Jessica Tandy

She died at Easton, Connecticut, of ovarian cancer. on the night she passed away, all the marquee lights on Broadway were dimmed in honor and tribute of one of its greatest and brightest stars. Camilla (1994) was to be her last performance, and it was bold in one way that she, at the age of about 85, had a brief nude scene. At 8:00 P.M. She subsequently earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in the grass-roots hit Fried Green Tomatoes (1992), and co-starred in The Story Lady (1991 telefilm, with daughter Tandy Cronyn), Used People (1992, as Shirley MacLaine's Jewish mother), To Dance With the White Dog (1993 telefilm, with Cronyn), Nobody's Fool (1994), and Camilla (also 1994, with Cronyn). Gwen Verdon died quietly in her sleep at the home of her daughter, Nicole Fosse, in Pomfret, Vermont, at age seventy-five. She and Cronyn had been working together more and more, on stage and television, to continued acclaim (notably in 1987's Foxfire which won her an Emmy Award recreating her Tony-winning Broadway role), but it was her colorful performance in Driving Miss Daisy (1989), as an aging, stubborn Southern matron, that made her a bonafide Hollywood star and earned her a Best Actress Academy_award. Verdon also played Alora in the movie Walking Across Egypt (1999) and appeared in the movie Bruno, which was released in 2000.

The beginning of the 1970s saw a resurgence in her film career, with character roles in The World According to Garp, Best Friends, Still of the Night (all 1982) and The Bostonians (1984), and the hit film Cocoon (1985), opposite Cronyn, with whom she reteamed for *Batteries not included (1987) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). In 1999, Verdon served as artistic advisor and consultant on the stage biography of her late husband's life in theatre, the current stage musical Fosse, and her daughter, Nicole, was credited with "special thanks." The show received the Tony for best musical. After her Tony-winning performance as Blanche DuBois in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, she concentrated on the stage and only appeared sporadically in films such as The Light in the Forest (1957) and The Birds (1963). Verdon appeared as the mother of Alice in the movie Alice (1990) and as Ruth in Marvin's Room (1996). She made her American film debut in The Seventh Cross (1944), and appeared in The Valley of Decision (1945), The Green Years (1946, as Cronyn's daughter!), and Forever Amber (1947). She continued to instruct dance and musical theatre and to act, including receiving three Emmy Award nominations for appearances on Magnum PI (1988), Dream On (1993) and Homicide (1993). Following her first marriage to actor Jack Hawkins, she moved to New York and met actor Hume Cronyn, who became her second husband and frequent partner on stage and screen. Verdon was accompanying Fosse to the 1987 revival of Sweet Charity in Washington and held him in her arms when he suffered a fatal heart attack on the walk outside the theatre.

She also worked in British films. She played character parts in such movies as The Cotton Club (1984), Cocoon (1985) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). From a young age she was determined to be an actress, and first appeared on the London stage in 1927, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. After playing Roxie Hart in Chicago, Verdon concentrated on straight acting. After an acting career spanning some 65 years, Tandy found latter-day movie stardom in big-budget, major-studio releases and intimate dramas alike. She developed a close working relationship with Fosse's domestic companion, actress Ann Reinking, and even instructed for Reinking's musical theatre classes. Jessica won a Tony Award in 1982 for Foxfire, in 1978 for The Gin Game, and in 1948 for A Streetcar Named Desire. They remained close friends and were collaborators and co-workers on projects like Chicago (1975), her last major Broadway role in which she played murderess Roxie Hart, and the musical Dancin' (1978), as well as his autobiographical movie, All That Jazz (1979).

Later the same year, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In 1971, Verdon filed a legal separation from Fosse because of his open extramarital affairs, but they never divorced. She is the mother of actress Tandy Cronyn, and was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1990. The show became a Broadway cult classic and was followed by a movie version starring a younger redheaded dancer, Shirley MacLaine, which Verdon helped choreograph. Jessica Tandy (June 7, 1909 – September 11, 1994) was a British-born American actress who was born in London. In 1966, she returned to the stage in the role of Charity in Sweet Charity, which like many of her earlier Broadway triumphs was choreographed by her longtime husband, Bob Fosse. 1992: Fried Green Tomatoes. After the birth of her daughter, Verdon took time off.

1989: Driving Miss Daisy. She and Henaghan had one son, Jim Henaghan (born 1943); she and Fosse had a daughter, Nicole Fosse (born 1963). Cocoon the Return. Verdon had two husbands, tabloid reporter James Henaghan (married 1942-divorced 1947) and Bob Fosse (married 1960-his death 1987). 1988: The House on Carroll Street