Jessica Tandy
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- June 7, 1909
- Died
- September 11, 1994
- Birthplace
- London, England, UK
Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy (June 7, 1909 – September 11, 1994) was an English-American stage and film actress. She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films. Following the end of her marriage to Jack Hawkins, she moved to New York, where she met Canadian actor Hume Cronyn. He became her second husband and frequent partner on stage and screen. She won the Tony Award for her performance as Blanche Dubois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948, sharing the prize with Katherine Cornell (who won for Antony and Cleopatra) and Judith Anderson (for the latter's portrayal of Medea). Over the following three decades, her career continued sporadically and included a substantial role in Alfred Hitchcock's film, The Birds (1963), and a Tony Award-winning performance in The Gin Game (playing in the two-character play opposite her husband, Cronyn) in 1977. She, along with Cronyn was a member of the original acting company of The Guthrie Theater. In the mid 1980s she enjoyed a career revival. She appeared opposite Hume Cronyn in the Broadway production of Foxfire in 1983 and its television adaptation four years later, winning both a Tony Award and an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Annie Nations. During these years, she appeared in films such as Cocoon (1985), also with Cronyn. She became the oldest actress to receive the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Driving Miss Daisy (1989), for which she also won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). At the height of her success, she was named as one of People's "50 Most Beautiful People". She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1990, and continued working until shortly before her death.
Filmography
A Streetcar on Broadway 2006
as Self (archive footage)
James Dean: Forever Young 2005
as Self (archive footage)
Miss Daisy's Journey: From Stage to Screen 2003
as Daisy Werthan (archive footage) (uncredited)
Jessica Tandy: Theatre Legend to Screen Star 2003
as Self (archive footage)
Moments of Discovery: The Making of Fried Green Tomatoes 1998
as Self
- An African love story
An African love story 1996
as Self
Nobody's Fool 1994
as Beryl Peoples
Camilla 1994
as Camilla Cara
To Dance with the White Dog 1993
as Cora Peek
Used People 1992
as Freida
Fried Green Tomatoes 1991
as Ninny Threadgoode
The Story Lady 1991
as Grace McQueen
Night of 100 Stars III 1990
as Self
Driving Miss Daisy 1989
as Daisy Werthan
Cocoon: The Return 1988
as Alma Finley
The House on Carroll Street 1988
as Miss Venable
*batteries not included 1987
as Faye Riley
Foxfire 1987
as Annie Nations
Cocoon 1985
as Alma Finley
The Bostonians 1984
as Miss Birdseye
Best Friends 1982
as Eleanor McCullen
Still of the Night 1982
as Grace Rice
The World According to Garp 1982
as Mrs. Fields
Honky Tonk Freeway 1981
as Carol
The Gin Game 1981
as Fonsia Dorsey
Butley 1974
as Edna Shaft
Tennessee Williams' South 1973
as Self - Amanda Wingfield
The Birds 1963
as Lydia Brenner
Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man 1962
as Mrs. Helen Adams
The Moon and Sixpence 1959
as Blanche Stroeve
- The Christmas Tree
The Christmas Tree 1958
as Mrs. Martin
The Light in the Forest 1958
as Myra Butler
The Fourposter 1955
Actor
The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel 1951
as Frau Lucie Marie Rommel
September Affair 1950
as Catherine Lawrence
A Woman's Vengeance 1948
as Janet Spence
Forever Amber 1947
as Nan Britton
The Green Years 1946
as Kate Leckie
Dragonwyck 1946
as Peggy O'Malley
The Valley of Decision 1945
as Louise Kane
Blonde Fever 1944
as Restaurant Patron (uncredited)
The Seventh Cross 1944
as Liesel Roeder
- Murder in the Family
Murder in the Family 1938
as Ann Osborne
Indiscretions of Eve 1932
as Penelope, the Maid
Credits from TMDB.