Please Rewind Talent Wall

Ann Robinson

Ann Robinson’s Hollywood career began on horseback. Born in Hollywood on May 25, 1929, she attended Hollywood High School and learned to ride at the age of three, taught by her father. That early skill developed into professional stunt work: Robinson doubled for Shelley Winters in Frenchie before moving into acting herself. Paramount Pictures signed Robinson in the early 1950s, and her ability in the saddle remained part of her screen identity. She appeared in Westerns including The Cimarron Kid with Audie Murphy, Gun Brothers and Gun Duel in Durango. Yet her best-known leading role took her far from the familiar terrain of the Western. As Sylvia Van Buren opposite Gene Barry in The War of the Worlds, Robinson brought a grounded human presence to the 1953 science-fiction spectacle. Her film work also included Dragnet, opposite Jack Webb and Ben Alexander, the Doris Day thriller Julie and Imitation of Life. Television gave her room to move between genres. From 1955 to 1959, she appeared in ten episodes of Fury as teacher Helen Watkins, while other credits ranged from Cheyenne, Rawhide and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp to Perry Mason, Peter Gunn, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and General Hospital. Robinson also performed film voice-over work in English and Spanish, including the leading actress’s voice in To Begin Again, which won the 1984 Oscar for best foreign film. Her connection to The War of the Worlds proved especially durable. She returned to Sylvia Van Buren in three episodes of the 1988 television series and in later films, then appeared alongside Gene Barry in Steven Spielberg’s 2005 War of the Worlds. It was a fitting return for a performer whose career stretched from stunt riding and studio Westerns to one of 1950s science fiction’s defining productions.