May Whitty

West End actress Dame May Whitty (the first theatre and film actress to ever achieve damehood) officially entered Hollywood with her role as Mrs. Bramson in the 1937 film "Night Must Fall," for which she nabbed an Academy Award nomination. One of Whitty's best-remembered roles came with her turn as the mysterious disappearing governess Miss Froy in the Hitchcock thriller "The Lady Vanishes."

She performed consistently throughout the '30s and '40s with some of the biggest names of the era including Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine, and earned her second Oscar nomination for portraying Lady Beldon in the 1942 drama "Mrs. Miniver."