Agnes Dobson | |
---|---|
![]() Agnes Dobson, 1922 | |
Born |
Glebe Point, New South Wales, Australia | 30 December 1904
Died | 26 February 1987
Oakleigh, Victoria, Australia | (aged 82)
Other names | Agnes Grey |
Citizenship | Australia |
Agnes May Dobson (30 December 1904 – 26 February 1987) was an Australian actress.
Agnes Dobson was born on 30 December 1904, at Glebe Point, in Sydney, Australia, though her birth was not registered. [1] Dobson's parents were New Zealand-born actor and theatre manager Collet Barker Dobson, and actor Harriet Agnes Thornton (née Meddings) who performed under her stage name Harrie Collet. [1] Agnes Dobson's first stage performance was as a baby in a cradle for a production by her father's theatre company. [1]
Dobson began her career-proper aged 7 in Little Lord Fauntleroy, [2] another of her father's productions, [3] before she was sent to school and left the stage again until her teenage years. [4]
She appeared in one of Australia's first silent films, 1919's The Face at the Window, [5] and found success playing a damsel in distress in 1919 comedy film Barry Butts In. [3] During production of that film, a member of the public thought Dobson's kidnapping was real and attempted to save her and interrupted the filming. [6] [7]
Dobson also wrote plays, and in 1936 her work Dark Brother tied for second prize in the Adelaide Advertiser's Centenary playwright competition. [3] [8]
She opened her own stagecraft studio in 1935, [5] and ran the Crawford School of Broadcasting when it was founded in 1952 with fellow actor Moira Carlton. [9]
In the late 1950s and 1960s Dobson appeared as Mrs Sharpshott on ABC Melbourne's radio serial The Village Glee Club. [10] [11] [7]
Dobson wrote an autobiography, An Australian Speaks of Many Things, but it was never published. [12] Chapters are held by the National Film and Sound Archive. [13]
The papers of Agnes Dobson are held by the National Library of Australia. [14]
Dobson married actor and playwright Frederick Stanley Holah (also known as Ronald Riley) in 1921 when she was 19. They had a son William John also known as Bill Barclay (1921-1970). [1] [2]
The marriage ended in divorce, and Dobson remarried in 1924 to salesman George Oliver Clapcott Barclay. They were divorced in 1931. [1]
Dobson remarried in 1932 to Wilfred Thornton, a business manager, but the marriage was dissolved in 1934. [1]
In her later years, Dobson lived in a nursing home in Oakleigh, Victoria, with support from the Actors' Benevolent Fund. [1]
She died in the nursing home on 26 February 1987. [1]