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Jessie Alice Tandy (June 7, 1909 – September 11, 1994) was a British-American stage and film actress.
BiographyEarly lifeTandy, the last of three children, was born in Geldeston Road in the London Borough of Hackney.[1] Her mother, Jessie Helen (née Horspool), was the head of a school for mentally handicapped children, and her father, Harry Tandy, was 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. CareerAfter 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 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 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 20 years, she appeared sporadically in films such as The Light in the Forest (1958) and The Birds (1963). 
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 (1991), 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. Personal lifeTandy married twice. Her first marriage, to British actor Jack Hawkins, in 1932, produced one daughter, Susan Hawkins (born 1934). The couple divorced in 1940. 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 four 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. Prior to moving to Connecticut, she lived with Cronyn for many years in nearby Pound Ridge, New York. Awards
WorkBroadway
Filmography
ReferencesExternal links
Categories: 1909 births | 1994 deaths | American film actors | American stage actors | BAFTA winners (people) | Best Actress Academy Award winners | Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners | British film actors | British stage actors | Drama Desk Award winners | Emmy Award winners | English film actors | English stage actors | Kennedy Center honorees | Naturalized citizens of the United States | Deaths from ovarian cancer | People from London | Tony Award winners | United States National Medal of Arts recipients | Cancer deaths in Connecticut CommentsNo comments have been added. |
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