Jessie Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994), known professionally as Jessica Tandy, was an English and American actress. 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. Tandy is one of few performers to achieve Triple Crown of Acting status.Multiple sources:
Tandy 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, Batteries Not Included, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Nobody's Fool. At 80, she became the oldest actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for 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.Jessica Tandy's family to unveil plaque to commemorate star's Hackney birthplace 19 November 1998 ; 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."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.
Career
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).
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. 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 (as Princess Narda), and then with her second husband Hume Cronyn in The Marriage 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).
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. 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. Her third Tony came in 1982 for her performance, again with Cronyn, in Foxfire. The next year, she read a speech from A Streetcar Named Desire at Tennessee Williams's memorial service.
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.
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
In 1932, Tandy married English actor Jack Hawkins and together they had a daughter, Susan Hawkins, who herself became an actress.
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.
Tandy and her husband Cronyn co-starred in the 1987 film Batteries Not Included.
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.
Work US stage credits Year Title Role Notes1930Toni Rakonitz1930Cynthia Perry1938Time and the ConwaysKay1939Nora Fintry1940GenevaDeaconess1940Jupiter LaughsDr. Mary Murray1941Anne of EnglandAbigail Hill1942Yesterday's MagicDaughter Cattrin1947Blanche DuBoisTony Award for Best Actress in a Play1950Hilda CraneHilda Crane1951Madam, Will You WalkMary Doyle1951Agnes1955The Man in the Dog SuitMartha Walling1955Mary1959Triple PlayIn Bedtime Story: Angela NightingaleIn Portrait of a Madonna: Miss Lucretia CollinsIn A Pound on Demand: The Public1959Five Finger ExerciseLouise Harrington Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance1964Fraulein Doktor Mathilde von Zahnd1966Agnes1970Camino RealMarguerite Gautier1970HomeMarjorie1971All OverThe Wife1972Not IMouthObie Award for Best Actress1974Noël Coward in Two KeysIn A Song at Twilight: Hilde LatymerIn Come Into the Garden, Maud: Anna Mary Conklin1977Fonsia DorseyTony Award for Best Actress in a PlayDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play1981RoseMotherNominated—Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a PlayNominated—Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play1982FoxfireAnnie NationsTony Award for Best Actress in a PlayDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play1983Amanda Wingfield1986Lady Elizabeth MilneNominated—Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play
Film Year Title Role Notes1932 The Indiscretions of EveMaid1938Murder in the FamilyAnn Osborne1944Liesel Roeder1944Blonde FeverDiner at InnUncredited1945Louise Kane1946Kate Leckie1946DragonwyckPeggy O'Malley1947Forever AmberNan Britton1948Janet Spence1950September AffairCatherine Lawrence1951Frau Lucie Maria Rommel1958Myra Butler1962Hemingway's Adventures of a Young ManHelen AdamsNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture1963Lydia Brenner1976ButleyEdna Shaft1981Honky Tonk FreewayCarol1982Mrs. Fields1982Still of the NightGrace Rice1982Best FriendsEleanor McCullen1984Miss Birdseye1984Terror in the AislesHerselfArchival footage1985CocoonAlma FinleyNominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress1987Batteries Not IncludedFaye RileySaturn Award for Best Actress1988Miss Venable1988Cocoon: The ReturnAlma FinleyNominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress1989Driving Miss DaisyDaisy WerthanAcademy Award for Best ActressBAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleBoston Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActressDavid di Donatello Award for Best Foreign ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressSilver Bear for the Best Joint Performance Nominated—American Comedy Award for Funniest Actress in a Motion PictureNominated—National Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActressNominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress1991Fried Green TomatoesNinny ThreadgoodeNominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated—American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion PictureNominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture1992Used PeopleFreida1994A Century of CinemaHerselfDocumentary1994CamillaCamilla CaraReleased posthumously1994Nobody's FoolBeryl PeoplesReleased posthumously (final film role)
Television Year Title Role Notes1948Actors StudioMiss Lucretia CollinsEpisode: "Portrait of a Madonna"1950Masterpiece PlayhouseHeddaEpisode: "Hedda Gabler"1951Lights OutEpisode: "Bird of Time"1951Somerset Maugham TV TheatreEpisode: "The Man from Glasgow"1951Prudential Family PlayhouseJane CrosbyEpisode: "Icebound"1951Betty Crocker Star MatineeEpisode: "The Weak Spot"1951–1957Studio OneVarious2 episodes1953–1956OmnibusVarious 5 episodes1954The MarriageLiz Marriott8 episodes1955AgnesEpisode: "The Fourposter"Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie1955The Philco Television PlayhouseLiz MarriottEpisode: "Christmas 'til Closing"1955–1956Goodyear Television PlayhouseVarious2 episodes1956The United States Steel HourAlice WiggimsEpisode: "The Great Adventure"1956Star StageEpisode: "The School Mistress"1956The Alcoa HourOlivia CrummitEpisode: "The Confidence Man"1956General Electric TheaterLaura WhitemoreEpisode: "The Pot of Gold"1956 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Edwina Freel Season 2 Episode 6: "Toby"1957 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Julia Lester Season 3 Episode 1: "The Glass Eye"1957Studio 57Miss BedfordEpisode: "Little Miss Bedford"1957SuspicionEpisode: "Murder Me Gently"1957–1958Schlitz Playhouse of StarsVarious2 episodes1958 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Laura Bowlby Season 3 Episode 37: "The Canary Sedan"1958Telephone TimeBertha KinskyEpisode: "War Against War"1959The Ed Sullivan ShowThe PublicEpisode #12.341959DuPont Show of the MonthMrs. BainesEpisode: "The Fallen Idol"1959The Moon and SixpenceBlanche StroeveTelevision movie1964Breaking PointRoberta DuncanEpisode: "Glass Flowers Never Drop Petals"1968Judd, for the DefenseHelen WisterEpisode: "Punishments, Cruel and Unusual"1972O'Hara, U.S. TreasuryGenevieveEpisode: "Operation: Dorias"1972The F.B.I.Ardyth NolanEpisode: "The Set-Up"1972Norman Corwin PresentsEpisode: "A Foreign Field"1975Bicentennial MinutesHerselfEpisode #1.4241981The Gin GameFonsia DorseyTelevision movie1987FoxfireAnnie NationsTelevision moviePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie1991†Grace McQueenTelevision movieNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film1993To Dance with the White DogCora PeekTelevision movieNominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie †Re-issued on DVD as The Christmas Story Lady
Sound recordings