Jessica Tandy
| Jessica Tandy | |
|---|---|
Studio publicity photo, 1950s.
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| Born |
Jessie Alice Tandy June 7, 1909 Hackney, London, England |
| Died | September 11, 1994 (aged 85) Easton, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Ovarian cancer |
| Education | Guthrie Theater |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1926–94 |
| Spouse(s) |
Jack Hawkins (m. 1932; div. 1940) Hume Cronyn (m. 1942; her death 1994) |
| Children | 3 |
Jessica Tandy (born Jessie Alice Tandy; June 7, 1909 – September 11, 1994) was a British stage and film actress. She appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV.
Born in London to Jessie Helen Horspool and commercial traveller Harry Tandy, she was only 18 when she made her professional debut on the London stage in 1927. 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).
During this period, 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 the Tony Award for best performance by a Leading Actress in A Play for her performance as Blanche Dubois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948. Tandy shared the prize with Katharine Cornell (who won for the female lead in Antony and Cleopatra) and Judith Anderson (for the latter's portrayal of Medea) in a three-way tie for the award. Over the following three decades, her career continued sporadically and included a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's horror film, The Birds (1963), and a Tony Award-winning performance in The Gin Game (1977, playing in the two-hander play opposite Hume Cronyn). Along with Cronyn, she was a member of the original acting company of the Guthrie Theater.
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