| Jessica Tandy | |
|---|---|
 Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn at the 1988 Emmy Awards | |
| Born | June 7 1909 London, England, UK
|
| Died | September 11 1994 (aged 85) Easton,Connecticut, U.S.
|
| Spouse(s) | Jack Hawkins (1932-1942) Hume Cronyn (1942-1994) |
Jessie Alice Tandy (June 7, 1909 – September 11 1994) was an Academy Award-winning British-born American stage and film actress.
Contents |
Biography
Early life
Tandy, the last of three children, was born in Geldeston Road in the London Borough of Hackney[1] to Jessie Helen Horspool, the head of a school for mentally handicapped children, and Harry Tandy, a travelling salesman for a rope manufacturer.[2] Her father died when Tandy was 12, and as a result her mother taught evening courses to increase the family's income. Tandy was educated at the Dame Alice Owen's School in the London Borough of Islington.
Career
After an acting career spanning some 65 years, Tandy found latter-day movie stardom in major studio releases and intimate dramas alike. From a young age she was determined to be an actress, and first appeared on the London stage in 1926, 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 first marriage (to Jack Hawkins), she moved to New York and met Canadian actor Hume Cronyn, who became her second husband and frequent partner on stage and screen. She made her American film debut in The Seventh Cross (1944). She also appeared in The Valley of Decision (1945), The Green Years (1946, ironically enough as Cronyn's daughter!), Dragonwyck (1946) starring Gene Tierney and Forever Amber (1947). After her Tony-winning performance as Blanche DuBois in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, (she lost the film role to actress Vivien Leigh) she concentrated on the stage. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1952. For the next 30 years, she appeared sporadically in films such as The Light in the Forest (1958), The Birds (1963), The World According to Garp (1982, as Glenn Close's mother) and Cocoon (1985, the latter two opposite Cronyn).
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), and the hit film Cocoon (1985), opposite Cronyn, with whom she reteamed for *batteries not included (1987) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). She and Cronyn had been working together more and more, on stage and television, to continued acclaim, notably in 1987's Foxfire which won her an Emmy Award (recreating her Tony winning Broadway role). However, it was her colorful performance in Driving Miss Daisy (1989), as an aging, stubborn Southern-Jewish matron, that made her a bona fide Hollywood star and earned her an Oscar. She was the oldest actor to ever win an Academy Award, beating out George Burns by less than a year. Tandy was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1990. She earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in the grassroots hit Fried Green Tomatoes (1992), and co-starred in The Story Lady (1991 telefilm, with daughter Tandy Cronyn), Used People (1992, as Shirley MacLaine's mother), To Dance with the White Dog (1993 telefilm, with husband Hume Cronyn), Nobody's Fool (1994), and Camilla (also 1994, with Cronyn). Camilla was to be her last performance, and it was bold in one way that she, at the age of about 84 and knowing that she was dying, had a brief nude scene, which could also be called "cheeky".
Personal life
Tandy married twice. Her first, to British actor Jack Hawkins, in 1932, produced one daughter, Susan Hawkins (born 1934). The couple divorced in 1942. Tandy remarried, to Canadian-American actor, Hume Cronyn, in 1942. The couple had two children, Tandy Cronyn, also an actress, and son Christopher Cronyn. Tandy and Cronyn remained together until her death in 1994. In 1990, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer which she battled fiercely for five years, during which she continued to work. She had previously been treated for angina and glaucoma. She died at home on September 11, 1994, in Easton, Connecticut, of ovarian cancer at the age of 85. Prior to moving to Connecticut, she lived with Cronyn for many years in nearby Pound Ridge, New York on land adjacent to their dear friends (and Cronyn's cousin), the producer Robert Whitehead and actress Zoe Caldwell.
Awards
- 1989 - Best Actress in a Leading Role, Driving Miss Daisy
- British Film Award
- 1989 - Best Actress, Driving Miss Daisy
- 1987 - Best Actress-Miniseries/Special, Foxfire
- 1989 - Best Actress, Driving Miss Daisy
- 1979 - Chicago theatre
- 1994 - Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement shared with her husband, Hume Cronyn
- 1982 - Best Actress, Foxfire,
- 1978 - Best Actress (Play), The Gin Game
- 1948 - Best Actress (Dramatic), A Streetcar Named Desire
Selected Broadway credits
| Year | Production | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | A Streetcar Named Desire | Blanche DuBois | Tony Award |
| 1950 | Hilda Crane | Hilda Crane | |
| 1951 | The Fourposter | Agnes | |
| 1959 | Five Finger Exercise | Louise Harrington | |
| 1966 | A Delicate Balance | Agnes | |
| 1971 | Home | Marjorie | |
| 1977 | The Gin Game | Fonsia Dorsey | Tony Award |
| 1982 | Foxfire | Annie Nations | Tony Award |
| 1983 | The Glass Menagerie | The Mother | |
| 1986 | The Petition | Lady Elizabeth Milne | Nominated - Tony Award |
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1932 | The Indiscretions of Eve | Maid | |
| 1938 | Murder in the Family | Ann Osborne | |
| 1944 | The Seventh Cross | Liesel Roeder | |
| Blonde Fever | Diner at Inn | uncredited | |
| 1945 | The Valley of Decision | Louise Kane | |
| 1946 | Dragonwyck | Peggy O'Malley | |
| The Green Years | Kate Leckie | ||
| 1947 | Forever Amber | Nan Britton | |
| 1948 | A Woman's Vengeance | Janet Spence | |
| 1950 | September Affair | Catherine Lawrence | |
| 1951 | The Desert Fox | Frau Lucie Marie Rommel | |
| 1958 | The Light in the Forest | Myra Butler | |
| 1962 | Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man | Helen Adams | Nominated - Golden Globe |
| 1963 | The Birds | Lydia Brenner | |
| 1976 | Butley | Edna Shaft | |
| 1981 | Honky Tonk Freeway | Carol | |
| 1982 | The World According to Garp | Mrs. Fields | |
| Still of the Night | Grace Rice | ||
| Best Friends | Eleanor McCullen | ||
| 1984 | The Bostonians | Miss Birdseye | |
| 1985 | Cocoon | Alma Finley | |
| 1987 | *batteries not included | Faye Riley | |
| 1988 | The House on Carroll Street | Miss Venable | |
| Cocoon: The Return | Alma Finley | ||
| 1989 | Driving Miss Daisy | Daisy Werthan | Academy Award for Best Actress; BAFTA Award; Golden Globe |
| 1991 | Fried Green Tomatoes | Ninny Threadgoode | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; Nominated - BAFTA Award; Nominated - Golden Globe |
| 1992 | Used People | Freida | |
| 1994 | A Century of Cinema | Herself | documentary |
| Nobody's Fool | Beryl Peoples | ||
| Camilla | Camilla Cara |
References
External links
- Jessica Tandy at the Internet Movie Database
- Jessica Tandy at the Internet Broadway Database
- Jessica Tandy at Find A Grave
- Movie Magazine International Tribute
- NY Times September 12, 1994 Obituary
