Known For
Acting
Born
Jun 07, 1909
Died
Sep 11, 1994
Place of Birth
London, England
Credits
67 titles
Jessica Tandy
Biography
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.
Known For
Filmography
A Streetcar on Broadway
Self (archive footage)
Jessica Tandy: Theatre Legend to Screen Star
Self (archive footage)
Miss Daisy's Journey: From Stage to Screen
Daisy Werthan (archive footage) (uncredited)
Moments of Discovery: The Making of Fried Green Tomatoes
Self
An African love story
Self
Nobody's Fool
Beryl Peoples
Camilla
Camilla Cara
To Dance with the White Dog
Cora Peek
Intimate Portrait
Self
Used People
Freida
Fried Green Tomatoes
Ninny Threadgoode
The Story Lady
Grace McQueen
Dream On
(archive footage)
Night of 100 Stars III
Self
Driving Miss Daisy
Daisy Werthan
Cocoon: The Return
Alma Finley
The House on Carroll Street
Miss Venable
*batteries not included
Faye Riley
Foxfire
Annie Nations
Cocoon
Alma Finley
The Bostonians
Miss Birdseye
Best Friends
Eleanor McCullen
Still of the Night
Grace Rice
The World According to Garp
Mrs. Fields
American Playhouse
Fonsia Dorsey
Honky Tonk Freeway
Carol
The Gin Game
Fonsia Dorsey
The Kennedy Center Honors
Self
Butley
Edna Shaft
Tennessee Williams' South
Judd, for the Defense
The F.B.I.
Ardyth Nolan
The Birds
Lydia Brenner
The Merv Griffin Show
Self
Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man
Mrs. Helen Adams
The Moon and Sixpence
Blanche Stroeve
The Christmas Tree
Mrs. Martin
The Light in the Forest
Myra Butler
Suspicion
Telephone Time
Tony Awards
Self - Award Accepter
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Edwina Freel
The Fourposter
Producers' Showcase
Agnes
The Marriage
Liz Marriott
General Electric Theater
Laura Whitemore
Omnibus
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Mrs. Martin
The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel
Frau Lucie Marie Rommel
Goodyear Television Playhouse
Leticia Blacklock