Sylvia Van Buren

Background:

Stunt woman turned actress Ann Robinson is best recalled for playing Dr. Sylvia Van Buren in Paramount Pictures' successful science fiction movie “The War of the Worlds” (1953), opposite Gene Barry. Thirty five years later, she reprised the role on three episodes of the 1980’s television series “War of the Worlds,” which was considered an extension of the original 1953 film. She also played Sylvia Van Buren in the movies “Midnight Movie Massacre” (1988) and “The Naked Monster” (2005) and appeared in the films “The Glass Wall” (1953), “Dragnet” (1954), “Gun Brothers” (1956), “Gun Duel in Durango” (1957), “Damn Citizen” (1958) and “Imitation of Life” (1959). She received guest roles in a number of TV series during the mid 1950s to the early 1960s before taking a long term hiatus. More recently, she made a cameo appearance in Steven Spielberg's hit “War of the Worlds” (2005).

Robinson has been married twice. She shares two children with her first husband, Jaime Bravo (together from 1957 to 1967, died in 1970). Their son, Jaime A. Bravo, became a director for ABC Sports and ESPN and has received several Emmy Awards for his work. Robinson married her second and present husband, Joseph Valdez, in 1987.

Hollywood

Childhood and Family:

Ann Robinson was born on May 25, 1935, in Hollywood, California. Her father, who was named Parker, was a bank employee.

During the height of her career, Ann eloped to Mexico to marry matador Jaime Bravo in 1957. They had two sons, Jaime A. Bravo and Estefan Bravo, before they divorced in 1967. Three years later, Bravo died in a car accident. In 1987, Ann married her present husband, Joseph Valdez, who is a real estate broker.

Stunt Woman to Actress

Career:

Ann Robinson received her first acting experiences performing in school plays. Her professional career began in the late 1940s when she was hired as a stunt woman for the films “Black Midnight” (1949), “The Story of Molly X” (1949), and “Frenchie” (1950), where she was a double for Shelley Winters. She went on to have unaccredited parts in movies like “I Was a Shoplifter” (1950, starred Scott Bardy), “The Damned Don't Cry” (1950, starred Joan Crawford), “A Life of Her Own” (1950, starred Lana Tuner and Ray Milland), “Goodbye, My Fancy” (1951, starred Joan Crawford), “Callaway Went Thataway” (1951, starred Fred MacMurray and Howard Keel), “I Want You” (1951, starred Dana Andrews), “The Cimarron Kid” (1952, starred Audie Murphy), “Son of Ali Baba” (1952, starred Tony Curtis) and “City Beneath the Sea” (1953, starred Robert Ryan). She then supported Gloria Grahame and Vittorio Gassman in the 1953 Columbia Pictures drama “The Glass Wall,” which was directed by Maxwell Shane.

Robinson was eventually signed by Paramount Pictures. Despite the fact that she became one of Paramount's golden circle of new stars in the early 1950s, the Hollywood native had only one lead role at the studio, which was in “The War of the Worlds” (1953), where she portrayed Sylvia Van Buren opposite Gene Barry as Dr. Clayton Forrester. Produced by George Pál and directed by Byron Haskin from a script by Barré Lyndon, the film won an Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects and two additional Oscar nominations for Best Film Editing and Best Sound, Recording and went on to be regarded as one of the greatest science fiction movies of the 1950s.

After completing her duties with them, Robinson left Paramount for Warner Bros. and costarred with Jack Webb, Ben Alexander and Richard Boone in “Dragnet” (1954), a feature film adaptation of Webb's popular TV series of the same title. The same year, she also had an unaccredited part in the studio's musical “A Star is Born” which starred Judy Garland and was directed by George Cukor. Robinson then left Warner Bros. to sign a deal with independent producer Eddie Small, who featured her in a pair of westerns and loaned her services out to television producers.

Making her small screen debut in a 1953 episode of the anthology series “The Web,” Robinson landed subsequent guest roles in “Passport to Danger” (1954), “Stage 7” (1955), “Studio 57” (1955), “It's a Great Life” (1956), “Mike Hammer,” “The Millionaire” (1956) and “Cheyenne” (1955, 1957). She got her first recurring role in the short lived science fiction series “Rocky Jones, Space Ranger” (1954), playing Queen Juliandra. She then joined the cast of the family series “Fury” in the five episode role of Helen Watkins, which she played from 1955 to 1959. Meanwhile on the big screen, she portrayed roles in the westerns “Gun Brothers” (1956, costarred with Buster Crabbe), “Gun Duel in Durango” (1957, costarred with George Montgomery), the Oscar nominated thriller “Julie” (1956, starred Doris Day), the drama “Damn Citizen” (1958) and the Lana Turner starring drama “Imitation of Life” (1959).

Robinson's career received a setback after she married famous bullfighter Jaime Bravo in the late 1950s. Throughout the early 1960s, she only had guest stints in a string of television series, including “Manhunt,” “The Man and the Challenge,” “The Texan,” “Perry Mason,” “Bachelor Father” (all 1960), “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp,” “Dante,” “Peter Gunn,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Surfside 6” (all 1961), “Ben Casey” (1962) and “77 Sunset Strip” (1963). She eventually decided to put acting on the backburner to concentrate on her family.

In 1988, a year after becoming Mrs. Joseph Valdez, Robinson resurfaced in the film “Midnight Movie Massacre,” where she reprised the role of Dr. Sylvia Van Buren. She also recreated the role in three episodes of the “War of the Worlds” television series (1988-1989). In 1990, Robinson made a guest appearance in the failed remake “Adam 12,” where she portrayed Valerie Rose. This was followed with appearances in “Forrest J. Ackerman's Amazing Worlds of Science Fiction and Fantasy” (1991) and the documentaries “Hollywood Aliens & Monsters” (1997, TV) and “Drive-in Movie Memories” (2001), which won an Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2002 Bearfest - Big Bear Lake International Film Festival.

In 2005, Robinson again reprised her role of Sylvia Van Buren in the comedy “The Naked Monster,” which was co-directed by Wayne Berwick and Ted Newsom and starred Kenneth Tobey. The same year, she made a cameo appearance in “War of the Worlds,” a 2005 science fiction film adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel of the same title that was directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp and starred Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning. The film was a huge success at the box office.

Awards:
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