Jessica Tandy
{{Short description|British actress (1909–1994)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Jessica Tandy
| birth_name = Jessie Alice Tandy
| image = Jessica Tandy 1959.jpg
| caption = Tandy in 1959
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1909|06|07|df=y}}
| birth_place = Stoke Newington, London, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1994|09|11|1909|06|07|df=y}}
| death_place = Easton, Connecticut, US
| resting_place =
| citizenship = {{plainlist|
- United Kingdom
- United States (from 1952)
}}
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Jack Hawkins|1932|1940|end=div}}
- {{marriage|Hume Cronyn|1942}}
}}
| children = 3
| occupation = Actress
| education =
| years_active = 1927–1994
}}
Jessie Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was a British actress. An icon in the film industry, she appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for playing Blanche DuBois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948, also winning for The Gin Game and Foxfire. Her films included The Birds, Cocoon, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Nobody's Fool. At 80, she became the oldest actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Driving Miss Daisy.
Early life
The youngest of three siblings, Tandy was born in Geldeston Road in Hackney, London, to Harry Tandy and his wife, Jessie Helen Horspool.[http://www.hackney.gov.uk/servapps/pressrelease/prnov98/pr356.htm Jessica Tandy's family to unveil plaque to commemorate star's Hackney birthplace 19 November 1998]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}; accessed 10 May 2007 Her mother was from a large Fenland family in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, and the head of a school for disabled children, and her father was a travelling salesman for a rope manufacturer.[http://blog.oup.com/2007/02/the_academy_awa/ "The Academy Awards: A Look At Jessica Tandy"]. Oxford University Press. February 2007. She was educated at Dame Alice Owen's School in Islington.
Her father died when she 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 Asia.{{cite book| last=Kelly| first=Terence| title=Living with Japanese| publisher=Kellan Press| year=1977| page=136| isbn=978-0-9530-1930-4}}
Career
File:Jessica Tandy with Kim Hunter and Marlon Brando. cph.3b23243.jpg and Marlon Brando) portrayed Blanche in the original 1947 Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire, a role that earned her the 1948 Tony Award for Best Actress.]]
Tandy was 18 years old when she made her professional debut on the London stage in 1927. During the 1930s, she acted in many plays in London's West End, playing Ophelia (opposite John Gielgud's legendary Hamlet) and Katherine (opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V).{{cite news |last=Berger |first=Marilyn |author-link=Marilyn Berger |date=12 September 1994 |title=Jessica Tandy, a Patrician Star Of Theater and Film, Dies at 85 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/12/obituaries/jessica-tandy-a-patrician-star-of-theater-and-film-dies-at-85.html?searchResultPosition=3&login=email&auth=login-email&login=facebook&auth=login-facebook |url-access=subscription |access-date=14 April 2024 |newspaper=The New York Times}}
She entered films in Britain, but after her marriage to Jack Hawkins failed, she moved to the United States hoping to find better roles. During her time as a leading actress on the stage in London, she often had to fight over roles with her two rivals, Peggy Ashcroft and Celia Johnson.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/26/garden/at-home-with-hume-cronyn-and-jessica-tandy-the-driven-mr-and-mrs-daisy.html| title=At Home with Cronyn and Tandy| newspaper=The New York Times| date=May 26, 1994| access-date=12 September 2016| url-access=subscription}} In the following years, she played supporting roles in several Hollywood films.
Like many stage actors, Tandy also worked in radio. Among other programs, she was a regular on Mandrake the Magician{{cite book| last=Cronyn| first=Hume| title=Terrible Liar: A Memoir| year=1991| publisher=William Morrow| location=New York| isbn=978-0-6881-2844-9| page=[https://archive.org/details/terribleliar00hume/page/159 159]| url=https://archive.org/details/terribleliar00hume/page/159}} (as Princess Narda), and then with her second husband Hume Cronyn in The Marriage{{sfn|Cronyn|1991|pages=[https://archive.org/details/terribleliar00hume/page/253 253–54]}} which ran on radio from 1953 to 1954, and then segued onto television.
She made her American film debut in The Seventh Cross (1944; appearing alongside Cronyn). She had supporting appearances 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). She appeared as the insomniac murderess in A Woman's Vengeance (1948), a film noir adapted by Aldous Huxley from his short story "The Gioconda Smile".
Over the next three decades, her film career continued sporadically while she found better roles on the stage. Her roles during this time included 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).
File:Jessica Tandy The Glass Eye Hitchcock 1957.JPG "The Glass Eye" (1957)]]
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 1976, she and Cronyn joined the acting company of the Stratford Festival, and returned in 1980 to debut Cronyn's play Foxfire.{{cite web| url=https://archives.stratfordfestival.ca/AIS/Details/people/9878| title=Jessica Tandy acting credits| website=Stratford Festival Archives| access-date=30 May 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190531030726/https://archives.stratfordfestival.ca/AIS/Details/people/9878| archive-date=31 May 2019| url-status=dead}}{{cite news| last=Blackadar| first=Bruce| date=10 May 1980| title=Hume Cronyn turns playwright with Foxfire| newspaper=Toronto Star| page=F1}} In 1977, she earned her second Tony Award, for her performance (with Cronyn) in The Gin Game. The following year the production transferred to London's Lyric Theatre, where Tandy was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Actress of the Year in a New Play.{{Cite web |title=Olivier Winners 1979 |url=https://officiallondontheatre.com/olivier-awards/winners/olivier-winners-1979/ |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=Olivier Awards |language=en-GB}} Her third Tony came in 1982 for her performance, again with Cronyn, in Foxfire.
The beginning of the 1980s saw a resurgence in her film career, with character roles in The World According to Garp (with Cronyn), 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 Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), Cocoon (1985), *batteries not included (1987), 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.{{cite news| title=Miss Daisy, Jessica Tandy Win Top Oscars| newspaper=Chicago Tribune| date=27 March 1990| url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/03/27/miss-daisy-jessica-tandy-win-top-oscars/| access-date=7 November 2010}}
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 TV film, with her daughter Tandy Cronyn), Used People (1992, as Shirley MacLaine's mother), television film To Dance with the White Dog (1993, with Cronyn), and Camilla (1994, with Cronyn). Nobody's Fool (1994) proved to be her last performance, at the age of 84.
Personal life and death
File:Jessica Tandy & Hume Cronyn.jpg
In 1932, Tandy married English actor Jack Hawkins and together they had a daughter, Susan Hawkins.{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-06-18-ca-14212-story.html| title=Life After Jessie: For 52 years, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy shared the love story of the century. Her death last year devastated him, but his love lives on.| last=Champlin| first=Charles| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| date=June 18, 1995| access-date=November 10, 2020}} Susan became an actress and was the daughter-in-law of John Moynihan Tettemer, a former Passionist monk who authored I Was a Monk: The Autobiography of John Tettemer, and was cast in small roles in Lost Horizon and Meet John Doe.{{cite web| url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/persondetails/87016?sid=124efb53-ac38-4d71-9a20-ecdd093756fd&sr=0.8908708&cp=1&pos=0| title=John Tettemer| website=American Film Institute Catalog| accessdate=5 May 2018}}
Tandy and Hawkins divorced in 1940. She married Canadian actor Hume Cronyn in 1942. Prior to moving to Connecticut, she and Cronyn lived for many years in nearby Pound Ridge, New York, and they remained together until her death in 1994. They had two children, daughter Tandy Cronyn, an actress who co-starred with her mother in the TV film The Story Lady, and son Christopher Cronyn. Tandy became a naturalised citizen of the US in 1952.
In 1990, Tandy was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and she also suffered from angina and glaucoma. Despite her illnesses and advancing age she continued working. On September 11, 1994, she died at home in Easton, Connecticut, at the age of 85.{{cite web| last1=Shipman| first1=David| title=Obituary: Jessica Tandy| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-jessica-tandy-1448550.html| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220608/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-jessica-tandy-1448550.html| archive-date=8 June 2022| url-access=subscription| url-status=live| newspaper=The Independent| location=London| date=12 September 1994| access-date=11 June 2019}}{{cite news| title=From the Archives: Jessica Tandy, Star of Stage, Screen and TV, Dies at 85| url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/archives/la-me-jessica-tandy-19940912-snap-story.html| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| date=12 September 1994| access-date=11 June 2019}}
Work
=US stage credits=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes |
|---|
| 1930
|{{sortname|The|Matriarch|Gladys Bronwyn Stern}} |Toni Rakonitz | |
| 1930
|{{sortname|The|Last Enemy|The Last Enemy (play)}} |Cynthia Perry | |
| 1938
|Kay | |
| 1939
|{{sortname|The|White Steed|The White Steed}} |Nora Fintry | |
| 1940
|Deaconess | |
| 1940
|Dr. Mary Murray | |
| 1941
|Anne of England |Abigail Hill | |
| 1942
|Yesterday's Magic |Daughter Cattrin | |
| 1947
|{{sortname|A|Streetcar Named Desire|dab=play}} |
| 1950
|Hilda Crane |Hilda Crane | |
| 1951
|Madam, Will You Walk |Mary Doyle | |
| 1951
|{{sortname|The|Fourposter}} |Agnes | |
| 1955
|The Man in the Dog Suit |Martha Walling | |
| 1955
|{{sortname|The|Honeys|The Honeys (play)}} |Mary | |
| 1959
|Triple Play |In Bedtime Story: Angela Nightingale | |
| 1959
|Louise Harrington | |
| 1964
|{{sortname|The|Physicists}} |Fraulein Doktor Mathilde von Zahnd | |
| 1966
|{{sortname|A|Delicate Balance|dab=play}} |Agnes | |
| 1970
|Marguerite Gautier | |
| 1970
|Home |Marjorie | |
| 1971
|All Over |The Wife | |
| 1972
|Not I{{cite journal| title=Theatre in Review| first=Gordon M.| last=Wickstrom| url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3205842| journal=Educational Theatre Journal| volume=25| number=1| date=March 1973| pages=102–104| jstor=3205842| url-access=subscription}} |Mouth |
| 1974
|Noël Coward in Two Keys |In A Song at Twilight: Hilde Latymer | |
| 1977
|{{sortname|The|Gin Game}} |Fonsia Dorsey |Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play |
| 1981
|Rose |Mother |Nominated—Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play |
| 1982
|Annie Nations |Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play |
| 1983
|{{sortname|The|Glass Menagerie}} |Amanda Wingfield | |
| 1986
|{{sortname|The|Petition|nolink=yes}} |Lady Elizabeth Milne |Nominated—Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play |
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes |
|---|
| 1932
|Maid | |
| 1938
|Ann Osborne | |
| 1944
|{{sortname|The|Seventh Cross|dab=film}} |Liesel Roeder | |
| 1944
|Diner at Inn |Uncredited |
| 1945
|{{sortname|The|Valley of Decision}} |Louise Kane | |
| 1946
|{{sortname|The|Green Years|dab=film}} |Kate Leckie | |
| 1946
|Peggy O'Malley | |
| 1947
|Nan Britton | |
| 1948
|{{sortname|A|Woman's Vengeance}} |Janet Spence | |
| 1950
|Catherine Lawrence | |
| 1951
|{{sortname|The|Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel}} |Frau Lucie Maria Rommel | |
| 1958
|{{sortname|The|Light in the Forest|dab=film}} |Myra Butler | |
| 1962
|Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man |Helen Adams |Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture |
| 1963
|{{sortname|The|Birds|dab=film}} |Lydia Brenner | |
| 1976
|Edna Shaft | |
| 1981
|Carol | |
| 1982
|{{sortname|The|World According to Garp|dab=film}} |Mrs. Fields | |
| 1982
|Grace Rice | |
| 1982
|Eleanor McCullen | |
| 1984
|{{sortname|The|Bostonians|dab=film}} |Miss Birdseye | |
| 1984
|Herself |Archival footage |
| 1985
|Alma Finley |Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress |
| 1987
|Faye Riley |
| 1988
|{{sortname|The|House on Carroll Street}} |Miss Venable | |
| 1988
|Alma Finley |Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress |
| 1989
|Daisy Werthan |Academy Award for Best Actress |
| 1991
|Ninny Threadgoode |Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1992
|Freida | |
| 1994
|A Century of Cinema |Herself |Documentary |
| 1994
|Camilla Cara |Released posthumously |
| 1994
|Beryl Peoples |Released posthumously (final film role) |
=Television=
| class="wikitable sortable" | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948
|Miss Lucretia Collins |Episode: "Portrait of a Madonna" | |||
| 1950
|Hedda |Episode: "Hedda Gabler" | |||
| 1951
| |Episode: "Bird of Time" | |||
| 1951
| |Episode: "The Man from Glasgow" | |||
| 1951
|Jane Crosby |Episode: "Icebound" | |||
| 1951
| |Episode: "The Weak Spot" | |||
| 1951–1957
|Various |2 episodes | |||
| 1953–1956
|Various |5 episodes | |||
| 1954
|Liz Marriott |8 episodes | |||
| 1955
|{{sort|Producers' Showcase}} |Agnes |Episode: "The Fourposter" | |||
| 1955
|The Philco Television Playhouse |Liz Marriott |Episode: "Christmas 'til Closing" | |||
| 1955–1956
|Goodyear Television Playhouse |Various |2 episodes | |||
| 1956
|Alice Wiggims |Episode: "The Great Adventure" | |||
| 1956
| |Episode: "The School Mistress" | |||
| 1956
|Olivia Crummit |Episode: "The Confidence Man" | |||
| 1956
|Laura Whitemore |Episode: "The Pot of Gold" | |||
| 1956
|Edwina Freel |Season 2 Episode 6: "Toby" | |||
| 1957
|Julia Lester |Season 3 Episode 1: "The Glass Eye" | |||
| 1957
|Miss Bedford |Episode: "Little Miss Bedford" | |||
| 1957
| |Episode: "Murder Me Gently" | |||
| 1957–1958
|Various |2 episodes | |||
| 1958
|Laura Bowlby |Season 3 Episode 37: "The Canary Sedan" | |||
| 1958
|Bertha Kinsky |Episode: "War Against War" | |||
| 1959
|The Public |Episode #12.34 | |||
| 1959
|Mrs. Baines |Episode: "The Fallen Idol" | |||
| 1959
|Blanche Stroeve |Television movie | |||
| 1964
|Roberta Duncan |Episode: "Glass Flowers Never Drop Petals" | |||
| 1968
|Helen Wister |Episode: "Punishments, Cruel and Unusual" | |||
| 1972
|Genevieve |Episode: "Operation: Dorias" | |||
| 1972
|Ardyth Nolan |Episode: "The Set-Up" | |||
| 1972
| |Episode: "A Foreign Field" | |||
| 1975
|Herself |Episode #1.424 | |||
| 1981
|Fonsia Dorsey |Television movie | |||
| 1987
|Annie Nations |Television movie | |||
| 1991
|{{sortname|The|Story Lady|nolink=yes}} |Grace McQueen |Television movie | |||
| 1993
|Cora Peek |Television movie |
Other awards
Tandy was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1990.{{cite journal| url=https://people.com/archive/beautiful-through-the-years-vol-47-no-18/| title=Beautiful Through the Years| journal=People| language=en| access-date=1 February 2019}}
- 1979 – Induction into the American Theatre Hall of Fame[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/188816%7C82278/jessica-tandy#notes "Notes for Jessica Tandy"]. Turner Classic Movies. Accessed 11 July 2016.
- 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{{cite web| title=Past Recipients: Crystal Award| url=http://wif.org/past-recipients| website=Women In Film| access-date=10 May 2011| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724120329/http://www.wif.org/past-recipients| archive-date=24 July 2011}}
- 1994 – Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement shared with her husband, Hume Cronyn
References
{{Reflist|35em}}
External links
{{Commons category|Jessica Tandy}}
- {{IBDB name}}
- {{iobdb name|14991}}
- {{IMDb name|1788}}
- {{playbill person}}
- [http://www.shoestring.org/mmi_revs/jessica-tandy.html Movie Magazine International Tribute]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721054307/http://www.nea.gov/honors/medals/medalists_year.html#86#90 Lifetime Honors – National Medal of Arts]
- [https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/12/obituaries/jessica-tandy-a-patrician-star-of-theater-and-film-dies-at-85.html?searchResultPosition=3&login=email&auth=login-email&login=facebook&auth=login-facebook Obituary]—The New York Times, 12 September 1994
- [http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=187787&lang=eng Katharine Cronyn Harley fonds (R11163)] at Library and Archives Canada. The fonds includes many records related to Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn.
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Jessica Tandy
|list =
{{AcademyAwardBestActress 1981-2000}}
{{BAFTA Award for Best Actress 1980-1999}}
{{Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress}}
{{David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress}}
{{DramaDesk PlayOutstandingActress 1975-2000}}
{{Distinguished Performance Award}}
{{EmmyAward MiniseriesLeadActress 1976-2000}}
{{GoldenGlobeBestActressMotionPictureMusicalComedy 1981-2000}}
{{Kennedy Center Honorees 1980s}}
{{National Medal of Arts recipients 1990s}}
{{Saturn Award for Best Actress}}
{{Special Tony Award}}
{{TonyAward PlayLeadActress}}
}}
{{Triple Crown of Acting winners}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tandy, Jessica}}
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:20th-century British actresses
Category:Actresses from London
Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners
Category:Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:David di Donatello winners
Category:Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
Category:Deaths from ovarian cancer in the United States
Category:Drama Desk Award winners
Category:English emigrants to the United States
Category:Actors educated at Dame Alice Owen's School
Category:Special Tony Award recipients
Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients
Category:People from Easton, Connecticut
Category:Kennedy Center honorees
Category:English expatriate actresses in the United States
Category:Actors from the London Borough of Hackney