
Flora Robson (1902-1984) graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, winning a bronze medal, and started her acting career on the stage. While not considered a typical Hollywood beauty, she excelled in character roles and especially as regal figures, portraying Queen Elizabeth I twice onscreen. She was named a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1960, and continued working through the 1980s. Let’s take a look at her historical costume work!
Empress Elisabeth in The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934)

Queen Elizabeth in Fire Over England (1937)


Livia in I, Claudius (1937)

Ellen in Wuthering Heights (1939)

Queen Elizabeth in The Sea Hawk (1940)

Angelique Buiton in Saratoga Trunk (1945)

Ftatateeta in Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)

Sister Philippa in Black Narcissus (1947)

Countess Platen in Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948)

Nurse in Romeo and Juliet (1954)

Mrs. Haggard in The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958)

Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi in 55 Days at Peking (1963)

Mrs. Cassidy in Young Cassidy (1965)

Miss Binns in 7 Women (1965)

Betsey Trotwood in David Copperfield (1966)

Grandmother in Heidi (1974)

Mrs. Umney in The Canterville Ghost (1974)

The Prioress in Les Miserables (1978)

Miss Pross in A Tale of Two Cities (1980)



What’s your favorite of Flora Robson’s frock flick roles?
we share a birthday!
Robson’s great as Ellen, the “Wuthering” narrator, although the role is underwritten for the screen. I like her characterful face.
If this post did nothing else, it gave me a happy mental image of Dame Flora Robson, Dame Glenda Jackson, Bette Davis and Cate Blanchett getting to share a screen and scheme together.
Real Life could not possibly support such a concentration of Awesome on a single screen, I fear.
Also, if the pictures attached to this article are anything to go by, Hollywood was too stupid to know what it was using if it tried to pretend that Dame Flora Robson was anything but an extremely attractive woman.
Thanks! Still waiting for a Margaret Tyzack WCW!
Oh, yes please to Margaret Tyzack! (Sorry to say I haven’t seen any of these with Flora Robson, but with such a distinguished career, maybe I should…)
I guess if you are going to be typecast, you could do worse than being typecast as commanding nuns, queens, empresses and woman who make you cower in fear.
My goodness, that’s a young Ian McKellen in that David Copperfield picture!
Dame Flora was one of a generation of great theatrical Dames – Sybil Thorndyke, Edith Evans, Margaret Rutherford, Peggy Ashcroft… They dominated theatre and TV older ladies as Rigg, Smith, Dench, Jackson, Mirren et al have done in our time. Wonderful women and wonderful performers, all. They all made their names in straight theatre, which included a lot of frock roles, but is much more ephemeral than film.
McKellen was only 27 at the time!
Obsessively watched Wuthering Heights at high school in the early 80s – loved her in that and I think I saw Fire Over England back in the day, although I can barely remember it – (may have had a massive crush on Laurence Olivier!)
I just love her, my second favorite Elizabeth I.