AceShowbiz - Ann Robinson, the actress best known for her role in the iconic 1953 science fiction film The War of the Worlds, has passed away at the age of 96. Her granddaughter, Tori Bravo, confirmed that Robinson died on September 26 at her home in Los Angeles. The news of her passing was kept private until now.

Born in Hollywood, Ann Robinson began her career in the film industry as a stunt performer before becoming a contract player at Paramount Pictures. Although relatively inexperienced, she auditioned for producer and special effects pioneer George Pal, which led to her casting as Sylvia Van Buren, a library science teacher in The War of the Worlds.

The film, which won an Oscar and was adapted from H.G. Wells’ 1898 novel, centers on the efforts of Sylvia and Pacific Tech professor Clayton Forrester, played by Gene Barry, as they attempt to thwart Martians who have landed near Los Angeles and wreak havoc with a devastating heat-ray. The movie’s trailer dramatically states, “The nations of the world mobilize their armed might rushing to defend the Earth against the unknown weapon of the super race from the Red Planet! Is there nothing that can stop the Martians’ death machines?”

One of the film’s most memorable scenes features a Martian placing its long, slender fingers on Sylvia’s shoulder. Just as the alien menaces her, Clayton intervenes and kills the creature with a hatchet. Reflecting on this moment, Robinson once shared with author Tom Weaver for his 1994 book Attack of the Monster Movie Makers, “I always thought, ‘This guy might have been nice! Maybe we ruined a chance for peace because Gene Barry got overzealous and threw that hatchet.’”

She added, “This Martian was just coming up behind me to tap me on the shoulder - he wasn’t aggressive, he wasn’t mean. Of course, the Martians had blown my uncle apart, along with a bunch of other people, but maybe this guy was the nice one who wanted to negotiate.”

In 2005, when Steven Spielberg directed a new adaptation of The War of the Worlds starring Tom Cruise, he invited Robinson and Barry to reprise their original scene. Robinson recalled in a 2016 interview with Nick Thomas, “Steven was just so adorable. He came up behind me, squatted down and placed three fingers on my left shoulder and yelled, ‘Someone take my picture!’ Apparently, The War of the Worlds was one of his favorite films growing up.”

She described how the cast and crew treated her with great respect and admiration during filming. “They treated me like royalty,” Robinson said. “My son, who was with me, told me he heard people saying, ‘She’s here, she’s here!’ after we arrived on the set.” At the premiere held at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York, she was flown first class, stayed in a hotel overlooking Central Park, and her family was chauffeured in a limousine. “I waited 60 years to get that treatment!” she added.

Robinson also reprised her role as Sylvia Van Buren in a few episodes of the 1988-1990 syndicated television series adaptation of The War of the Worlds. She once joked to Weaver, “I’ve gotten more mileage out of The War of the Worlds than Vivien Leigh did on Gone With the Wind.”

Born on May 25, 1929, Robinson attended Hollywood High School and Sacred Heart Academy in La Canada Flintridge. Early in her career, she worked as a stunt double, including performing a dangerous scene involving a 15-foot barbed-wire fence in The Story of Molly X (1949), where she doubled for June Havoc.

Recalling her first stunt work, Robinson said, “I had lied like crazy to get the job, telling everybody how experienced I was! I looked and thought to myself, ‘What have I got myself into?’ But when you’re that young and stupid, nothing fazes you.”

She also performed horseback riding stunts in Black Midnight (1949), doubled for Shelley Winters in Frenchie (1950), and appeared as an extra in A Place in the Sun (1951), where director George Stevens gave her a line of dialogue.

Robinson joined the Circle Theatre in Hollywood and was signed by Paramount Pictures as part of its “Golden Circle” of promising young stars, earning $125 a week. After her role in The War of the Worlds and a loan-out to Columbia Pictures for the film noir The Glass Wall (1953), Paramount chose not to renew her contract.

In 1954, she appeared as an L.A. police officer opposite Jack Webb in the first Dragnet movie and played an alien queen on the syndicated children’s sci-fi show Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.

Robinson stepped away from acting in 1957 when she married Jaime Bravo, a renowned matador, in Mexico. She later admitted, “That blew my career right out of the water. When I got back home, Hollywood had passed me by. I just ruined it, I blew it.” The couple had two children before divorcing in 1967.

Despite this hiatus, Robinson appeared in the 1959 film Imitation of Life and guest-starred on numerous television shows during the 1960s, including Perry Mason, Bachelor Father, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Peter Gunn, Death Valley Days, and 77 Sunset Strip.

She is survived by her granddaughter Tori Bravo, her son Jaime Bravo Jr., who works as a director for ABC Sports and ESPN, and her grandson Sammy.