Ann Robinson, who became a science-fiction icon playing Sylvia Van Buren in the 1953 Oscar-winning adaptation of “War of the Worlds,” has died. She was 96.
Her granddaughter, Tori Bravo, confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday, May 17, 2026. Robinson died at her home in Los Angeles on September 26, 2025, though her death was not made public until this past weekend. It remains unclear why her death went unreported for nearly eight months.
Robinson anchored the 1953 feature based on H.G. Wells’ novel, playing a library science teacher swept into the apocalyptic chaos of an alien invasion. Opposite Gene Barry, the famous redhead starred in a film that would go on to win an Academy Award for Best Special Effects and become a touchstone of mid-century science fiction — a role that would shadow, and ultimately define, the rest of her career.
She leaned into the association with humor and affection across the decades. In one interview, Robinson quipped, “I’ve gotten more mileage out of War of the Worlds than Vivien Leigh did on Gone With the Wind.”
She wasn’t wrong. Robinson would return to versions of the Sylvia Van Buren character again and again — in the 1988 cult oddity “Midnight Movie Massacre,” in “The Naked Monster,” and across three episodes of the “War of the Worlds” television series that aired in the late 1980s. Few actors have so thoroughly intertwined themselves with a single role over so many decades.
From Stunt Rider to Leading Lady
Long before she ran from death rays, Robinson rode horses. She began her career as a Hollywood stunt woman and stunt rider, breaking into professional acting with her appearance in the 1950 film “Frenchie.” A string of Westerns followed, including 1951’s “The Cimarron Kid,” before the role of Sylvia Van Buren transformed her trajectory.
A Career Beyond the Martians
Though “War of the Worlds” eclipsed everything else on her résumé, Robinson worked steadily across film and television for decades. In 1954, she appeared opposite Jack Webb and Ben Alexander in the feature-film adaptation of “Dragnet,” a role that traded on her ability to hold her own in tightly wound, dialogue-heavy scenes.
Television became fertile ground. Robinson turned up in “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Perry Mason,” “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp,” “Days of Our Lives,” and “General Hospital,” moving easily between suspense, soap, and Western — the latter a fitting return to the genre that had launched her.
A Reunion With Spielberg and Cruise
The most prominent of those returns came in 2005, when Steven Spielberg recruited Robinson and Gene Barry to appear in his big-budget adaptation starring Tom Cruise. Robinson appeared in a cameo as the grandmother of a family seeking shelter — a wink to longtime fans and a tribute from a director who had grown up on the 1953 picture.
Robinson later recalled meeting Spielberg on set with obvious delight, describing him as “so adorable” and recounting how he crouched behind her, placed three fingers on her left shoulder, and requested someone photograph the moment. “War of the Worlds” was one of his favorite films growing up, she noted.
Robinson never quite escaped Sylvia Van Buren, and she didn’t seem to want to. She returned to the character whenever asked, joked about being typecast, and embraced the fan conventions and retrospectives that came with being part of a film that helped define a genre. In an industry that often discards its veterans, she remained accessible and unmistakable: the redhead from the 1953 picture, still running from Martians more than 70 years later.
Her personal life carried its own storylines. Robinson married Jaime Bravo in 1957, and the couple had two sons before divorcing in 1967. She married Joseph Valdez in 1987; that marriage ended in divorce in 2017.
She is survived by her family, including the two sons she shared with Jaime Bravo, and her granddaughter, Tori Bravo.
