Zeffie Tilbury
Known for: Acting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Zeffie Agnes Lydia Tilbury (November 20, 1863 – July 24, 1950) was an English actress. Tilbury was known first on the London stage and on Broadway in New York City. In 1881, she debuted on stage in Nine Points of the Law at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, England. She is today best known for playing wise or evil older characters in films, such as the distinguished lady gambler at dinner with Garbo in The Single Standard, as the pitiful Grandma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath and Grandma Lester in Tobacco Road. She appeared in over 70 films. Her earliest surviving silent film is the Valentino / Nazimova 1921 production of Camille. Tilbury is probably best remembered as the old lady who is befriended by Spanky and his friends on her birthday and, as a result, is transformed from a lonely, disagreeable recluse to a happy and loving carefree soul in the 1936 Hal Roach Our Gang comedy Second Childhood. In the same year she also portrayed the Gypsy Queen in the Laurel and Hardy film The Bohemian Girl. Tilbury was married twice. First to Arthur Frederick Lewis in June, 1887, and later to L. E. Woodthorpe, who died on April 8, 1915. She died in Los Angeles, California in 1950 at the age of 86.
Filmography
Series
MGM Parade
Self
1955
Film
The Grapes of Wrath
Grandma Joad
1940
Film
Camille
Old Duchess Bidding 3750 Francs
1936
Film
Tobacco Road
Grandma Lester
1941
Film
Marie Antoinette
Dowager at Birth of Dauphin (uncredited)
1938
Film
Boy Trouble
Mrs. Jepson
1939
Film
Parnell
Old Lady
1937
Film
Bachelor Bait
Miss Turner (uncredited)
1934
Film
Emergency Squad
Mrs. Cobb
1940
Film
Stranded
Old Hag (uncredited)
1935
Film
Anthony Adverse
Old Woman at Chalet
1936
Film
Alice Adams
Mrs. Dresser (uncredited)
1935
Film
Werewolf of London
Mrs. Moncaster
1935
Film
Bulldog Drummond Escapes
Drunk in Jail Cell
1937
Film
The Last Days of Pompeii
The Wise Woman (uncredited)
1935
Film
Desire
Aunt Olga
1936
Film
Camille
Prudence
1921
Film
Bad Boy
Deaf Woman
1935
Film
After the Thin Man
Aunt Lucy (uncredited)
1936
Film
Hideaway
Mrs. Beamish
1937
Film
Charlie Chan Carries On
Mrs. Luce
1931
Film
The White Angel
Woman Donating Sheets (uncredited)
1936
Film
Kidnapped
Old Woman
1938
Ocean Swells
Auntie
1934
Film
The Avalanche
Mrs. Ruyler
1919
Film
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Opium Woman
1935
Film
Mothers of Men
Mrs. De La Motte
1920
Film
Parole!
Molly Smith
1936
Film
The Earl of Chicago
Miss Nana (uncredited)
1940
Film
Midnight Taxi
Mrs. Lane
1937
Film
Lady of the Tropics
Woman Congratulating Manon
1939
Film
The Ship from Shanghai
Lady Daley
1930
Film
Woman Against Woman
Grandma
1938
Film
The Gorgeous Hussy
Mrs. Daniel Beall
1936
Film
Bulldog Drummond Comes Back
Zeffie
1937
Film
The Single Standard
Mrs. Handley
1929
Film
Blind Adventure
1933
Film
Balalaika
Natalya Petrovna
1939
Film
Tell No Tales
Miss Mary
1939
Film
Women Must Dress
Peg Martin
1935
Film
Mystery Liner
Granny Plimpton
1934
Film
Bulldog Drummond's Peril
Mrs. Weevens
1938
Film
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell
Mrs. Sanders
1939
Film
The Farmer Takes a Wife
Old Townswoman
1935
Film
Maid of Salem
Goody Hodgers
1937
Film
The Bohemian Girl
Gypsy Queen
1936
Film
Public Hero Number 1
Deaf Woman in Scottsdale Bar (uncredited)
1935
Film
Hunted Men
Flower Woman
1938
Film
It Happened in Hollywood
Miss Gordon
1937
Film
Made on Broadway
Aunt Ada
1933
Film
Under Cover of Night
Mrs. Nash
1937
Film
The Night of Love
Lady in Waiting
1927
Film
Sheriff of Tombstone
Granny Carson
1941
Film
Another Scandal
Brownie
1924
Film
Flying with Music
Fortune Teller
1942
Film
Comin' Round the Mountain
Granny Stokes
1940
Film
Federal Bullets
Mrs. Crippen
1937
Film
She Couldn't Say No
Ma Hawkins
1940
Film
Two Alone
Rogers' Neighbor (uncredited)
1934
Film
The King Without a Crown
Dying Duchess Marie (uncredited)
1937
Film
Rhythm in the Clouds
The Duchess de Lovely
1937
Film
Clothes
Mrs. Cathcart
1920
Film
Navy Wife
Bridge Player
1935
Film
Old Hutch
Elderly Woman in Bank
1936
Film
Give Me Your Heart
Esther Warren
1936
Grandma's Buoys
Grandma
1936
Film
Arrest Bulldog Drummond
Aunt Meg
1938
Film
Vamp Till Ready
Woman
1936
The Fuller Gush Man
Grandma
1934
Film
The Marriage of William Ashe
Lady Tranmore
1921
Film
Big Game
Aunt Sarah Winthrop
1921
Film
Blind Man's Luck
Mrs. Guerton
1917
Film
Second Childhood
Grandma
1936
Film
A Society Exile
Mrs. Stanley Shelby
1919