Jessica Tandy

Jessie Alice Tandy, known professionally as Jessica Tandy, was born in Hackney, London, on 7 June 1909. She was the youngest of three children; her father Harry worked as a travelling salesman for a rope maker, and her mother Jessie Helen Horspool ran a school for disabled children. After her father died when she was twelve, her mother taught evening classes to support the family. Tandy was educated at Dame Alice Owen’s School in Islington. Her brother Edward later became a prisoner of war of the Japanese in Asia.

Tandy made her professional stage debut in London at age eighteen in 1927. During the 1930s, she performed in many West End productions, including playing Ophelia opposite John Gielgud’s Hamlet and Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier’s Henry V. She often competed for roles with rivals Peggy Ashcroft and Celia Johnson. After her marriage to actor Jack Hawkins ended in divorce, she moved to the United States in search of better opportunities. She became a naturalised US citizen in 1952.

Her American film debut came in *The Seventh Cross* (1944), appearing alongside her second husband, Canadian actor Hume Cronyn, whom she had married in 1942. She played supporting roles in films such as *The Valley of Decision* (1945), *The Green Years* (1946, as Cronyn’s daughter), *Dragonwyck* (1946), *Forever Amber* (1947), and the film noir *A Woman’s Vengeance* (1948). She also worked extensively in radio, notably as Princess Narda on *Mandrake the Magician* and later co-starring with Cronyn on the series *The Marriage* (1953–1954), which later moved to television.

Tandy won her first Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 1948 for originating the role of Blanche DuBois in the Broadway production of *A Streetcar Named Desire*. (The film role went to Vivien Leigh.) She then focused primarily on the stage for the next three decades. She earned a second Tony for *The Gin Game* (1977), a production that transferred to London’s Lyric Theatre, where she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. Her third Tony came in 1982 for *Foxfire*, a play written by Cronyn. In 1983, she read a speech from *A Streetcar Named Desire* at Tennessee Williams’s memorial service.

Her film appearances during this period included *The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel* (1951), *The Light in the Forest* (1958), and a role as a domineering mother in Alfred Hitchcock’s *The Birds* (1963). In the 1980s, her film career revived with character roles in *The World According to Garp*, *Best Friends*, *Still of the Night* (all 1982), and *The Bostonians* (1984). She and Cronyn worked together frequently on stage and screen, including the films *Honky Tonk Freeway* (1981), *Cocoon* (1985), *batteries not included* (1987), *Cocoon: The Return* (1988), and the Emmy-winning television film *Foxfire* (1987), recreating her Tony-winning role.

At age eighty, Tandy became the oldest actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in *Driving Miss Daisy* (1989). She received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for *Fried Green Tomatoes* (1991). Other later roles included the TV film *The Story Lady* (1991, with her daughter Tandy Cronyn), *Used People* (1992), the television film *To Dance with the White Dog* (1993, with Cronyn), and *Camilla* (1994, with Cronyn). Her final performance was in *Nobody’s Fool* (1994), at age eighty-four.

Tandy and Hawkins had a daughter, Susan Hawkins, who also became an actress. With Cronyn, she had two children: daughter Tandy Cronyn and son Christopher Cronyn. The family lived for many years in Pound Ridge, New York, before moving to Connecticut. In 1990, Tandy was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She died on 11 September 1994. Over her career, she appeared in more than 100 stage productions and over sixty film and television roles, earning an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and a Primetime Emmy—making her one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting.