Jessica Tandy

About Jessica Tandy

Jessie Alice Tandy (June 7, 1909 – September 11, 1994) was an Emmy-, Academy Award-, Tony-, BAFTA-, and Golden Globe-winning American stage and film actress.

Tandy, the last of three children, was born in Geldeston Road in the London Borough of Hackney. Her mother, Jessie Helen (née Horspool), was the head of a school for mentally handicapped children, and her father, Harry Tandy, was a travelling salesman for a rope manufacturer. Her father died when Tandy was 12, and as a result her mother taught evening courses to increase the family's income. Tandy was educated at the Dame Alice Owen's School in the London Borough of Islington.

After an acting career spanning some 65 years, Tandy found latter-day movie stardom in major studio releases and intimate dramas alike. She first appeared on the London stage in 1926, 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 first marriage (to Jack Hawkins), she moved to New York and met Canadian actor Hume Cronyn, who became her second husband and frequent partner on stage and screen. She made her American film debut in The Seventh Cross (1944). She also appeared in The Valley of Decision (1945), The Green Years (1946, as Cronyn's daughter), Dragonwyck (1946) starring Gene Tierney and Forever Amber (1947).