Jessica Tandy

Jessie Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was a British-American actress. Tandy 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, a Golden Globe, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She acted as Blanche DuBois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948. Her films included Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and The Gin Game. At 80, she became the oldest actress to receive 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.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 mentally handicapped children, and her father was a travelling salesman for a rope manufacturer.The Academy Awards: A Look At Jessica Tandy, oup.com, 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 the Far East.Kelly, Terence Living with Japanese Kellan Press 1977, p. 136; with photo
==Acting career==
Born in London, she was 18 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 for roles over her two rivals, Peggy Ashcroft and Celia Johnson.At Home with Cronyn and Tandy New York Times Retrieved 12 September 2016 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 many stage actors, Tandy also worked in radio. Among other programs, she was a regular on Mandrake the Magician (as Princess Nada), 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 (1944). 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).
thumb|upright|Tandy in Alfred Hitchcock Presents "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. In 1977, she earned her second Tony Award, for her performance (with Cronyn) 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 (all 1982) and The Bostonians (1984). She and Cronyn were now working together more regularly on stage and television, including the films Cocoon (1985), *batteries not included (1987) and 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 ageing, 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), Camilla (1994, with Cronyn). Nobody's Fool (1994) 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 FameNotes for Jessica Tandy, tcm.com; accessed 11 July 2016.
*1979 – Sarah Siddons Award Chicago theatre
*1986 – Drama Desk Special Award
*1986 – Kennedy Center Honors]] Recipient. 
*1990 – [ational Medal of Arts
*1991 – Women in Film Crystal Award
*1994 – Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement shared with her husband, Hume Cronyn
==Personal life==
In 1932 Tandy married English actor Jack Hawkins and together they had a daughter, Susan Hawkins. 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."John Tettemer," in "AFI Catalog." Los Angeles, California: American Film Institute, accessed 5 May 2018. After Tandy and Hawkins divorced in 1940, she married her second husband, Canadian actor Hume Cronyn, in 1942. 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. They had two children, daughter Tandy Cronyn, an actress who would co-star with her mother in the TV film The Story Lady, and son Christopher Cronyn.
==Death==
In 1990, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and she also suffered from angina and glaucoma. Despite her illnesses and age she continued working. On 11 September 1994 she died at home in Easton, Connecticut, at the age of 85.
===Filmography===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1932	The Indiscretions of Eve 	Maid 	
1938	Murder in the Family 	Ann Osborne 	
1944	 	Liesel Roeder 	
1944	Blonde Fever 	Diner at Inn 	Uncredited
1945	 	Louise Kane 	
1946	 	Kate Leckie 	
1946	Dragonwyck 	Peggy O'Malley 	
1947	Forever Amber 	Nan Britton 	
1948	 	Janet Spence 	
1950	September Affair 	Catherine Lawrence 	
1951	 	Frau Lucie Maria Rommel	
1956	 	 	Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1957	 	Julia Lester 	Short film presented in "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"
1958	 	Myra Butler 	
1962	Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man 	Helen Adams 	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
1963	 	Lydia Brenner 	
1975	Bicentennial Minute for 31 August 1775, Destruction of Boston's Liberty Tree	Herself 	CBS Television Network, 31 August 1975 - Sponsor: Royal Dutch Shell
1976	Butley 	Edna Shaft 	
1981	Honky Tonk Freeway 	Carol 	
1982	 	Mrs. Fields 	
1982	Still of the Night 	Grace Rice 	
1982	Best Friends 	Eleanor McCullen 	
1984	 	Miss Birdseye 	
1984	Terror in the Aisles 	Herself 	Archival footage
1985	Cocoon 	Alma Finley 	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress
1987	Foxfire 	Annie Nations 	TV moviePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1987	*batteries not included 	Faye Riley 	Saturn Award for Best Actress
1988	 	Miss Venable 	
1988	Cocoon: The Return 	Alma Finley 	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress
1989	Driving Miss Daisy 	Daisy Werthan 	Academy 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 Actress
1991	 	Grace McQueen 	TV movieNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
1991	Fried Green Tomatoes 	Ninny Threadgoode 	Nominated—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 Picture
1992	Used People 	Freida 	
1993	To Dance with the White Dog 	Cora Peek 	Television movieNominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1994	 	Herself 	documentary
1994	Camilla 	Camilla Cara 	Released posthumously
1994	Nobody's Fool 	Beryl Peoples 	Released posthumously, (final film role)
*Re-issued on DVD as The Christmas Story Lady
===Television===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1956	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Edwina Freel	Episode: "Toby"
1957	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Julia Lester	Episode: "The Glass Eye"
1958	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Laura Bowlby	Episode: "The Canary Sedan"
1994	ER 	Mrs Backer 	Episode: "Going Home"
==References==