Tandy, Jessica (1909–1994)

The cast of the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, New York, USA, in 1947 included US actors Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter (seen embracing in the background), And English actor Jessica Tandy. The film of the play (1951) replaced Jessica Tandy with English actor Vivien Leigh, and made a film star of Brando.

English film and theatre actor. One of the greatest classical theatre actors of her day, she played all the major Shakespearean heroines, including Ophelia alongside John Gielgud's Hamlet in 1934. She won an Academy Award for the film Driving Miss Daisy (1989). She was created a DBE in 1990.

In the USA she created the role of Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). She often played supporting film roles, include parts in Dragonwyck (1946) and The World according to Garp (1963).

Tandy was born in London, made her first stage appearance in Birmingham in 1927 and her West End debut two years later. In 1940 she moved to the USA and in 1942 married the actor Hume Cronyn (1911–2003). She and Cronyn frequently acted together, both in such modern plays as The Fourposter (Broadway, 1951) and in a variety of classic revivals.

Her film appearances also included Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), but remained occasional until the 1980s, when she suddenly became in demand for character roles. She appeared with Cronyn in Honky Tonk Freeway (1981) and Cocoon (1985) and alone in several other films, including Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Used People (1992).