Jessica Tandy | |
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Born | Jessie Alice Tandy 7 June 1909 Stoke Newington, London, England |
Died | 11 September 1994 85) | (aged
Citizenship |
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Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1927–1994 |
Spouses | |
Children | 3 |
Jessie Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was a British actress. She appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for playing Blanche DuBois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948, also winning for The Gin Game and Foxfire . Her films included Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds , Cocoon , Fried Green Tomatoes , and Nobody's Fool. At 80, she became the oldest actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Driving Miss Daisy .
The youngest of three siblings, Tandy was born in Geldeston Road in Hackney, London, to Harry Tandy and his wife, Jessie Helen Horspool. [1] Her mother was from a large fenland family in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, and the head of a school for mentally handicapped children, and her father was a travelling salesman for a rope manufacturer. [2] She was educated at Dame Alice Owen's School in Islington.
Her father died when she was 12, and her mother subsequently taught evening courses to earn an income. Her brother Edward was later a prisoner of war of the Japanese in Asia. [3]
Tandy was 18 years old when she made her professional debut on the London stage in 1927. During the 1930s, she acted in many plays in London's West End, playing Ophelia (opposite John Gielgud's legendary Hamlet) and Katherine (opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V). [4]
She entered films in Britain, but after her marriage to Jack Hawkins failed, she moved to the United States hoping to find better roles. During her time as a leading actress on the stage in London, she often had to fight over roles with her two rivals, Peggy Ashcroft and Celia Johnson. [5] In the following years, she played supporting roles in several Hollywood films.
Like many stage actors, Tandy also worked in radio. Among other programs, she was a regular on Mandrake the Magician [6] (as Princess Narda), and then with her second husband Hume Cronyn in The Marriage [7] which ran on radio from 1953 to 1954, and then segued onto television.
She made her American film debut in The Seventh Cross (1944, appearing alongside Cronyn). She had supporting appearances in The Valley of Decision (1945), The Green Years (1946, as Cronyn's daughter), Dragonwyck (1946) starring Gene Tierney and Vincent Price and Forever Amber (1947). She appeared as the insomniac murderess in A Woman's Vengeance (1948), a film noir adapted by Aldous Huxley from his short story "The Gioconda Smile".
Over the next three decades, her film career continued sporadically while she found better roles on the stage. Her roles during this time included The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951) opposite James Mason, The Light in the Forest (1958), and a role as a domineering mother in Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds (1963).
On Broadway, she won a Tony Award for her performance as Blanche Dubois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948. After this (she lost the film role to actress Vivien Leigh), she concentrated on the stage. In 1976, she and Cronyn joined the acting company of the Stratford Festival, and returned in 1980 to debut Cronyn's play Foxfire. [8] [9] In 1977, she earned her second Tony Award, for her performance (with Cronyn) in The Gin Game and her third Tony in 1982 for her performance, again with Cronyn, in Foxfire.
The beginning of the 1980s saw a resurgence in her film career, with character roles in The World According to Garp (with Cronyn), Best Friends , Still of the Night (all 1982) and The Bostonians (1984). She and Cronyn were now working together more regularly on stage and television, including the films Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), Cocoon (1985), *batteries not included (1987), Cocoon: The Return (1988), and the Emmy Award winning television film Foxfire (1987, recreating her Tony winning Broadway role).
However, it was her colourful performance in Driving Miss Daisy (1989), as an aging, stubborn Southern Jewish matron, that earned her an Oscar. [10]
She received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in the grassroots hit Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and co-starred in The Story Lady (1991 TV film, with her daughter Tandy Cronyn), Used People (1992, as Shirley MacLaine's mother), television film To Dance with the White Dog (1993, with Cronyn), and Camilla (1994, with Cronyn). Nobody's Fool (1994) proved to be her last performance, at the age of 84.
In 1932 Tandy married English actor Jack Hawkins and together they had a daughter, Susan Hawkins. [11] Susan became an actress and was the daughter-in-law of John Moynihan Tettemer, a former Passionist monk who authored I Was a Monk: The Autobiography of John Tettemer, and was cast in small roles in Lost Horizon and Meet John Doe . [12]
Tandy and Hawkins divorced in 1940. She married Canadian actor Hume Cronyn in 1942. [11] Prior to moving to Connecticut, she and Cronyn lived for many years in nearby Pound Ridge, New York, and they remained together until her death in 1994. They had two children, daughter Tandy Cronyn, an actress who co-starred with her mother in the TV film The Story Lady, and son Christopher Cronyn. Tandy became a naturalized citizen of the US in 1952.
In 1990, Tandy was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and she also suffered from angina and glaucoma. Despite her illnesses and advancing age she continued working. On September 11, 1994, she died at home in Easton, Connecticut, at the age of 85. [4] [13] [14]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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1930 | The Matriarch | Toni Rakonitz | |
1930 | The Last Enemy | Cynthia Perry | |
1938 | Time and the Conways | Kay | |
1939 | The White Steed | Nora Fintry | |
1940 | Geneva | Deaconess | |
1940 | Jupiter Laughs | Dr. Mary Murray | |
1941 | Anne of England | Abigail Hill | |
1942 | Yesterday's Magic | Daughter Cattrin | |
1947 | A Streetcar Named Desire | Blanche DuBois | Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play |
1950 | Hilda Crane | Hilda Crane | |
1951 | Madam, Will You Walk | Mary Doyle | |
1951 | The Fourposter | Agnes | |
1955 | The Man in the Dog Suit | Martha Walling | |
1955 | The Honeys | Mary | |
1959 | Triple Play | In Bedtime Story: Angela Nightingale In Portrait of a Madonna : Miss Lucretia Collins In A Pound on Demand : The Public | |
1959 | Five Finger Exercise | Louise Harrington | |
1964 | The Physicists | Fraulein Doktor Mathilde von Zahnd | |
1966 | A Delicate Balance | Agnes | |
1970 | Camino Real | Marguerite Gautier | |
1970 | Home | Marjorie | |
1971 | All Over | The Wife | |
1972 | Not I [15] | Mouth | Obie Award for Best Actress |
1974 | Noël Coward in Two Keys | In A Song at Twilight : Hilde Latymer In Come Into the Garden, Maud : Anna Mary Conklin | |
1977 | The Gin Game | Fonsia Dorsey | Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play |
1981 | Rose | Mother | Nominated—Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play Nominated—Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play |
1982 | Foxfire | Annie Nations | Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play |
1983 | The Glass Menagerie | Amanda Wingfield | |
1986 | The Petition | Lady Elizabeth Milne | Nominated—Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1948 | Actors Studio | Miss Lucretia Collins | Episode: "Portrait of a Madonna" |
1950 | Masterpiece Playhouse | Hedda | Episode: "Hedda Gabler" |
1951 | Lights Out | Episode: "Bird of Time" | |
1951 | Somerset Maugham TV Theatre | Episode: "The Man from Glasgow" | |
1951 | Prudential Family Playhouse | Jane Crosby | Episode: "Icebound" |
1951 | Betty Crocker Star Matinee | Episode: "The Weak Spot" | |
1951–1957 | Studio One | Various | 2 episodes |
1953–1956 | Omnibus | Various | 5 episodes |
1954 | The Marriage | Liz Marriott | 8 episodes |
1955 | Producers' Showcase | Agnes | Episode: "The Fourposter" Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie |
1955 | The Philco Television Playhouse | Liz Marriott | Episode: "Christmas 'til Closing" |
1955–1956 | Goodyear Television Playhouse | Various | 2 episodes |
1956 | The United States Steel Hour | Alice Wiggims | Episode: "The Great Adventure" |
1956 | Star Stage | Episode: "The School Mistress" | |
1956 | The Alcoa Hour | Olivia Crummit | Episode: "The Confidence Man" |
1956 | General Electric Theater | Laura Whitemore | Episode: "The Pot of Gold" |
1956 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Edwina Freel | Season 2 Episode 6: "Toby" |
1957 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Julia Lester | Season 3 Episode 1: "The Glass Eye" |
1957 | Studio 57 | Miss Bedford | Episode: "Little Miss Bedford" |
1957 | Suspicion | Episode: "Murder Me Gently" | |
1957–1958 | Schlitz Playhouse of Stars | Various | 2 episodes |
1958 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Laura Bowlby | Season 3 Episode 37: "The Canary Sedan" |
1958 | Telephone Time | Bertha Kinsky | Episode: "War Against War" |
1959 | The Ed Sullivan Show | The Public | Episode #12.34 |
1959 | DuPont Show of the Month | Mrs. Baines | Episode: "The Fallen Idol" |
1959 | The Moon and Sixpence | Blanche Stroeve | Television movie |
1964 | Breaking Point | Roberta Duncan | Episode: "Glass Flowers Never Drop Petals" |
1968 | Judd, for the Defense | Helen Wister | Episode: "Punishments, Cruel and Unusual" |
1972 | O'Hara, U.S. Treasury | Genevieve | Episode: "Operation: Dorias" |
1972 | The F.B.I. | Ardyth Nolan | Episode: "The Set-Up" |
1972 | Norman Corwin Presents | Episode: "A Foreign Field" | |
1975 | Bicentennial Minutes | Herself | Episode #1.424 |
1981 | The Gin Game | Fonsia Dorsey | Television movie |
1987 | Foxfire | Annie Nations | Television movie Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie |
1991 | The Story Lady† | Grace McQueen | Television movie Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film |
1993 | To Dance with the White Dog | Cora Peek | Television movie Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie |
†Re-issued on DVD as The Christmas Story Lady
Tandy was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1990. [17]
A Streetcar Named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of personal losses, leaves her once-prosperous situation to move into a shabby apartment in New Orleans rented by her younger sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley.
Susan Mary Cooper is an English author of children's books. She is best known for The Dark Is Rising, a contemporary fantasy series set in England and Wales, which incorporates British mythology such as the Arthurian legends and Welsh folk heroes. For that work, in 2012 she won the lifetime Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association, recognizing her contribution to writing for teens. In the 1970s two of the five novels were named the year's best English-language book with an "authentic Welsh background" by the Welsh Books Council. In 2024, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association named her the 40th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master in recognition of her significant contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy.
Hume Blake Cronyn Jr. was a Canadian-American actor and writer. He appeared in many stage productions, television and film roles throughout his career, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Seventh Cross (1944).
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Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress. After making her Broadway debut as Rita in Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss in 1990, Parker came to prominence for film roles in Grand Canyon (1991), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), The Client (1994), Bullets over Broadway (1994), A Place for Annie (1994), Boys on the Side (1995), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), and The Maker (1997). Among stage and independent film appearances thereafter, Parker received the 2001 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Catherine Llewellyn in David Auburn's Proof, among other accolades. Between 2001 and 2006, she recurred as Amy Gardner in the NBC television series The West Wing, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2002. She received both a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy Award for her portrayal of Harper Pitt in the acclaimed HBO television miniseries Angels in America in 2003.
Lois Maureen Stapleton was an American actress. She received numerous accolades becoming one of the few actors to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting winning an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Tony Awards. She has also received a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award.
Keith Ian Carradine is an American actor. In film he is known for his roles as Tom Frank in Robert Altman's Nashville, E. J. Bellocq in Louis Malle's Pretty Baby, and Mickey in Alan Rudolph's Choose Me. On television he is known for his roles as Wild Bill Hickok on the HBO series Deadwood, FBI agent Frank Lundy on the Showtime series Dexter, Lou Solverson in the first season of FX's Fargo, Penny's father Wyatt on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, and U.S. President Conrad Dalton on the CBS political drama Madam Secretary.
Alfred Fox Uhry is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has received an Academy Award, two Tony Awards and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for dramatic writing for Driving Miss Daisy. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
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Frances Hussey Sternhagen was an American actress. She was known as a character actress who appeared on- and off-Broadway, in movies, and on television for over six decades. Sternhagen received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award and a Saturn Award, as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Hilda Crane is a 1956 American drama film made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Philip Dunne and produced by Herbert B. Swope Jr. from a screenplay adapted by Dunne from the play by Samson Raphaelson. The music score was by David Raksin and the cinematography by Joseph MacDonald. The film was made in Technicolor and Cinemascope.
The Gin Game is a two-person, two-act play by Donald L. Coburn that premiered at American Theater Arts in Hollywood in September 1976, directed by Kip Niven. It was Coburn's first play, and the theater's first production. The play won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The Fourposter is a play written by Jan de Hartog. The two-character story spans 35 years, from 1890 to 1925, as it focuses on the trials and tribulations, laughters and sorrows, and hopes and disappointments experienced by Agnes and Michael throughout their marriage. The set consists solely of their bedroom, dominated by the large, fourposter bed in the centre of the room. Among the couple's milestones are the consummation of their marriage, the birth of their first child, Michael's success as a writer, his extramarital affair, their daughter's wedding, and their preparations to move to smaller quarters and pass their home on to another newlywed couple.
Eliot Wigginton is an American oral historian, folklorist, writer and former educator. He is most widely known for developing with his high school students the Foxfire Project, a writing project consisting of interviews and stories about Appalachia. The project was developed into a magazine and series of best-selling Foxfire books. The series comprised essays and articles by high school students from Rabun County, Georgia focusing on Appalachian culture. In 1987, Wigginton was named "Georgia Teacher of the Year," and in 1989, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
The Green Years is a 1946 American drama film directed by Victor Saville and featuring Charles Coburn, Tom Drake, Beverly Tyler and Hume Cronyn. It was adapted by Robert Ardrey and Sonya Levien from A. J. Cronin's 1944 novel of the same name. It tells the story of the coming-of-age of an Irish orphan in Scotland.
The 48th Annual Tony Awards was broadcast by CBS from the Gershwin Theatre on June 12, 1994. The hosts were Sir Anthony Hopkins and Amy Irving.
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