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Today is the birthday of stage and screen actress, Jessica Tandy who originated the role of Blanche DuBois in the production of A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams which was first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947.
The character Blanche is mentioned in the play as arriving at the apartment of her sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and her husband Stanley (Marlon Brando), who completes the trio, by riding in a streetcar on the Desire streetcar line. Williams was living in an apartment on Toulouse Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans when he wrote the play. The old Desire streetcar line ran only a half-block away.
An aside, Toulouse Street is the second studio album by the rock band, the Doobie Brothers which was released in July of 1972, by Warner Bros. Records. The cover and inside centerfold photos were taken at a former brothel on Toulouse Street. One day I'll have to do an article about this and of the time Tom and I stayed at a former brothel in Madrid; it was quite an adventure.
Back to the subject, the instability of the mind of Blanch is vividly
portrayed by Tandy; Blanch had married when she was very young but her
husband committed suicide and the memory torments her. The audience
later learns she suffers from guilt due to the way she had reacted to
finding out about her husband's homosexuality and his fatal reaction.
photographer unknown
A Streetcar Named Desire is
one of Williams' most influential plays and ranks among his most
performed and has inspired adaptations in many other forms, including
the critically acclaimed film released in 1951.
Although Brando had second billing in the stage play, he got his vindication when he starred as Stanley in the film of the same name four yeas later.
Kim Hunter was also in the original 1947 production but she and Tandy didn't make it with Brando to the film version; Vivien Leigh won the honor of playing Blanche.
as Blanche, Stella, and Stanley
Marlon Brando as Stanley - 1947
photo by Carl van Vechten
Tandy was born in Geldeston Road in Hackney, London. Her mother was from a large Fenland family in Wisbech,
Cambridgeshire, and the head of a school for disabled children, and her
father was a traveling salesman for a rope manufacturer. She was educated at Dame Alice Owen's School in Islington.
She was 18 years old when she made her professional debut on the
London stage in 1927. During the 1930s, she acted in many plays in the London West End, playing Ophelia (opposite John Gielgud as Hamlet) and Katherine (opposite Laurence Olivier as Henry V).
As with many stage actors, Tandy also worked in radio. Among other programs, she was a regular on Mandrake the Magician (as Princess Narda), and then with her second husband Hume Cronyn in The Marriage which ran on radio from 1953 to 1954. She would unite with Cronyn years later in the film Cocoon.
She made her American film debut in The Seventh Cross in 1944; appearing with Cronyn and Spencer Tracy). She had supporting appearances in The Valley of Decision (1945), The Green Years (1946, as Cronyn's daughter), Dragonwyck (1946) starring Gene Tierney and Vincent Price and Forever Amber (1947). She appeared as the insomniac murderess in A Woman's Vengeance (1948), a film noir adapted by Aldous Huxley from his short story The Gioconda Smile. and in 1963 as a domineering mother in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds.
It was her performance in Driving Miss Daisy in 1989, as an aging, stubborn Southern Jewish matron, that earned her an Oscar and received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in the grassroots hit Fried Green Tomatoes in 1991.
She appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Tandy is one of few performers to achieve Triple Crown of Acting status. She won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for playing Blanche DuBois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948, also winning for The Gin Game and Foxfire. Her films included The Birds directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Cocoon directed by Ron Howard, Batteries Not Included, Nobody's Fool and Fried Green Tomatoes directed by Jon Avnet.
Cathry Bates & Jessica Tandy - 1991
photo: Evertt Collection
For me, Cathry Bates stole this movie away with her 'parking lot rage' scene; one I've always wanted to try but unlike her character in the film, I don't have tons of insurance (link below).
At 80, she became the oldest actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for Driving Miss Daisy directed by Bruce Beresford.
In 1990, Tandy was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and she also suffered from angina and glaucoma. Despite her illnesses and advancing age she continued working. On September 11, 1994, she died at home in Easton, Connecticut, at the age of 85.
Viewfinder links:
Net links:
broadway.library.sc.edu ~
Southern Living ~ Fried Green Tomatoes’ Movie Facts
YouTube links:
Driving Miss Daisy (1989) Official Trailer
Fried Green Tomatoes ~ Parking Lot Rage
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, June 3, 2026
