Hollywood is saying goodbye to one of sci-fi’s most unforgettable stars.
Ann Robinson, the fiery redhead best known for battling terrifying Martians in the 1953 cult classic The War of the Worlds, has died at the age of 96. The veteran actress quietly passed away Sept. 26 at her Los Angeles home, but news of her death was only just revealed by family members.
For generations of movie fans, Robinson became permanently linked to the iconic alien thriller that left audiences stunned during the golden age of Hollywood sci-fi.
Playing brave schoolteacher Sylvia Van Buren opposite actor Gene Barry, Robinson starred in the Oscar-winning alien invasion blockbuster based on H.G. Wells’ legendary novel. The film featured giant war machines, deadly heat rays and horrifying Martian creatures attacking Earth in scenes that terrified audiences in the 1950s.
One of the movie’s most chilling moments came when a Martian crept up behind Robinson’s character and placed its long, bony fingers on her shoulder before chaos erupted.
Years later, Robinson joked she actually felt sorry for the alien.
“I always thought maybe this Martian was the nice one,” she once laughed during an interview. “Maybe Gene Barry ruined a chance for peace by hitting him with a hatchet!”
The movie became such a beloved classic that legendary director Steven Spielberg personally invited Robinson back for a cameo in his 2005 remake starring Tom Cruise.
Robinson never forgot the experience.
“They treated me like royalty,” she said years later. “I waited 60 years to get that treatment!”
Before becoming a sci-fi icon, Robinson worked as a stuntwoman in Hollywood and admitted she exaggerated her experience just to land dangerous jobs.
In one early film, she became trapped on a 15-foot barbed-wire fence while filming an escape scene at a prison.
“I thought, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’” she later admitted.
Despite the fame War of the Worlds brought her, Robinson’s Hollywood career took an unexpected turn when she walked away from acting in the late 1950s to marry famous Mexican matador Jaime Bravo.
That decision, she later confessed, changed everything.
“When I got back home, Hollywood had passed me by,” she said. “I blew it.”
Still, Robinson remained a familiar face on television throughout the 1960s, appearing on classics including Perry Mason, Peter Gunn, Dragnet and 77 Sunset Strip.
And while many stars faded into obscurity, Robinson proudly embraced her sci-fi legacy for decades.
“I’ve gotten more mileage out of War of the Worlds than Vivien Leigh did on Gone With the Wind,” she once joked.
Robinson is survived by her son, Jaime Bravo Jr., grandson Sammy and granddaughter Tori Bravo.
For countless classic movie lovers, she’ll forever remain the woman who stared down the Martians — and lived to tell the story.
