Jessica Tandy

Jessica Tandy

Birth name: Jessica Alice Tandy
Born: June 7, 1909
Died: September 11, 1994 (at age 85)
Birthplace: Hackney, London, England
Popularity:
Biography

Jessica Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 - 11 September 1994) was an English-American stage and film actress, who spent most of her 67-year career in the United States. She appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV.

Born in London to Jessie Helen Horspool (daughter of John Thomas Horspool and Martha Waddilow, both of fenland descent) and commercial traveller Harry Tandy, she was only 18 when she made her professional debut on the London stage in 1927. During the 1930s, she appeared in a large number of plays in London's West End, playing roles such as Ophelia (opposite John Gielgud's legendary Hamlet) and Katherine (opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V). During this period, she also worked in a couple of British films. Following the end of her marriage to the British actor Jack Hawkins, she moved to New York in 1940, where she met Canadian actor Hume Cronyn. He became her second husband and frequent partner on stage and screen.

She received the Tony Award for best performance by a Leading Actress in A Play for her performance as Blanche Dubois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948. Tandy shared the prize with Katharine Cornell (who won for the female lead in Antony and Cleopatra) and Judith Anderson (for the latter's portrayal of Medea) in a three-way tie for the award. Over the following three decades, her career continued sporadically and included a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's horror film, The Birds (1963), and a Tony Award-winning performance in The Gin Game (1977, playing in the two-hander play opposite Hume Cronyn). Along with Cronyn, she was a member of the original acting company of the Guthrie Theater.

In the mid-1980s she had a career revival. She appeared with 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.

Early life

The youngest of three siblings, Tandy was born in Geldeston Road in Hackney, London. Her mother, Jessie Helen Horspool was the head of a school for mentally handicapped children who was from a large fenland family in Wisbech, Cambs, and her father, Harry Tandy, was a travelling salesman for a rope manufacturer. Her father died when Tandy 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 the Far East. Tandy was educated at Dame Alice Owen's School in Islington. Her birth name was Jessie Alice Tandy.

Acting career

Tandy began her career at the age of 18 in London, establishing herself with performances opposite such actors as Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud. She entered films in Britain, but after her marriage to Jack Hawkins failed, she moved to the United States. In 1942, she married Hume Cronyn and over the following years played supporting roles in several Hollywood films. Tandy became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1952.

Like so many stage actors, Tandy had a hand in radio, as well. Among other programs, she was a regular on Mandrake the Magician (as Princess Nada), and then with husband Hume Cronyn in The Marriage which ran on radio from 1953 to 1954, and then segued onto television.

She made her American film debut in The Seventh Cross (1944). She also appeared 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). Over the next three decades, her film career continued sporadically, including 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 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 (play).

The beginning of the 1980s saw a resurgence in her film career, with character roles in The World According to Garp, 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 Cocoon (1985), *batteries not included (1987) and 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.

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 telefilm, with daughter Tandy Cronyn), Used People (1992, as Shirley MacLaine's mother), television film To Dance with the White Dog (1993, with Cronyn), Nobody's Fool (1994), and Camilla (also 1994, with Cronyn). Camilla proved to be her last performance, at the age of 84.

Other awards

Tandy was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1990.

  • 1979 - Induction into the American Theatre Hall of Fame
  • 1979 - Sarah Siddons Award Chicago theatre
  • 1986 - Drama Desk Special Award
  • 1986 - Kennedy Center Honors Recipient.
  • 1990 - National Medal of Arts
  • 1991 - Women in Film Crystal Award
  • 1994 - Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement shared with her husband, Hume Cronyn

Personal life

Tandy's first marriage to English actor Jack Hawkins in 1932, produced one daughter, Susan Hawkins (born 1934). The couple divorced in 1940. Tandy married her second husband, Canadian actor Hume Cronyn, in 1942; the marriage lasted until her death in 1994. They had two children, daughter Tandy Cronyn (an actress who would co-star with her mother in the NBC telefilm The Story Lady), and son Christopher.

Death

Prior to moving to Connecticut, she lived with Cronyn for many years in nearby Pound Ridge, New York, and they remained together until her death in 1994. In 1990, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and fought it for the next four years. Tandy also suffered from angina and glaucoma. Despite all this and her advancing age, she continued working. She died at home on 11 September 1994 in Easton, Connecticut, at age 85.

Work

Broadway credits

Year Title Role Notes
1940 Jupiter Laughs Dr. Mary Murray
1942 Yesterday's Magic daughter Cattrin
1947 Streetcar Named Desire, AA Streetcar Named Desire Blanche DuBois Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play
1950 Hilda Crane Hilda Crane
1951 Fourposter, TheThe Fourposter Agnes
1959 Five Finger Exercise Louise Harrington
1966 Delicate Balance, AA Delicate Balance Agnes
1971 Home Marjorie
1977 Gin Game, TheThe Gin Game Fonsia Dorsey Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding 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 Glass Menagerie, TheThe Glass Menagerie Amanda Wingfield
1986 Petition, TheThe Petition Lady Elizabeth Milne Nominated — Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1932 The Indiscretions of Eve Maid
1938 Murder in the Family Ann Osborne
1944 Seventh Cross, TheThe Seventh Cross Liesel Roeder
1944 Blonde Fever Diner at Inn uncredited
1945 Valley of Decision, TheThe Valley of Decision Louise Kane
1946 Dragonwyck Peggy O'Malley
1946 Green Years, TheThe Green Years Kate Leckie
1947 Forever Amber Nan Britton
1948 Woman's Vengeance, AA Woman's Vengeance Janet Spence
1950 September Affair Catherine Lawrence
1951 Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel, TheThe Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel Frau Lucie Maria Rommel
1956 Producers' Showcase !Producers' Showcase Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1957 Glass Eye, TheThe Glass Eye Julia Lester Short film presented in "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"
1958 Light in the Forest, TheThe Light in the Forest Myra Butler
1962 Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man Helen Adams Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1963 Birds, TheThe Birds Lydia Brenner
1975 Bicentennial Minute for August 31, 1775, Destruction of Boston's Liberty Tree Herself CBS Television Network, August 31, 1975 - Sponsor: Royal Dutch Shell
1976 Butley Edna Shaft
1981 Honky Tonk Freeway Carol
1982 World According to Garp, TheThe World According to Garp Mrs. Fields
1982 Still of the Night Grace Rice
1982 Best Friends Eleanor McCullen
1984 Bostonians, TheThe Bostonians Miss Birdseye
1984 Terror in the Aisles archival footage
1985 Cocoon Alma Finley Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actress
1987 *batteries not included Faye Riley Saturn Award for Best Actress
1987 Foxfire Annie Nations TV movie
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1988 House on Carroll Street, TheThe House on Carroll Street Miss Venable
1988 Cocoon: The Return Alma Finley Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actress
1989 Driving Miss Daisy Daisy Werthan Academy Award for Best Actress
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Silver Bear for the Best Joint Performance
Nominated — American Comedy Award for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture
Nominated — National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
Nominated — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
1991 Fried Green Tomatoes Ninny Threadgoode Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated — American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1991 Story Lady, TheThe Story Lady* Grace TV movie
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film
1992 Used People Freida
1993 To Dance with the White Dog Cora Peek TV movie
Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1994 Century of Cinema, AA Century of Cinema Herself documentary
1994 Camilla Camilla Cara Released posthumously
1994 Nobody's Fool Beryl Peoples Released posthumously

*Re-issued on DVD as The Christmas Story Lady

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1956 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Edwina Freel Episode: "Toby"
1957 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Julia Lester Episode: "The Glass Eye"
1958 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Laura Bowlby Episode: "The Canary Sedan"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]


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