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May Whitty
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<p>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 <a href="/facts/Equity_(British_trade_union)/1RKqfBh2">Equity</a> was established in her home in 1930. </p><p>Her film roles included <a href="/facts/Alfred_Hitchcock/LqkmpImQ">Alfred Hitchcock</a>'s thriller <i><a href="/facts/The_Lady_Vanishes/nL0TYqzG">The Lady Vanishes</a></i> (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 <a href="/facts/West_End_theatre/dWqroVfz">West End stage</a> and in <a href="/facts/Cinema_of_the_United_Kingdom/86G5BcEM">British films</a>, she moved over to <a href="/facts/Cinema_of_the_United_States/1HpkUBfd">Hollywood films</a> at the age of 72. </p>