Robson, Dame Flora

Robson, Dame Flora (1902-1984), one of the leading actresses of 20th-century British theatre. She excelled principally as a performer of the classics, but she also displayed remarkable versatility in contemporary roles and in comedy.

She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and made her debut in 1921 in Clemence Dane's Will Shakespeare. In the mid-1920s she left the stage for several years, resuming her career in 1929. She achieved recognition in 1931 in Desire Under the Elms, by Eugene O'Neill and in James Bridie's The Anatomist. She joined the company of Lilian Baylis at the Old Vic Theatre from 1933 to 1934, and was notable as Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest, Varya in The Cherry Orchard, and Isabella in Measure for Measure. In London's West End she appeared in Bridie's Mary Read (1934), in Mary Tudor by Wilfred Grantham (1935), and in the British premiere of Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie (1937). She made her successful New York debut in 1940 in Denham and Percy's Ladies in Retirement and also made several Hollywood films.

During the 1950s she continued her career on both sides of the Atlantic, with many acclaimed performances. She was especially notable in The Innocents (1952), a stage version of Henry James's short story The Turn of the Screw, and in Ibsen's Ghosts (1958) and John Gabriel Borkman (1963). She was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1960.