Tandy, Jessica (1909-1994), was a versatile British actress who gained success on the stage and in motion pictures both in the United Kingdom and the United States. Tandy earned a Tony Award in the United States for her brilliant psychological portrayal of the tragic character Blanche DuBois on Broadway in the drama A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) by the American playwright Tennessee Williams. She also earned three other Tony Awards, including one for lifetime achievement in 1994. Tandy won the 1989 Academy Award as best actress for her performance in Driving Miss Daisy. She was also nominated for best supporting actress for Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). Tandy won the 1987 Emmy Award for best actress for her performance in Foxfire, repeating the role for which she earned a 1983 Tony.
In 1932, Tandy married the noted British actor Jack Hawkins. They divorced in 1942, and later that year she married the Canadian actor Hume Cronyn. They appeared together in several plays, notably The Fourposter (1951), The Gin Game (1977), and Foxfire (1980), as well as in films and on television.
Jessie Alice Tandy was born on June 7, 1909, in London. She made her English stage debut at the age of 16 and her American stage debut at the age of 20. She changed her name to Jessica about this time. Tandy won praise on the English stage as Ophelia in a 1934 production of the English playwright William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. She went on to portray a variety of Shakespeare’s heroines on the stage. Her motion-picture debut came in the British film The Indiscretions of Eve (1932). Her other movies included The Seventh Cross (1944), Dragonwyck (1946), Forever Amber (1947), The Birds (1963), The World According to Garp (1982), and Cocoon (1985). Tandy became a United States citizen in 1952. She died on Sept. 11, 1994.
