Jessica Alice Tandy was a British-American stage and film actress, who spent most of
her 67-year career in the United States.
She appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV.
Born in London to a headmistress and a travelling salesman, she made her professional debut
on the London stage in 1927, at the age of 18.
During the 1930s, she appeared in a large number of plays in London's West End, playing
roles such as Ophelia, opposite John Gielgud's legendary Hamlet, and Katherine, opposite
Laurence Olivier's Henry V. In the 1930s, she also worked in a couple of British films.
Following the end of her marriage to the British actor Jack Hawkins, she moved to New York
in 1940, where she met Canadian actor Hume Cronyn.
He became her second husband and frequent partner on stage and screen.
She received a nominee for 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
Katharine Cornell.
Judith Anderson won the Tony Award.
Over the following three decades, her career continued sporadically and included a supporting
role in Alfred Hitchcock's horror film, The Birds, and a Tony Award-winning performance
in The Gin Game.
Along with Cronyn, she was a member of the original acting company of the Guthrie Theater.
In the mid-1980s she had a career revival.
She appeared with 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, also with Cronyn.
She became the oldest actress to receive the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role
in Driving Miss Daisy, 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.
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.
Early life The youngest of three siblings, Tandy was
born in Geldeston Road in Hackney, London.
Her mother, Jessie Helen, was the head of a school for mentally handicapped children,
and her father, Harry Tandy, was a travelling salesman for a rope manufacturer.
Her father died when Tandy was 12, and her mother subsequently taught evening courses
to earn an income.
Tandy was educated at Dame Alice Owen's School in Islington.
Her birth name was Jessie Alice Tandy.
Acting career
Tandy began her career at the age of 18 in London, establishing herself with performances
opposite such actors as Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud.
She entered films in Britain, but after her marriage to Jack Hawkins failed, she moved
to the United States.
In 1942, she married Hume Cronyn and over the following years played supporting roles
in several Hollywood films.
Tandy became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1952.
Like so many stage actors, Tandy had a hand in radio, as well.
Among other programs, she was a regular on Mandrake the Magician, and then with 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.
She also appeared in The Valley of Decision, The Green Years, Dragonwyck starring Gene
Tierney and Vincent Price and Forever Amber.
Over the next three decades, her film career continued sporadically, including The Desert
Fox: The Story of Rommel opposite James Mason, The Light in the Forest, and a role as a domineering
mother in Alfred Hitchcock's film, The Birds.
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 concentrated on the stage.
In 1977, she earned her second Tony Award, for her performance in The Gin Game and her
third Tony 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, Best Friends, Still of the Night and The Bostonians.
She and Cronyn were now working together more regularly on stage and television, including
the films Cocoon, *batteries not included and Cocoon: The Return and the Emmy Award
winning television film Foxfire.
However, it was her colourful performance in Driving Miss Daisy, 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, and co-starred in The Story Lady, Used People, television film To Dance with
the White Dog, Nobody's Fool, and Camilla.
Camilla proved to be her last performance, at the age of 84.
Other awards Tandy was chosen by People magazine as one
of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1990.
1979 - Induction into the American Theatre Hall of Fame
1979 - Sarah Siddons Award Chicago theatre 1986 - Drama Desk Special Award
1990 - National Medal of Arts 1991 - Women in Film Crystal Award
1994 - Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement shared with her husband, Hume Cronyn
Personal life Tandy's first marriage to British actor Jack
Hawkins in 1932, produced one daughter, Susan Hawkins.
The couple divorced in 1940.
Tandy married her second husband, Canadian actor Hume Cronyn, in 1942; the marriage lasted
until her death in 1994.
They had two children, daughter Tandy Cronyn, and son Christopher.
Death Prior to moving to Connecticut, she lived
with Cronyn for many years in nearby Pound Ridge, New York and they remained together
until her death in 1994.
In 1990, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and fought it for the next four years.
Tandy also suffered from angina and glaucoma.
Despite all this and her advancing age, she continued working.
She died at home on 11 September 1994 in Easton, Connecticut at age 85.
Work Broadway credits
Filmography *Re-issued on DVD as The Christmas Story Lady
References
External links Jessica Tandy at the Internet Broadway Database
Jessica Tandy at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
Jessica Tandy at the Internet Movie Database Movie Magazine International Tribute
Lifetime Honors - National Medal of Arts Obituary New York Times 12 September 1994