Florence Roberts

Florence Roberts (March 16, 1861/1864 – June 6, 1940) was an American actress whose career spanned the stage and motion pictures across several decades. Born in New York City, she began her acting life in that city, with her earliest professional work at the Brooklyn Opera House in Hoop of Gold. Her stage training continued through engagements with the Denman Thompson Company, where she secured her first formal role, and with the N.B. Curtis Company, where she performed in leading parts.

Roberts built an extensive career in stock theater before and alongside her Broadway work. She headed a stock company in Philadelphia for fifteen years and performed with companies in Boston and other cities. Her stock work extended internationally, encompassing three world tours, a South African repertoire, and a tour of Australia with the Henry Duffy players. In the early 1900s she made annual tours under the direction of Frederick Belasco, and she also appeared in a production of Zala under David Belasco.

Her Broadway appearances ran from 1907 to 1917 and included The Claim, Diplomacy, Jim the Penman, and The Struggle Everlasting. Roberts had previously been associated with Frederick, Maryland, during her career.

Her transition to film came after Mack Sennett saw her onstage in Your Uncle Dudley and cast her in Grandma's Girl in 1930. Her earliest screen credits, however, dated to 1917 with A Wife's Suspicion and A Wise Dummy. The role for which she became most widely recognized on screen was Grandma in the Jones Family series, produced by 20th Century Fox, a part she continued through the 1939–1940 season.

Roberts married actor Walter Gale, and the couple had a son, Robert Gale. Her adopted son was actor Edward Everett Horton, with whom she had appeared in stock. Horton delivered her eulogy following her death from cardiovascular disease at her Hollywood home on June 6, 1940, which occurred three weeks after she returned from a vacation in Panama. She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, with funeral services held at Wee Kirk of the Heather.