Agnes Dobson

Agnes Dobson
Agnes Dobson, 1922
Born(1904-12-30)30 December 1904
Glebe Point, New South Wales, Australia
Died26 February 1987(1987-02-26) (aged 82)
Oakleigh, Victoria, Australia
Other namesAgnes Grey
CitizenshipAustralia

Agnes May Dobson (30 December 1904 – 26 February 1987) was an Australian actress.

Career

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]

Personal life

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]

Select filmography

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wilson, Rose, "Dobson, Agnes (1904–1987)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 18 August 2023
  2. ^ a b "CAPABLE AGNES DOBSON". Inverell Times. 9 June 1947. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  3. ^ a b c "STARS OF THE AIR". Wodonga and Towong Sentinel. 25 April 1947. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  4. ^ Siddons, Jane (29 March 1919). "Round The Shows - Agnes Dobson". Daily News. p. 3.
  5. ^ a b "What Women Are Doing". The Australian Women's Weekly: 16. 23 March 1935.
  6. ^ Cettl, Robert (12 December 2010). Australian Film Tales. Wider Screenings TM. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-9870500-2-1.
  7. ^ a b Kizilos, Kathy (6 February 1981). "Focus on stars of yesterday". The Age. p. 14.
  8. ^ ""DARK BROTHER" A REAL SUCCESS". News. 7 December 1936. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  9. ^ Bazzani, Rozzi (17 April 2020). Hector. Australian Scholarly Publishing. ISBN 978-1-925003-73-4.
  10. ^ "Sentimental Journey - To Sydney". The Sydney Morning Herald. 6 November 1955. p. 74.
  11. ^ "The Glee Club's Curtain Is Coming Down". The Sydney Morning Herald, Women's Section. 17 November 1960. p. 4.
  12. ^ Harding, Barbara (2001). "Dramatic subversions: Agnes Dobson — an Australian actress speaks and dark brother". Journal of Australian Studies. 25 (71): 45–54. doi:10.1080/14443050109387719. ISSN 1444-3058.
  13. ^ "[DOBSON, AGNES : DOCUMENTATION] : [SET OF TWO DRAFT CHAPTERS FROM UNPUBLISHED AUTOBIOGRAPHY 'AN AUSTRALIAN ACTRESS TALKS']". colsearch.nfsa.gov.au. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  14. ^ "Papers of Agnes Dobson". Trove. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
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