From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Zeffie Agnes Lydia Tilbury (November 20, 1863 – July 24, 1950) was an English actress. Tilbury was known first on the London stage and on Broadway in New York City. In 1881, she debuted on stage in Nine Points of the Law at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, England. She is today best known for playing wise or evil older characters in films, such as the distinguished lady gambler at dinner with Garbo in The Single Standard, as the pitiful Grandma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath and Grandma Lester in Tobacco Road. She appeared in over 70 films. Her earliest surviving silent film is the Valentino / Nazimova 1921 production of Camille. Tilbury is probably best remembered as the old lady who is befriended by Spanky and his friends on her birthday and, as a result, is transformed from a lonely, disagreeable recluse to a happy and loving carefree soul in the 1936 Hal Roach Our Gang comedy Second Childhood. In the same year she also portrayed the Gypsy Queen in the Laurel and Hardy film The Bohemian Girl. Tilbury was married twice. First to Arthur Frederick Lewis in June, 1887, and later to L. E. Woodthorpe, who died on April 8, 1915. She died in Los Angeles, California in 1950 at the age of 86.

Filmography

• 1942Flying with Music — Fortune Teller
• 1941Sheriff of Tombstone — Granny Carson
• 1941Tobacco Road — Grandma Lester
• 1940Comin' Round the Mountain — Granny Stokes
• 1940Emergency Squad — Mrs. Cobb
• 1940She Couldn't Say No — Ma Hawkins
• 1940The Earl of Chicago — Miss Nana (uncredited)
• 1940The Grapes of Wrath — Grandma Joad
• 1939Balalaika — Natalya Petrovna
• 1939Boy Trouble — Mrs. Jepson
• 1939Lady of the Tropics — Woman Congratulating Manon
• 1939Tell No Tales — Miss Mary
• 1939The Story of Alexander Graham Bell — Mrs. Sanders
• 1938Arrest Bulldog Drummond — Aunt Meg
• 1938Bulldog Drummond's Peril — Mrs. Weevens
• 1938Hunted Men — Flower Woman
• 1938Kidnapped — Old Woman
• 1938Marie Antoinette — Dowager at Birth of Dauphin (uncredited)
• 1938Woman Against Woman — Grandma
• 1937Bulldog Drummond Comes Back — Zeffie
• 1937Bulldog Drummond Escapes — Drunk in Jail Cell
• 1937Federal Bullets — Mrs. Crippen
• 1937Hideaway — Mrs. Beamish
• 1937It Happened in Hollywood — Miss Gordon
• 1937Maid of Salem — Goody Hodgers
• 1937Midnight Taxi — Mrs. Lane
• 1937Parnell — Old Lady
• 1937Rhythm in the Clouds — The Duchess de Lovely
• 1937The King Without a Crown — Dying Duchess Marie (uncredited)
• 1937Under Cover of Night — Mrs. Nash
• 1936After the Thin Man — Aunt Lucy (uncredited)
• 1936Anthony Adverse — Old Woman at Chalet
• 1936Camille — Old Duchess Bidding 3750 Francs
• 1936Desire — Aunt Olga
• 1936Give Me Your Heart — Esther Warren
• 1936Grandma's Buoys — Grandma
• 1936Old Hutch — Elderly Woman in Bank
• 1936Parole! — Molly Smith
• 1936Second Childhood — Grandma
• 1936The Bohemian Girl — Gypsy Queen
• 1936The Gorgeous Hussy — Mrs. Daniel Beall
• 1936The White Angel — Woman Donating Sheets (uncredited)
• 1936Vamp Till Ready — Woman
• 1935Alice Adams — Mrs. Dresser (uncredited)
• 1935Bad Boy — Deaf Woman
• 1935Navy Wife — Bridge Player
• 1935Public Hero Number 1 — Deaf Woman in Scottsdale Bar (uncredited)
• 1935Stranded — Old Hag (uncredited)
• 1935The Farmer Takes a Wife — Old Townswoman
• 1935The Last Days of Pompeii — The Wise Woman (uncredited)
• 1935The Mystery of Edwin Drood — The Opium Woman
• 1935Werewolf of London — Mrs. Moncaster
• 1935Women Must Dress — Peg Martin
• 1934Bachelor Bait — Miss Turner (uncredited)
• 1934Mystery Liner — Granny Plimpton
• 1934Ocean Swells — Auntie
• 1934The Fuller Gush Man — Grandma
• 1934Two Alone — Rogers' Neighbor (uncredited)
• 1933Blind Adventure
• 1933Made on Broadway — Aunt Ada
• 1931Charlie Chan Carries On — Mrs. Luce
• 1930The Ship from Shanghai — Lady Daley
• 1929The Single Standard — Mrs. Handley
• 1927The Night of Love — Lady in Waiting
• 1924Another Scandal — Brownie
• 1921Big Game — Aunt Sarah Winthrop
• 1921Camille — Prudence
• 1921The Marriage of William Ashe — Lady Tranmore
• 1920Clothes — Mrs. Cathcart
• 1920Mothers of Men — Mrs. De La Motte
• 1919A Society Exile — Mrs. Stanley Shelby
• 1919The Avalanche — Mrs. Ruyler
• 1917Blind Man's Luck — Mrs. Guerton

Appearances as themselves (1)

• MGM Parade — Self