![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691803/320802837.jpg)
The distinguished actress was born Mary Louise Whitty on June 19, 1865 in Liverpool, England, to Alfred Whitty a Liverpool newspaper editor and his wife, Mary Louisa Ashton.
May 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 in 1892 in St Giles Parish, London, England, and in 1895 they visited the United States where Whitty appeared on Broadway.
After nearly 25 years as one of the leading actresses of the British stage, she appeared in her first film Enoch Arden in 1914. She did not care much for the experience, and appeared in only a few silent films afterward.
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, which were sometimes crotchety, sometimes imperious, but often warmhearted.
Classic examples of these were the dowdy phony psychic in "The Thirteenth Chair", the crotchety Mrs. Bramson, an invalid who falls for the homicidal Robert Montgomery in "Night Must Fall" for which she was Oscar nominated, Miss Froy in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" where she plays the title character enduring great physical exertion while maintaining her poise and dignity, and as Lady Beldon in "Mrs. Miniver", a role which garnered another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/320937635.jpg)
(1937)
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/320937632.jpg)
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/320937634.jpg)
Whitty with Robert Montgomery in "Night Must Fall"(1937). Dame May also was given the award for Best Acting by the National Board of Review for this film.
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/320937630.jpg)
Whitty, Margaret Lockwood, & Michael Redgrave in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes."
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/320938144.jpg)
Whitty as Miss Froy in "The Lady Vanishes" (1938).
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/320937628.jpg)
Whitty with Olivia de Havilland in "Raffles" (1939).
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/320937626.jpg)
Whitty arriving in America in 1939.
She moved permanently to the USA (although she never became a U.S. citizen) in 1939 and continued to appear both on stage and in Hollywood films where she usually played wealthy dowagers. She proved herself equally capable of playing working-class roles.
Her other films include, "Raffles", "A Bill of Divorcement" with Maureen O'Hara, "Suspicion", "Forever and a Day", "Crash Dive", "The Constant Nymph" with Joan Fontaine, "Lassie Come Home", "Madame Curie", "Gaslight", "The White Cliffs of Dover", "My Name Is Julia Ross", "Devotion", "Green Dolphin Street", "If Winter Comes", "The Return of October", etc.
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/321194647.jpg)
Whitty with Maureen O'Hara in "A Bill of Divorcement" (1940).
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/321194644.jpg)
Whitty comforting Joan Fontaine in "Suspicion" (1941).
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/321194642.jpg)
(1942)
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/321194639.jpg)
Oscar nominee Whitty & Oscar winner Teresa Wright for "Mrs. Miniver".
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/321194653.jpg)
(1943)
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/321194652.jpg)
Whitty with Lassie in "Lassie Come Home" (1943).
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/321194651.jpg)
In "The White Cliffs of Dover" (1944) with Roddy McDowall.
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/321194650.jpg)
(1945)
The grand dame continued to act for the remainder of her life and died in Beverly Hills, California from cancer shortly after completeing her scenes in the film "The Sign of the Ram" at the age of 82 in 1948; her husband had died the previous year during surgery.
Their only child, a daughter born in the USA in 1905, Margaret Webster, was a stage actress and held dual US/UK citizenship. She died in 1972.
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/321194637.jpg)
The one and only Dame May Whitty.
Whitty was quoted: "I've got everything Betty Grable has . . . only I've had it longer."
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/321194649.jpg)