Jessica Tandy was a veteran of the stage and movies, beginning in the 30's. Tandy was the first to create the role of the faded southern belle, Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams' A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE on Broadway, winning a Tony for her performance. Tandy was passed over for the original film adaptation, which went to Vivian Leigh who had created the role in the U.K. and won an Oscar for her performance.
Jessica Tandy played the first fatality in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 parenoid fantasy, THE BIRDS.
Tandy continued to play occasionally in movies, such as the comedy, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, in which she plays a nurse and uber feminist writer and mother of the main character. She also played in COCOON as one of a trio of inmate in a home for the elderly who have a magical close encounter with aliens.
In 1989, when she was an octogenarian, she played the title role in DRIVING MISS DAISY, as a cantankerous old Atlanta matron, whose 20 relationship of grudging respect with her good natured southern servant and chauffeur, played by Morgan Freeman, is explored in the movie. Tandy won an Academy Award for her performance.
In the 1991 movie, FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, Jessica Tandy played Ninny Threadgoode, the raconteur of an extraordinary story of women banding together in Alabama in the 1920's, which proves to be the inspiration to break out of her shell for an oppressed woman, played by Kathy Bates. Tandy was nominated for a supporting Oscar for her performance. In 1994, Tandy played with Paul Newman in NOBODY'S FOOL, as his snoopy land lady.
In 1951 Jessica starred in THE
DESERT FOX.
Jessica Tandy's other film credits include:
THE SEVENTH CROSS (1944)
DRAGONWYCK (1946)
FOREVER AMBER (1947)
ROMMEL,
DESERT FOX (1951)
THE BIRDS (1963)
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP (1982)
STILL OF THE NIGHT (1982)
BEST FRIENDS (1982)
THE BOSTONIANS (1984)
COCOON (1985)
BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED (1987)
COCOON: THE RETURN (1988)
USED PEOPLE (1992)
CAMILLA (1994)
NOBODY'S FOOL (1994)
Jessica Tandy - MovieActors.com
