A visitor to Footlight Notes, in whose e-mail address there appears to be an error, has written asking about Dame May Whitty. My reply is as follows:
Many thanks for signing my Footlight Notes Guestbook and for your enquiry regarding Dame May Whitty.
Yes, May Whitty and Dame May Whitty are one and the same person. Her stage career began, I believe, in England in the late 1880s; she was married to the well-known English actor manager, Ben Webster; and was awarded the DBE in 1918.
According to the Internet Movie Database (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0926599/), May Whitty began her film career in 1914, although she only became a familiar screen presence after the advent of the talkies, in the 1930s and 1940s. She died at the age of 83 in 1948.
I hope that will be of interest. - JC