Judith Anderson
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Dame Judith Anderson AC DBE |
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|---|---|
Anderson in 1934
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| Born |
Frances Margaret Anderson 10 February 1897 Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
| Died | 3 January 1992 (aged 94) Santa Barbara, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Pneumonia |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1915–1987 |
| Spouse(s) |
Benjamin Harrison Lehmann (m. 1937–39)(divorced) Luther Greene (m. 1946–51)(divorced) |
Dame Judith Anderson, AC, DBE (born Frances Margaret Anderson, 10 February 1897 – 3 January 1992) was an Australian-born British actress who had a successful career in stage, film and television. A preeminent stage actress in her era, she won two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award. She is considered one of the 20th-century's greatest classical stage actors.
Frances Margaret Anderson was born in 1897 in Adelaide, South Australia, to Jessie Margaret (née Saltmarsh; 19 October 1862 – 24 November 1950) and James Anderson Anderson. She attended a private school, Norwood. She began acting in Australia before moving to New York in 1918. Anderson established herself as a dramatic actress of note, making several appearances in Shakespearean plays. She maintained her birth name as her legal name, never legally taking the forename "Judith" as per the California Death Index registry.
She made her professional debut (as Francee Anderson) in 1915, playing Stephanie at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, in A Royal Divorce. Leading the company was the Scottish actor Julius Knight whom she later credited with laying the foundations of her acting skills. In the company were some American actors who convinced Anderson to try her luck in the United States. She travelled to California but was unsuccessful, then moved to New York, with an equal lack of success. After a period of poverty and illness, she found work with the Emma Bunting Stock Company at the Fourteenth Street Theatre in 1918–19. She toured with other stock companies until 1922 when she made her Broadway debut in On the Stairs using her true name, Frances Anderson. One year later, she had changed her acting forename (albeit not for legal purposes) to Judith and had her first triumph with the play Cobra co-starring Louis Calhern. She toured Australia in 1927 with three plays: Tea for Three, The Green Hat and Cobra.
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