biltmore | Madame Raquin |

## Filmography

See the British Film Institute.
* Enoch Arden (1914) as Miriam Lane
* The Little Minister (1915) as Nanny Webster
* Colonel Newcombe, the Perfect Gentleman (1920) as Mrs. Mackenzie
* Keep Your Seats, Please (1936) as Aunt Georgina Withers (uncredited)
* Night Must Fall (1937) as Mrs. Bramson
* Conquest (1937) as Maria Letizia Buonaparte
* I Met My Love Again (1938) as Aunt William
* Parnell (1938, TV movie) as Aunt Caroline
* The Lady Vanishes (1938) as Miss Froy
* Mary Rose (1939, TV movie) as Mrs. Morland
* The Royal Family of Broadway (1939, TV movie) as Fanny Cavendis
* Rake's Progress (1939, TV movie) as Mrs. Mead, Wilkes's mother-in-law
* Raffles (1939) as Lady Melrose
* Return to Yesterday (1940) as Mrs. Truscott
* A Bill of Divorcement (1940) as Aunt Hester Fairfield
* One Night in Lisbon (1941) as Florence
* Suspicion (1941) as Mrs. Martha McLaidlaw
* Mrs. Miniver (1942) as Lady Beldon
* Thunder Birds (1942) as Lady Jane Stackhouse
* Forever and a Day (1943) as Mrs. Lucy Trimble
* Slightly Dangerous (1943) as Baba
* Crash Dive (1943) as Grandmother
* The Constant Nymph (1943) as Lady Constance Longborough
* Stage Door Canteen (1943) as herself
* Lassie Come Home (1943) as Dally
* Flesh and Fantasy (1943) as Lady Pamela Hardwick (Episode 2)
* Madame Curie (1943) as Madame Eugene Curie
* Gaslight (1944) as Miss Bessie Thwaites
* The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) as Nanny
* My Name Is Julia Ross (1945) as Mrs. Hughes
* Devotion (1946) as Lady Thornton
* Green Dolphin Street (1947) as Mother Superior
* This Time for Keeps (1947) as Grandmother Cambaretti
* If Winter Comes (1947) as Mrs. Perch
* The Sign of the Ram (1948) as Clara Brastock
* The Return of October (1948) as Aunt Martha Grant (final film role)