Jessica Tandy

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Jessica Tandy
Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn at the 1988 Emmy Awards
Born	June 7, 1909(1909-06-07) London, England, UK
Died	September 11, 1994 (aged 85) Easton,Connecticut, USA
Spouse(s)	Jack Hawkins (1932-1942) Hume Cronyn (1942-1994)
Awards won Academy Awards Best Actress 1989 Driving Miss Daisy BAFTA Awards Best Actress 1989 Driving Miss Daisy Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries/Movie 1988 Foxfire Golden Globe Awards Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy 1990 Driving Miss Daisy Tony Awards Best Leading Actress in a Play 1948 A Streetcar Named Desire 1978 The Gin Game 1983 Foxfire Special Tony Award 1994 Lifetime Achievement

Jessie Alice Tandy (June 7, 1909 – September 11, 1994) was an Emmy-, Academy Award-, Tony-, BAFTA-, and Golden Globe-winning America stage and film actress.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Career 1.3 Personal life 2 Awards 3 Work 3.1 Broadway 3.2 Filmography 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Tandy, the last of three children, was born in Geldeston Road in the London Borough of Hackney^[1] to Jessie Helen Horspool, the head of a school for mentally handicapped children, and Harry Tandy, a travelling salesman for a rope manufacturer.^[2] Her father died when Tandy was 12, and as a result her mother taught evening courses to increase the family's income. Tandy was educated at the Dame Alice Owen's School in the London Borough of Islington.

[edit] Career

After an acting career spanning some 65 years, Tandy found latter-day movie stardom in major studio releases and intimate dramas alike. She first appeared on the London stage in 1926, 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 first marriage (to Jack Hawkins), she moved to New York and met Canadian actor Hume Cronyn, who became her second husband and frequent partner on stage and screen. She made her American film debut in The Seventh Cross (1944). She also appeared in The Valley of Decision (1945), The Green Years (1946, as Cronyn's daughter), Dragonwyck (1946) starring Gene Tierney and Forever Amber (1947).

After her Tony-winning performance as Blanche DuBois in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, (she lost the film role to actress Vivien Leigh) she concentrated on the stage. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1952. For the next 30 years, she appeared sporadically in films such as The Light in the Forest (1958), The Birds (1963), The World According to Garp (1982, as Glenn Close's mother) and Cocoon (1985, the latter two opposite Cronyn).

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), and the hit film Cocoon (1985), opposite Cronyn, with whom she reteamed for *batteries not included (1987) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). She and Cronyn had been working together more and more, on stage and television, notably in 1987's Foxfire which won her an Emmy Award (recreating her Tony winning Broadway role). However, it was her colorful performance in Driving Miss Daisy (1989), as an aging, stubborn Southern-Jewish matron, that earned her an Oscar.

Tandy was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1990. She earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in the grassroots hit Fried Green Tomatoes (1992), and co-starred in The Story Lady (1991 telefilm, with daughter Tandy Cronyn), Used People (1992, as Shirley MacLaine's mother), To Dance with the White Dog (1993 telefilm, with husband Hume Cronyn), Nobody's Fool (1994), and Camilla (also 1994, with Cronyn). Camilla was to be her last performance, at the age of 84.

[edit] Personal life

Tandy married twice. Her first, to British actor Jack Hawkins, in 1932, produced one daughter, Susan Hawkins (born 1934). The couple divorced in 1942. Tandy remarried, to Canadian-American actor, Hume Cronyn, in 1942. The couple had two children, Tandy Cronyn, also an actress, and son Christopher Cronyn. Tandy and Cronyn remained together until her death in 1994.

In 1990, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer which she battled fiercely for five years, during which she continued to work. She had previously been treated for angina and glaucoma.

She died at home on September 11, 1994, in Easton, Connecticut, of ovarian cancer at the age of 85. Prior to moving to Connecticut, she lived with Cronyn for many years in nearby Pound Ridge, New York.

[edit] Awards

• Academy Award

• 1989 - Best Actress in a Leading Role, Driving Miss Daisy

• British Film Award

• 1989 - Best Actress, Driving Miss Daisy

• Emmy Award

• 1987 - Best Actress-Miniseries/Special, Foxfire

• Golden Globe

• 1989 - Best Actress, Driving Miss Daisy

• Sarah Siddons Award

• 1979 - Chicago theatre

• Tony Award

• 1994 - Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement shared with her husband, Hume Cronyn
• 1982 - Best Actress, Foxfire,
• 1978 - Best Actress (Play), The Gin Game
• 1948 - Best Actress (Dramatic), A Streetcar Named Desire

[edit] Work

[edit] Broadway

Year	Production	Role	Other notes
1947	A Streetcar Named Desire	Blanche DuBois	Tony Award
1950	Hilda Crane	Hilda Crane
1951	The Fourposter	Agnes
1959	Five Finger Exercise	Louise Harrington
1966	A Delicate Balance	Agnes
1971	Home	Marjorie
1977	The Gin Game	Fonsia Dorsey	Tony Award
1982	Foxfire	Annie Nations	Tony Award
1983	The Glass Menagerie	Amanda Wingfield
1986	The Petition	Lady Elizabeth Milne	Nominated - Tony Award

[edit] Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1932	The Indiscretions of Eve	Maid
1938	Murder in the Family	Ann Osborne
1944	The Seventh Cross	Liesel Roeder
	Blonde Fever	Diner at Inn	uncredited
1945	The Valley of Decision	Louise Kane
1946	Dragonwyck	Peggy O'Malley
	The Green Years	Kate Leckie
1947	Forever Amber	Nan Britton
1948	A Woman's Vengeance	Janet Spence
1950	September Affair	Catherine Lawrence
1951	The Desert Fox	Frau Lucie Marie Rommel
1958	The Light in the Forest	Myra Butler
1962	Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man	Helen Adams	Nominated - Golden Globe
1963	The Birds	Lydia Brenner
1976	Butley	Edna Shaft
1981	Honky Tonk Freeway	Carol
1982	The World According to Garp	Mrs. Fields
	Still of the Night	Grace Rice
	Best Friends	Eleanor McCullen
1984	The Bostonians	Miss Birdseye
1985	Cocoon	Alma Finley
1987	*batteries not included	Faye Riley
1988	The House on Carroll Street	Miss Venable
	Cocoon: The Return	Alma Finley
1989	Driving Miss Daisy	Daisy Werthan	Academy Award for Best Actress; BAFTA Award; Golden Globe
1991	Fried Green Tomatoes	Ninny Threadgoode	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; Nominated - BAFTA Award; Nominated - Golden Globe
1992	Used People	Freida
1994	A Century of Cinema	Herself	documentary
	Nobody's Fool	Beryl Peoples
	Camilla	Camilla Cara

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Jessica Tandy at Find A Grave
• Jessica Tandy at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jessica Tandy at the Internet Movie Database
• Movie Magazine International Tribute
• Obituary New York Times September 12, 1994

Awards
Preceded by Irene Worth for The Cherry Orchard	Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play 1977-1978 for The Gin Game	Succeeded by Carole Shelley for The Elephant Man
Preceded by Cloris Leachman	Sarah Siddons Award 1979	Succeeded by Claudette Colbert
Preceded by Zoe Caldwell for Medea	Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play 1982-1983 for Foxfire	Succeeded by Joan Allen for And a Nightingale Sang
Preceded by Melanie Griffith for Working Girl	Golden Globe Award - Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Driving Miss Daisy 1989	Succeeded by Julia Roberts for Pretty Woman
Preceded by Pauline Collins for Shirley Valentine	BAFTA Award - Best Actress for Driving Miss Daisy 1989	Succeeded by Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs

v • d • e Academy Award for Best Actress Katharine Hepburn (1981) · Meryl Streep (1982) · Shirley MacLaine (1983) · Sally Field (1984) · Geraldine Page (1985) · Marlee Matlin (1986) · Cher (1987) · Jodie Foster (1988) · Jessica Tandy (1989) · Kathy Bates (1990) · Jodie Foster (1991) · Emma Thompson (1992) · Holly Hunter (1993) · Jessica Lange (1994) · Susan Sarandon (1995) · Frances McDormand (1996) · Helen Hunt (1997) · Gwyneth Paltrow (1998) · Hilary Swank (1999) · Julia Roberts (2000) Complete list · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001-present)

v • d • e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie Susan Clark / Rosemary Harris (1976) · Sally Field / Patty Duke (1977) · Joanne Woodward / Meryl Streep (1978) · Bette Davis (1979) · Patty Duke (1980) · Vanessa Redgrave (1981) · Ingrid Bergman (1982) · Barbara Stanwyck (1983) · Jane Fonda (1984) · Joanne Woodward (1985) · Marlo Thomas (1986) · Gena Rowlands (1987) · Jessica Tandy (1988) · Holly Hunter (1989) · Barbara Hershey (1990) · Lynn Whitfield (1991) · Gena Rowlands (1992) · Holly Hunter (1993) · Kirstie Alley (1994) · Glenn Close (1995) · Helen Mirren (1996) · Alfre Woodard (1997) · Ellen Barkin (1998) · Helen Mirren (1999) · Halle Berry (2000) Complete list: (1954-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)

v • d • e Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play Ingrid Bergman / Helen Hayes (1947) · Judith Anderson / Jessica Tandy (1948) · Shirley Booth (1950) · Uta Hagen (1951) · Julie Harris (1952) · Shirley Booth (1953) · Audrey Hepburn (1954) · Nancy Kelly (1955) · Julie Harris (1956) · Margaret Leighton (1957) · Helen Hayes (1958) · Gertrude Berg (1959) · Anne Bancroft (1960) · Joan Plowright. (1961) · Margaret Leighton (1962) · Uta Hagen (1963) · Sandy Dennis (1964) · Irene Worth (1965) · Rosemary Harris (1966) · Beryl Reid (1967) · Zoe Caldwell (1968) · Julie Harris (1969) · Tammy Grimes (1970) · Maureen Stapleton (1971) · Sada Thompson (1972) · Julie Harris (1973) · Colleen Dewhurst (1974) · Ellen Burstyn (1975) Complete list: (1947-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)

v • d • e Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play Irene Worth (1976) · Julie Harris (1977) · Jessica Tandy (1978) · Constance Cummings / Carole Shelley (1979) · Phyllis Frelich (1980) · Jane Lapotaire (1981) · Zoe Caldwell (1982) · Jessica Tandy (1983) · Glenn Close (1984) · Stockard Channing (1985) · Lily Tomlin (1986) · Linda Lavin (1987) · Joan Allen (1988) · Pauline Collins (1989) · Maggie Smith (1990) · Mercedes Ruehl (1991) · Glenn Close (1992) · Madeline Kahn (1993) · Diana Rigg (1994) · Cherry Jones (1995) · Zoe Caldwell (1996) · Janet McTeer (1997) · Marie Mullen (1998) · Judi Dench (1999) · Jennifer Ehle (2000) Complete list: (1947-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)

Persondata
NAME	Tandy, Jessica
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actress
DATE OF BIRTH	June 7, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH	London, England, UK
DATE OF DEATH	September 11, 1994
PLACE OF DEATH	Easton,Connecticut, U.S.