Ann Robinson
Encyclopedia
Ann Robinson is an American
actress and stunt horse rider, perhaps best known for her work in the film, The War of the Worlds
and in the 1947 to 1970 radio and television series, Dragnet
, in which she starred opposite Jack Webb
.
. She attended Hollywood High School in the early 1950s. Her father was employed by the Bank of Hollywood
, on the corner of Hollywood and Vine, and she learned from him, at the age of three, how to ride horses. She became an accomplished rider, which led to her first professional work in Hollywood as a stunt rider.
Her career as a leading woman was effectively ended in 1957, when she eloped to Mexico to marry a matador
, Jaime Bravo
, with whom she had two sons; Jaime Bravo, Jr., who is a director for ABC Sports, and Estefan A. Bravo, who played the Axl Rose
-like character in White Trash Wins Lotto, a musical by Andy Prieboy
. Since that marriage, Robinson has played minor roles, mainly in science fiction films. The couple divorced in 1967 and the same year, Bravo married a Las Vegas showgirl from Les Folies Bergère, named Monica Lind, by whom he had his third and final son, Aleco Jaime Bravo, before he died in an automobile accident in 1970.
Ann married real estate broker and business manager Joseph Valdez in 1987 and lives with her husband in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, California. She makes guest appearances at autograph shows and science fiction conventions.
, starring and riding in several westerns during her career such as The Cimarron Kid (1951) with Audie Murphy
, Gun Brothers (1956), and Gun Duel in Durango (1957).
Paramount
signed her as an actress in the 1950s. Her first leading role was as "Sylvia Van Buren" in that studio's 1953 film, The War of the Worlds
, a role she quasi-reprised in two later films, first as Dr. Van Buren in 1988's Midnight Movie Massacre and then as Dr. Sylvia Van Buren in 2005's The Naked Monster, before reprising the role again in three episodes of the 1988 War of the Worlds
television series. She worked on several other films, including Imitation of Life
(1959), and Julie (1956).She also had a starring role opposite Jack Webb
, in the radio and television series Dragnet
, which was broadcast in multiple versions between 1947 and 1970.
She has worked on numerous television shows and commercials, some in guest starring roles, including credits on episodes of Adam 12, Alfred Hitchcock
, Bachelor Father, Ben Casey
, Biff Baker, USA, Bob Cummings Show, Burns and Allen
, Caesar Romero Series, Callie and Sons, Darren Mcgavin- Series, Days Of Our Lives
, Four Star Playhouse
, General Hospital
, Gilligans Island, It's A Great Life
, Millionaire
, My Little Margie
, Perry Mason
, Peter Gunn
, Police Woman
, Rawhide
, Rocky Jones Space Ranger, Roy Calhoun's series, The Texan
, The Web, Victor Jory
series, Waterfront, and Wyatt Earp
.
She was featured in several commercials for Home Savings Of America, Toni home perms, and Chesterfield Cigarettes. She also performed a number of film voice-overs also, in English and Spanish, in both of which she is fluent. She did the leading actress' voice in To Begin Again, which won the 1984 Oscar for best foreign film. She also did loops for the Bruce Lee Series, The Dead Are Alive
, Tough Guys
, and Survive
. In the 2005 Steven Spielberg
film, War of the Worlds
, she played the role of Tom Cruise's character's mother in law, the grandmother of Dakota Fanning's character.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress and stunt horse rider, perhaps best known for her work in the film, The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds (1953 film)
The War of the Worlds is a 1953 science fiction film starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It was the first on-screen loose adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic novel of the same name...
and in the 1947 to 1970 radio and television series, Dragnet
Dragnet (series)
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners...
, in which she starred opposite Jack Webb
Jack Webb
John Randolph "Jack" Webb , also known by the pseudonym John Randolph, was an American actor, television producer, director and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet...
.
Personal life
Robinson was born at the Hollywood Hospital, in Hollywood, CaliforniaHollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
. She attended Hollywood High School in the early 1950s. Her father was employed by the Bank of Hollywood
Bank of Hollywood
Bank of Hollywood is an American reality television series. Hosted by Bryan Callen, the show airs on E!. It is based on the U.K. series Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway, in which contestants must appeal to a celebrity panel in order to receive money, and produced by Ryan Seacrest.The panel consists...
, on the corner of Hollywood and Vine, and she learned from him, at the age of three, how to ride horses. She became an accomplished rider, which led to her first professional work in Hollywood as a stunt rider.
Her career as a leading woman was effectively ended in 1957, when she eloped to Mexico to marry a matador
Matador
A torero or toureiro is a bullfighter and the main performer in bullfighting, practised in Spain, Colombia, Portugal, Mexico, France and various other countries influenced by Spanish culture. In Spanish, the word torero describes any of the performers who actively participate in the bullfight...
, Jaime Bravo
Jaime Bravo
Jaime Bravo was a Mexican matador during the 1950s and 1960s. Bravo was known for death defying style and numerous relationships with women and Hollywood starlets.-Early life:...
, with whom she had two sons; Jaime Bravo, Jr., who is a director for ABC Sports, and Estefan A. Bravo, who played the Axl Rose
Axl Rose
W. Axl Rose is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is the lead vocalist and only remaining original member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he enjoyed great success and recognition in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before disappearing from the public eye for several years...
-like character in White Trash Wins Lotto, a musical by Andy Prieboy
Andy Prieboy
Andy Prieboy is a musician, author, and former morgue attendant. He was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in East Chicago, Indiana....
. Since that marriage, Robinson has played minor roles, mainly in science fiction films. The couple divorced in 1967 and the same year, Bravo married a Las Vegas showgirl from Les Folies Bergère, named Monica Lind, by whom he had his third and final son, Aleco Jaime Bravo, before he died in an automobile accident in 1970.
Ann married real estate broker and business manager Joseph Valdez in 1987 and lives with her husband in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, California. She makes guest appearances at autograph shows and science fiction conventions.
Acting career
As a stunt horse rider, Ann Robinson doubled for Shelly Winters in the 1950 film FrenchieFrenchie
Frenchie is a 1950 American film of the western genre, directed by Louis King and starring Shelley Winters, Joel McCrea and Marie Windsor.The plot is loosely based on the western Destry Rides Again.-Plot:...
, starring and riding in several westerns during her career such as The Cimarron Kid (1951) with Audie Murphy
Audie Murphy
Audie Leon Murphy was a highly decorated and famous soldier. Through LIFE magazine's July 16, 1945 issue , he became one the most famous soldiers of World War II and widely regarded as the most decorated American soldier of the war...
, Gun Brothers (1956), and Gun Duel in Durango (1957).
Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
signed her as an actress in the 1950s. Her first leading role was as "Sylvia Van Buren" in that studio's 1953 film, The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds (1953 film)
The War of the Worlds is a 1953 science fiction film starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It was the first on-screen loose adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic novel of the same name...
, a role she quasi-reprised in two later films, first as Dr. Van Buren in 1988's Midnight Movie Massacre and then as Dr. Sylvia Van Buren in 2005's The Naked Monster, before reprising the role again in three episodes of the 1988 War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds (TV series)
War of the Worlds is a television program that ran for two seasons, from 1988 to 1990. The series is an extension of the original 1953 film The War of the Worlds, using the same War Machine, often incorporating aspects from the film, radio adaptation, and original novel into its mythology.Though...
television series. She worked on several other films, including Imitation of Life
Imitation of Life (1959 film)
Imitation of Life is a 1959 American film directed by Douglas Sirk, produced by Ross Hunter and released by Universal Pictures, starring Lana Turner and John Gavin and features Sandra Dee, Dan O'Herlihy, Susan Kohner, Robert Alda and Juanita Moore as Annie Johnson. Gospel music star Mahalia Jackson...
(1959), and Julie (1956).She also had a starring role opposite Jack Webb
Jack Webb
John Randolph "Jack" Webb , also known by the pseudonym John Randolph, was an American actor, television producer, director and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet...
, in the radio and television series Dragnet
Dragnet (series)
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners...
, which was broadcast in multiple versions between 1947 and 1970.
She has worked on numerous television shows and commercials, some in guest starring roles, including credits on episodes of Adam 12, Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, Bachelor Father, Ben Casey
Ben Casey
Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, *, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." Neurosurgeon Joseph...
, Biff Baker, USA, Bob Cummings Show, Burns and Allen
Burns and Allen
Burns and Allen, an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen, worked together as a comedy team in vaudeville, films, radio and television and achieved great success over four decades.-Vaudeville:...
, Caesar Romero Series, Callie and Sons, Darren Mcgavin- Series, Days Of Our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
, Four Star Playhouse
Four Star Playhouse
Four Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953...
, General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
, Gilligans Island, It's A Great Life
It's a Great Life
It's a Great Life is an American situation comedy which aired on NBC from 1954 to 1956...
, Millionaire
Millionaire
A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account...
, My Little Margie
My Little Margie
My Little Margie is an American situation comedy that alternated between CBS and NBC from 1952 to 1955. The series was created by Frank Fox and produced in Los Angeles, California at Hal Roach Studios by Hal Roach, Jr. and Roland D...
, Perry Mason
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...
, Peter Gunn
Peter Gunn
Peter Gunn is an American private eye television series which aired on the NBC and later ABC television networks from 1958 to 1961. The show's creator was Blake Edwards...
, Police Woman
Police Woman (TV series)
Police Woman is an American television police drama starring Angie Dickinson that ran on NBC for four seasons, from September 13, 1974, to March 29, 1978.-Synopsis:...
, Rawhide
Rawhide (TV series)
Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
, Rocky Jones Space Ranger, Roy Calhoun's series, The Texan
The Texan (TV series)
The Texan is a Western television series starring popular B movie star Rory Calhoun. It aired on the CBS television network from 1958-1960.-Production notes:...
, The Web, Victor Jory
Victor Jory
Victor Jory was a Canadian actor.-Biography:Born in Dawson City, Yukon, Jory was the boxing and wrestling champion of the Coast Guard during his military service, and he kept his burly physique. He toured with theater troupes and appeared on Broadway, before making his Hollywood debut in 1930...
series, Waterfront, and Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American gambler, investor, and law enforcement officer who served in several Western frontier towns. He was also at different times a farmer, teamster, bouncer, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee. However, he was never a drover or cowboy. He is most well known...
.
She was featured in several commercials for Home Savings Of America, Toni home perms, and Chesterfield Cigarettes. She also performed a number of film voice-overs also, in English and Spanish, in both of which she is fluent. She did the leading actress' voice in To Begin Again, which won the 1984 Oscar for best foreign film. She also did loops for the Bruce Lee Series, The Dead Are Alive
The Dead Are Alive
- Plot :Between Spoleto and Cerveteri, someone kills young couples, inspiring himself to the frescos of a grave etrusca in which the demon Tuchulca appears...- Cast :...
, Tough Guys
Tough Guys
Tough Guys is a 1986 comedy starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Eli Wallach and Dana Carvey. It was directed by Jeff Kanew.Lancaster and Douglas made several films together, including I Walk Alone , Gunfight at the O.K. Corral , The Devil's Disciple , and Seven Days in May , becoming something...
, and Survive
Survive
Survive is the verb form of survival, and may also refer to:*Survive *Survive , or the title song*Survive *Survive , or the title song*"Survive"...
. In the 2005 Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
film, War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds (2005 film)
War of the Worlds is a 2005 American science fiction film adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp. It is one of three film adaptations of War of the Worlds released that year, alongside The Asylum's version and...
, she played the role of Tom Cruise's character's mother in law, the grandmother of Dakota Fanning's character.