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.

Filmography

• 2003Miss Daisy's Journey: From Stage to Screen — Daisy Werthan (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 1994Camilla — Camilla Cara
• 1994Nobody's Fool — Beryl Peoples
• 1993To Dance with the White Dog — Cora Peek
• 1992Used People — Freida
• 1991Fried Green Tomatoes — Ninny Threadgoode
• 1991The Story Lady — Grace McQueen
• Dream On — (archive footage)
• 1989Driving Miss Daisy — Daisy Werthan
• 1988Cocoon: The Return — Alma Finley
• 1988The House on Carroll Street — Miss Venable
• 1987*batteries not included — Faye Riley
• 1987Foxfire — Annie Nations
• 1985Cocoon — Alma Finley
• 1984The Bostonians — Miss Birdseye
• American Playhouse — Fonsia Dorsey
• 1982Best Friends — Eleanor McCullen
• 1982Still of the Night — Grace Rice
• 1982The World According to Garp — Mrs. Fields
• 1981Honky Tonk Freeway — Carol
• 1981The Gin Game — Fonsia Dorsey
• 1974Butley — Edna Shaft
• 1973Tennessee Williams' South
• Judd, for the Defense — Helen Wister
• The F.B.I. — Ardyth Nolan
• 1963The Birds — Lydia Brenner
• 1962Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man — Mrs. Helen Adams
• 1959The Moon and Sixpence — Blanche Stroeve
• 1958The Christmas Tree — Mrs. Martin
• 1958The Light in the Forest — Myra Butler
• Suspicion
• Telephone Time
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents — Edwina Freel, Julia Lester, Laura Bowlby
• 1955The Fourposter
• Producers' Showcase — Agnes
• The Marriage — Liz Marriott
• General Electric Theater — Laura Whitemore
• Omnibus — Self - Reader, Louisa Catherine Johnson, Jackie
• Goodyear Television Playhouse — Leticia Blacklock
• Hallmark Hall of Fame — Mrs. Martin, Annie Nations
• Schlitz Playhouse of Stars — Cora Torrence, Bertha Jacks
• 1951The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel — Frau Lucie Marie Rommel
• Prudential Family Playhouse
• 1950September Affair — Catherine Lawrence
• Lights Out
• 1948A Woman's Vengeance — Janet Spence
• Studio One — Connaught O'Brien, Mrs. Moore
• The Philco Television Playhouse — Liz Marriott
• 1947Forever Amber — Nan Britton
• 1946Dragonwyck — Peggy O'Malley
• 1946The Green Years — Kate Leckie
• 1945The Valley of Decision — Louise Kane
• 1944Blonde Fever — Restaurant Patron (uncredited)
• 1944The Seventh Cross — Liesel Roeder
• 1938Murder in the Family — Ann Osborne
• 1932Indiscretions of Eve — Penelope, the Maid

Appearances as themselves (13)

• 2006A Streetcar on Broadway — Self (archive footage)
• 2005James Dean: Forever Young — Self (archive footage)
• 2003Jessica Tandy: Theatre Legend to Screen Star — Self (archive footage)
• 1998Moments of Discovery: The Making of Fried Green Tomatoes — Self
• 1996An African love story — Self
• Intimate Portrait — Self
• 1990Night of 100 Stars III — Self
• The Kennedy Center Honors — Self
• Film '72 — Self
• The Merv Griffin Show — Self
• Tony Awards — Self - Award Accepter, Self - Winner, Self - Nominee, Self (archive footage), Self - Nominee / Performer, Self - Presenter
• The Ed Sullivan Show — Self
• Golden Globe Awards — Self - Nominee