Jessica Tandy

Acting

Jessica Tandy

Born 1909-06-07 · London, 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.

Acting credits

Fried Green Tomatoes poster
7.7

Amidst her own personality crisis, a southern housewife meets an outgoing old woman who tells her the story of Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, two young women who experienced hardships and love in 1920s Whistle Stop, Alabama.

Fried Green Tomatoes

1991

Driving Miss Daisy poster
7.2

The story of an old Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan and her relationship with her black chauffeur, Hoke. From an initial mere work relationship grew in 25 years a strong friendship between the two very different characters, in a time when those types of relationships were shunned.

Driving Miss Daisy

1989

The Birds poster
7.5

Thousands of birds flock into a seaside town and terrorize the residents in a series of deadly attacks.

The Birds

1963

Cocoon poster
6.6

When a group of trespassing seniors swim in a pool containing alien cocoons, they find themselves energized with youthful vigor.

Cocoon

1985

*batteries not included poster
6.7

In a soon to be demolished block of apartments, the residents resist the criminal methods used to force them to leave so a greedy tycoon can build his new skyscraper. When tiny mechanical aliens land for a recharge, they decide to stay and help out.

*batteries not included

1987

Nobody's Fool poster
6.9

A rascally nearing-retirement man juggles a workers' compensation suit while secretly working for his nemesis and flirting with his nemesis' young wife. As his estranged son returns, he faces new family responsibilities, while a banker plots to evict him from his home.

Nobody's Fool

1994

The Bostonians poster
5.5

A bored lawyer and a suffragette vie for the attention of a faith healer's charismatic daughter.

The Bostonians

1984

Cocoon: The Return poster
6.5

The reinvigorated elderly group that left Earth comes back to visit their relatives. Will they all decide to go back to the planet where no one grows old, or will they be tempted to remain on Earth?

Cocoon: The Return

1988

The World According to Garp poster
6.7

A struggling young writer finds his life and work dominated by his unfaithful wife and his radical feminist mother, whose best-selling manifesto turns her into a cultural icon.

The World According to Garp

1982

The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel poster
6.7

The life and career of Erwin Rommel and his involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler.

The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel

1951

The Story Lady poster
6.2

When Grace comes to live with her daughter and son-in-law, she is eager to find a way to be useful in the community. She loves to read stories to children, and decides to read one on public access television. The response is so strong that a large company hears about it and offers her a television series. Her life becomes complicated as she is forced to make some serious decisions. Through it all, Grace is able to help a young mother realize that time is the most valuable gift she could give to her daughter.

The Story Lady

1991

The Valley of Decision poster
7.2

Mary Rafferty comes from a poor family of steel mill workers in 19th Century Pittsburgh. Her family objects when she goes to work as a maid for the wealthy Scott family which controls the mill. Mary catches the attention of handsome scion Paul Scott, but their romance is complicated by Paul's engagement to someone else and a bitter strike among the mill workers.

The Valley of Decision

1945

The House on Carroll Street poster
5.9

A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.

The House on Carroll Street

1988

Still of the Night poster
5.7

When one of his patients is found murdered, psychiatrist Dr. Sam Rice is visited by the investigating officer but refuses to give up any information. He's then visited by the patient's mistress, Brooke Reynolds, whom he quickly falls for despite her being a likely murder suspect. As the police pressure on him intensifies, Rice decides to attempt solving the case on his own and soon discovers that someone is trying to kill him as well.

Still of the Night

1982

Dragonwyck poster
6.6

A simple Connecticut farm girl is recruited by a distant relative, an aristocratic patroon, to be governess to his young daughter in his Hudson Valley mansion.

Dragonwyck

1946

Forever Amber poster
6.0

Amber St Clair, orphaned during the English Civil War and raised by a family of farmers, aspires to be a lady of high society; when a group of cavaliers ride into town, she sneaks away with them to London to achieve her dreams.

Forever Amber

1947

Best Friends poster
5.3

When a professional couple, who have lived and worked together for many years, finally decide to marry, their sudden betrothal causes many unexpected difficulties. They soon find that being married is often quite different from being "best friends."

Best Friends

1982

Used People poster
5.8

At her husband's funeral, Pearl, Jewish mother of two divorced and antagonistic daughters, meets an old Italian friend of her husband, whose advice years previously had stopped the husband leaving home. For 23 years he, now a widower, has secretly loved Pearl.

Used People

1992

The Seventh Cross poster
6.8

In Nazi Germany in 1936 seven men escape from a concentration camp. The camp commander puts up seven crosses and, as the Gestapo returns each escapee he is put to death on a cross. The seventh cross is still empty as George Heisler attempts an escape to freedom in Holland.

The Seventh Cross

1944

Night of 100 Stars III poster
4.3

A celebrity benefit for The Actors' Fund of America, featuring music, songs, dance and comedy.

Night of 100 Stars III

1990

Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man poster
5.6

Young and restless Nick Adams, the only son of a domineering mother and a weak but noble doctor father, leaves his rural Michigan home to embark on an eventful cross-country journey. He is touched and affected by his encounters with a punch-drunk ex-boxer, a sympathetic telegrapher, and an alcoholic advanceman for a burlesque show. After failing to get a job as reporter in New York, he enlists in the Italian army during World War I as an ambulance driver. His camaraderie with fellow soldiers and a romance with a nurse he meets after being wounded propel him to manhood.

Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man

1962

The Light in the Forest poster
6.7

A young white man who spent his whole life raised by a Native American tribe is sent to live with his true family and must learn to fit in with the people he was taught to hate.

The Light in the Forest

1958

Honky Tonk Freeway poster
5.4

Ticlaw, a small town in Florida, has only one attraction: a safari park. The government constructs a freeway that passes near Ticlaw, but decides not to put an exit into the town. The people of Ticlaw, leaded by its Mayor, will do anything in order to convince the governor to alter the project.

Honky Tonk Freeway

1981

A Woman's Vengeance poster
6.3

A cheating husband is charged in the poisoning death of his invalid wife, in spite of other women and suicide also being suspected.

A Woman's Vengeance

1948