Jessica Tandy
Known for: Acting
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
Series
Golden Globe Awards
Self - Nominee
1944
Series
American Playhouse
Fonsia Dorsey
1982
Series
Tony Awards
Self - Award Accepter
1956
Series
Tony Awards
Self - Winner
1956
Series
Tony Awards
Self - Nominee
1956
Series
Tony Awards
Self (archive footage)
1956
Series
Tony Awards
Self - Nominee / Performer
1956
Series
Tony Awards
Self - Presenter
1956
Series
The Merv Griffin Show
Self
1962
Series
Intimate Portrait
Self
1993
Series
The Philco Television Playhouse
Liz Marriott
1948
Series
The F.B.I.
Ardyth Nolan
1965
Series
Studio One
Connaught O'Brien
1948
Series
Studio One
Mrs. Moore
1948
Series
The Ed Sullivan Show
Self
1948
Series
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Edwina Freel
1955
Series
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Julia Lester
1955
Series
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Laura Bowlby
1955
Series
Omnibus
1952
Series
Omnibus
Self - Reader
1952
Series
Omnibus
Louisa Catherine Johnson
1952
Series
Omnibus
Jackie
1952
Series
Telephone Time
1956
Series
Lights Out
1949
Series
The Kennedy Center Honors
Self
1978
Series
Dream On
(archive footage)
1990
Series
Judd, for the Defense
1967
Series
Judd, for the Defense
Helen Wister
1967
Series
Suspicion
1957
Series
Goodyear Television Playhouse
Leticia Blacklock
1951
Film
The Birds
Lydia Brenner
1963
Film
Fried Green Tomatoes
Ninny Threadgoode
1991
Film
Driving Miss Daisy
Daisy Werthan
1989
Film
Cocoon
Alma Finley
1985
Producers' Showcase
Agnes
1954
Film
*batteries not included
Faye Riley
1987
Film
Nobody's Fool
Beryl Peoples
1994
Film
Cocoon: The Return
Alma Finley
1988
Film
The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel
Frau Lucie Marie Rommel
1951
Film
The World According to Garp
Mrs. Fields
1982
Film
Dragonwyck
Peggy O'Malley
1946
Series
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Mrs. Martin
1951
Series
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Annie Nations
1951
Film
Still of the Night
Grace Rice
1982
Series
General Electric Theater
Laura Whitemore
1953
Film
The Bostonians
Miss Birdseye
1984
Film
The House on Carroll Street
Miss Venable
1988
Film
Best Friends
Eleanor McCullen
1982
Film
Used People
Freida
1992
Film
Forever Amber
Nan Britton
1947
Film
Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man
Mrs. Helen Adams
1962
Series
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Cora Torrence
1951
Series
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Bertha Jacks
1951
Film
Honky Tonk Freeway
Carol
1981
Film
Night of 100 Stars III
Self
1990
Film
Tennessee Williams' South
1973
Film
The Valley of Decision
Louise Kane
1945
Film
The Story Lady
Grace McQueen
1991
Film
The Light in the Forest
Myra Butler
1958
Film
The Seventh Cross
Liesel Roeder
1944
Film
A Woman's Vengeance
Janet Spence
1948
The Marriage
Liz Marriott
1954
Film
The Green Years
Kate Leckie
1946
Film
September Affair
Catherine Lawrence
1950
Film
Foxfire
Annie Nations
1987
Prudential Family Playhouse
1950
Film
A Streetcar on Broadway
Self (archive footage)
2006
Film
To Dance with the White Dog
Cora Peek
1993
Film
The Moon and Sixpence
Blanche Stroeve
1959
Film
Camilla
Camilla Cara
1994
Film
Blonde Fever
Restaurant Patron (uncredited)
1944
Film
Moments of Discovery: The Making of Fried Green Tomatoes
Self
1998
Film
The Gin Game
Fonsia Dorsey
1981
Film
Indiscretions of Eve
Penelope, the Maid
1932
Film
Miss Daisy's Journey: From Stage to Screen
Daisy Werthan (archive footage) (uncredited)
2003
Film
Butley
Edna Shaft
1974
Film
The Fourposter
1955
Murder in the Family
Ann Osborne
1938
The Christmas Tree
Mrs. Martin
1958
Film
Jessica Tandy: Theatre Legend to Screen Star
Self (archive footage)
2003
An African love story
Self
1996