Biography: A beloved, twinkly blue-eyed doyenne of stage and screen, actress Jessica Tandy's career spanned nearly six and a half decades. In that time she enjoyed an amazing film renaissance at the age of 80, something unheard of in a town that worships youth and nubile beauty. She was born Jessie Alice Tandy in London in 1909, the daughter of Harry Tandy, a traveling salesman, and Jessie Helen Horspool. He ... show all A beloved, twinkly blue-eyed doyenne of stage and screen, actress Jessica Tandy's career spanned nearly six and a half decades. In that time she enjoyed an amazing film renaissance at the age of 80, something unheard of in a town that worships youth and nubile beauty. She was born Jessie Alice Tandy in London in 1909, the daughter of Harry Tandy, a traveling salesman, and Jessie Helen Horspool. Her parents enrolled her as a teenager at the Ben Greet Academy of Acting where she showed immediate promise. She was 16 when she made her professional bow as Sara Manderson in the play "The Manderson Girls," and was subsequently invited to join the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Within a couple of years Jessica was making a number of other debuts as well. Her first West End play was in "The Rumour" at the Court Theatre in 1929; her Gotham bow was in "The Matriarch" at the Longacre Theatre in 1930; and her initial film role was as a maid in "The Indiscretions of Eve (1932)". Jessica married British actor Jack Hawkins in 1932 after the couple had met performing in the play "Autumn Crocus" the year before. They had one daughter, Susan, before parting ways after eight years of marriage. An unconventional beauty with slightly stern-eyed, hawkish features, she was passed over for leading lady roles in films, thereby focusing strongly on a transatlantic stage career throughout the 1930s and 1940s. She grew in stature while enacting a succession of Shakespeare's premiere ladies (Titania, Viola, Ophelia, Cordelia). At the same time she enjoyed personal successes elsewhere in such plays as "French Without Tears," "Honour Thy Father," "Jupiter Laughs," "Anne of England" and "Portrait of a Madonna." And then came Blanche DuBois. With Tennesse Williams' masterpiece "A Streetcar Named Desire" making its Broadway bow on December 3, 1947, Jessica's name was forever associated with this legendary Southern belle for giving her initial life. One of the most complex, beautifully drawn, and still sought-after femme parts of all time, she went on to win the coveted Tony award. Aside from introducing Marlon Brando to the general viewing public, "Streetcar" shot Jessica's marquee value up a thousandfold. But not in films. While her esteemed co-stars Brando, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden went on to recreate their role in Elia Kazan's stark black-and-white version of "Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951)", Jessica was devastatingly bypassed. Vivien Leigh, who played the role on stage in London and immortalized another demotic Southern belle on celluloid (Scarlett O'Hara), was a far more marketable film celebrity at the time and was signed on to play the delusional Blanche. To be fair, Leigh was nothing less than astounding in the role and went on to deservedly win the Academy Award along with Malden and Hunter. Jessica would exact her revenge on Hollywood in later years.
In 1942 she entered into a second marriage with actor/producer/director Hume Cronyn, a 52-year union that produced two children, Christopher and Tandy, the latter an actor in her own right. The couple not only enjoyed great solo success, they relished performing in each other's company as well. A few of their resounding theater successes included the "The Fourposter" (1951), "Triple Play" (1959), "Big Fish, Little Fish (1962), "Hamlet" (he played Polonius; she played Gertrude) (1963), "The Three Sisters (1963) and "A Delicate Balance." They supported together in films too, their first being "The Seventh Cross (1944)". In the film "The Green Years (1946)", Jessica, who was two years older than Cronyn, actually played his daughter! Throughout the 1950s they built up a sturdy reputation as "America's First Couple of the Theatre." In 1963 Jessica made an isolated film appearance in Alfred Hitchcock 's classic "The Birds (1963)". Low on the pecking order, so to speak, Jessica was able to make the most of her scenes as a high-strung, overbearing mother who witnesses horror along the California coast. It wasn't until the 1980s that Jessica (and Hume, to a lesser degree) experienced her mammoth comeback in Hollywood.
Alongside Hume she delighted movie audiences in the enjoyable "The Honky Tonk Freeway (1981)", "World According to Garp (1982)", Cocoon (1985)_ (qv) and "*batteries not included (1987)". Jessica was handed the senior citizen role of a lifetime at age 80 as the prickly Southern widow who gradually forms a trusting bond with her black chauffeur in the genteel drama "Driving Miss Daisy (1989)". The "Best Picture" winner of 1990, Jessica was also honored the Oscar, Golden Globe and British Film Awards, among others, for her exceptional work. As a result she was finally considered Hollywood royalty and handed the cream of the crop in elderly film parts. She won another Oscar nomination for "Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)" a couple of years later. Jessica also enjoyed her biggest stage hits ("Streetcar" notwithstanding) in her twilight years, earning two more Tony awards for her exceptional work in "The Gin Game" (1977) and "Foxfire" (1982), which both co-starred her husband. Diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1990, Jessica bravely continued working with Emmy-winning distinction on TV. She died of her illness on September 11, 1994. Her last two films, "Nobody's Fool (1994)" and "Camilla (1994)", were released posthumously. hide |
