Her father discovered that Flora Robson had a talent for recitation and, from the age of five, she was taken around by horse and carriage to recite, and to compete in recitations. This established a pattern that remained with her. Flora Robson made her stage debut in 1921, aged 19. In cinema she was often chosen for character roles, notably that of Queen Elizabeth I in both Fire Over England (1937) and The Sea Hawk (1940). At the age of 32, Robson played the Empress Elizabeth in Alexander Korda’s Catherine the Great (1934). She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Ingrid Bergman’s servant in Saratoga Trunk (1945). That same year audiences in the U.K. and the U.S. watched her hypnotic performance as Ftatateeta, the nursemaid, royal confidante and assassin to Vivien Leigh’s Queen Cleopatra, in the screen adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). After the Second World War, demonstrating her range, she appeared in Holiday Camp (1947), the first of a series of films which featured the very ordinary Huggett family; as Sister Philippa in Black Narcissus (1947); as a magistrate in Goodtime Girl (1948); as a prospective Labour MP in Frieda (1947); and in costume melodrama, Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948). Her other film roles included the Empress Dowager Cixi in the 1963 film 55 Days at Peking, the Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1972), Livia in the abortively-attempted I, Claudius (1937), Miss Milchrest in Murder at the Gallop (1963).

Flora Robson struggled to find a footing in the theatre after she graduated from RADA with a bronze medal since she lacked the conventional good looks which were then an absolute requisite for actresses in dramatic roles (she had a long face with a big nose and a wide mouth). After touring in minor parts with Ben Greet’s Shakespeare company she may have played small parts for two seasons in the new repertory company at Oxford, alongside a youthful John Gielgud, but her contract was not renewed: she was told, as tactfully as possible, that they required a prettier actress. Unable to secure any acting engagements she gave up the stage at the age of 23 and in a disconsolate life-change she took up work as a welfare officer in the Shredded Wheat factory in Welwyn Garden City. For four years, Dame Flora, who would become one of the half dozen finest dramatic actresses of her generation, continued in this twilight zone until the young Tyrone Guthrie, due to direct a season at the new Festival Theatre, Cambridge, asked her to join his company. It was the dramatic making of her. Her acting – as the stepdaughter in Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an author – made her the theatrical talk of Cambridge. She followed on to as much excited applause with Isabella in Measure for Measure, opposite a youthful Robert Donat, Iphigenia, Pirandello’s Naked, the title role in Iphigenia, Varya in the Cherry Orchard and finally the huge challenge of Rebecca West in Ibsen’s Rosmersholm. These performances signalled the arrival of an actress who could either transmit emotional stress or simply hint at it, with rare power. Never again, in a career which was a constant struggle to achieve the roles worthy of her talents, would she have such a run of opportunities. In her second season, though, she had few dramatic opportunities and once again her lack of chocolate-box appeal meant that the management dispensed with her services.

Yet chance or destiny came to her rescue in the early 1930s, when Flora Robson was cast as the adulterous Abbie in Eugene O’Neill’s Desire under the Elms, a play which in that age of stage censorship was considered too shocking to be given a public performance. In the little club theatre, The Gate, near Charing Cross, she scored a direct hit with audiences and critics alike. It was, though, her brief, shocking appearance as the doomed prostitute in James Bridie’s play The Anatomist that put her firmly on the road to success. “If you are not moved by this girl’s performance, then you are immovable” the Observer critic wrote. This success would lead to her famous 1933 season as leading lady at the Old Vic, opposite Charles Laughton. By the end of it she was caught in the theatrical firmament as a star. She acted late into life, though not on the West End stage, from which she retired at the age of 67, latterly often for American television films, including a lavish production of A Tale of Two Cities (in which she played Miss Pross). She also gave performances for British television, including The Shrimp and the Anemone. In the 1960s she continued to act in the West End, in such plays as Ring Round the Moon, The Importance of Being Earnest and Three Sisters.

Dame Flora’s career ran down after her curious decision to leave the stage after The Old Ladies. However she continued to act on film and television, though the roles were often not rewarding at all. She was last briefly seen a Stygian Witch in the fantasy adventure Clash of the Titans in 1981. Both the BBC and ITV made special programmes to celebrate her 80th birthday in 1982 and the BBC ran a short season of her best films. Her private life was largely focused on her large family of sisters, nephews and nieces, who used the home in Wykeham Terrace, Brighton, which she shared with sisters, Margaret and Shela. Flora Robson died in Brighton, possibly from cancer, aged 82, although the exact cause was never revealed. She had never been married or had any children. The two sisters, with whom she shared her life and home, died around the same time: Shela shortly before Flora, in 1984, and Margaret on 1 February 1985.