Kathleen Mary Robinson (31 January 1901 – 28 December 1983) was an heiress and an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n actor and director.

Life

Robinson was born in 1901 in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda. Her parents were Mary Louise (born McKay) and the Irish-born pastoralist Matthew John McWilliam Robinson. She had a lonely childhood on the Toorale sheep station. It is on the western bank of the Darling River between Bourke and Louth where the Warrego merges with the

Darling river The Darling River (or River Darling; Paakantyi: ''Baaka'' or ''Barka''), is the third-longest river in Australia, measuring from its source in northern New South Wales to its confluence with the Murray River at Wentworth. Including its long ...

and is now a victim of drought. She boarded and studied at

Frensham School Frensham School is an independent non-denominational comprehensive single-sex preschool, primary, and secondary day and boarding school for girls, located at Mittagong, in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. Es ...

and her ambition was to be an actor. Her father objected and during his lifetime, she only acted in amateur productions. In the mid-1930s, Robinson went to London, to study theatre production at the

Westminster Theatre The Westminster Theatre was a theatre in London, on Palace Street in Westminster. History The structure on the site was originally built as the Charlotte Chapel in 1766, by William Dodd with money from his wife Mary Perkins. Through Peter Ri ...

and she helped the producer Osmund Daltry. She also directed and the actors included

Michael Wilding Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding (23 July 1912 – 8 July 1979) was an English stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for a series of films he made with Anna Neagle; he also made two films with Alfred Hitchcock, '' Under Capric ...

and the later playwright

Emlyn Williams George Emlyn Williams, CBE (26 November 1905 – 25 September 1987) was a Welsh writer, dramatist and actor. Early life Williams was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family at 1 Jones Terrace, Pen-y-ffordd, Ffynnongroyw, Flintshi ...

Minerva Theatre in Sydney as used by Kathleen Mary Robinson

Alec Coppel Alec Coppel (17 September 1907 – 22 January 1972) was an Australian-born screenwriter, novelist and playwright. He spent the majority of his career in London and Hollywood, specialising in light thrillers, mysteries and sex comedies. He is best ...

returned to Australia during WW2 in 1940 for his "health". He produced the play Ladies in Retirement in Australia which is how they met. He and Robinson founded Whitehall Productions, operating out of the stylish Minerva Theatre in Kings Cross. The first play they presented there was the world premiere of Coppel's ''Mr Smart Guy'' (1941). The huge theatre was seldom full, but they staged two plays every night. She and Coppel fell out in 1944 and he returned to the UK. Robinson took on new directors and founded new ideas. She had an accident at the same time as MGM wanted to convert the Minerva theatre into a cinema. She resisted but her company were moved out of the theatre while she was still in hospital. Robinson returned to Bowral where she spent her retirement translating works into Braile. She died there in 1983.

References

External links

Biography at ADB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Kathleen Mary 1901 births 1983 deaths People from St Kilda, Victoria Theatrical management Australian actors Australian directors