Jessica Tandy

Known for ActingBorn 1909-06-07Died 1994-09-11London, England

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.Read more

Movies & web series

An African love story

Tennessee Williams' South

The Fourposter

Indiscretions of Eve

Moments of Discovery: The Making of Fried Green Tomatoes

Murder in the Family

The Gin Game

Hallmark Hall of Fame

Fried Green Tomatoes

Judd, for the Defense

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

The Kennedy Center Honors

The Birds

To Dance with the White Dog

Driving Miss Daisy

Foxfire

Miss Daisy's Journey: From Stage to Screen

Dream On

The Valley of Decision

Nobody's Fool

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

Golden Globe Awards

The Moon and Sixpence

*batteries not included

A Streetcar on Broadway

The Marriage

Cocoon

The World According to Garp

Butley

General Electric Theater

Cocoon: The Return

Producers' Showcase

The Ed Sullivan Show

The Seventh Cross

The Light in the Forest

The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel

The Merv Griffin Show

The Story Lady

Dragonwyck

The Philco Television Playhouse

Telephone Time

Jessica Tandy: Theatre Legend to Screen Star

The Green Years

Omnibus

Suspicion

The House on Carroll Street

A Woman's Vengeance

Used People