
Judith Anderson
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Female
Birthday
1897-02-10
Day of Death
1992-01-03 (94 years old)
Place of Birth
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Judith Anderson
Biography
Dame Frances Margaret Anderson, AC, DBE (February 10, 1897 – January 3, 1992), known professionally as Judith Anderson, was an Australian actress who had a successful career in stage, film and television. Considered one of the greatest classical stage actors of the 20th century, she has two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award to her name, as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award each.
She began her acting career in Australia but her ambition brought her to New York in 1918. She established herself as one of the greatest theatrical actresses and was a major star on Broadway throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Her notable stage works included the role of Lady Macbeth, which she played first in the 1920s, and gave an Emmy Award-winning television performance in Macbeth (1960). Anderson's long association with Euripides's "Medea" began with her acclaimed Tony Award-winning 1948 stage performance in the title role. She appeared in the television version of Medea (1983) in the supporting character of the Nurse.
Anderson made her Hollywood film debut under director Rowland Brown in a supporting role in Blood Money (1933). Her striking, not conventionally attractive features were complemented with her powerful presence, mastery of timing and an effortless style. Anderson made a film career as a supporting character actress in several significant films including Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), for which she was Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actress. She worked with director Otto Preminger in Laura (1944), then with René Clair in And Then There Were None (1945). Her remarkable performance in a supporting role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) fit in a stellar acting ensemble under director Richard Brooks.
Anderson was awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1960 Queen's New Year's Honours List for her services to the performing arts. Living in Santa Barbara in her later years, she also had a successful stint on the soap opera Santa Barbara (1984) and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 1984. In the same year, at age 87, she appeared in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) as the High Priestess, and was nominated for a Saturn Award for that role. She was awarded Companion of the Order of Australia in the 1991 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to the performing arts. Anderson died at age 94 of pneumonia on January 3, 1992 in Santa Barbara, California.
Known For
Acting
(2018)
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
as Self (archive footage)
(2003)
The Making of The Ten Commandments
as Self (archive footage)
(1991)
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
as actress 'Laura' (archive footage) (uncredited)
(1986)
Impure Thoughts
as The Sister of Purgatory (voice)
(1984)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
as Vulcan High Priestess
(1983)
Medea
as Nurse
(1975)
Inn of the Damned
as Caroline Straulle
(1974)
The Underground Man
as Mrs. Snow
(1973)
The Borrowers
as Aunt Sophie
(1970)
A Man Called Horse
as Buffalo Cow Head
(1969)
The File on Devlin
as Elizabeth Devlin
(1968)
Elizabeth the Queen
as Queen Elizabeth
(1964)
The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre
as Paulina
(1964)
Macbeth
as Lady Macbeth
(1961)
Hollywood: The Selznick Years
as 'Rebecca' (archive footage) (uncredited)
(1961)
Don't Bother to Knock
as Maggie Shoemaker
(1960)
Cinderfella
as Wicked Stepmother
(1959)
The Moon and Sixpence
as Tiare
(1959)
Medea
as Medea
(1959)
A Christmas Festival
as Narrator of the final offering
(1958)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
as Big Momma
(1956)
The Ten Commandments
as Memnet
(1954)
Macbeth
as Lady Macbeth
(1953)
Salome
as Queen Herodias
(1950)
The Furies
as Flo Burnett
(1947)
Pursued
as Mrs. Callum
(1947)
The Red House
as Ellen Morgan
(1947)
Tycoon
as Miss Ellen Braithwaite
(1946)
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
as Mrs. Ivers
(1946)
The Diary of a Chambermaid
as Madame Lanlaire
(1946)
Specter of the Rose
as Madame La Sylph
(1945)
And Then There Were None
as Emily Brent
(1944)
Laura
as Ann Treadwell
(1943)
Stage Door Canteen
as Judith Anderson
(1943)
Edge of Darkness
as Gerd Bjarnesen
(1942)
All Through the Night
as Madame
(1942)
Kings Row
as Harriet Gordon
(1941)
Lady Scarface
as Slade
(1941)
Free and Easy
as Lady Joan Culver
(1940)
Rebecca
as Mrs. Danvers
(1940)
Forty Little Mothers
as Madame Granville
(1933)
Blood Money
as Ruby Darling