Zeffie Tilbury

Zeffie Tilbury
Zeffie Tilbury
	Tilbury as Grandma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Born	Zeffie Agnes Lydia Tilbury; 20 November 1863; Paddington, Middlesex, England
Died	24 July 1950 (aged 86); Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Years active	1917–1942
Spouse(s)	L. E. Woodthorpe (?–1915) (his death); Arthur Frederick Lewis (1887–?)

Zeffie Agnes Lydia Tilbury (20 November 1863 – 24 July 1950) was an English actress.[1][2]

Early years

Born in Paddington, Middlesex, England, Tilbury was the only child of the variety performer Lydia Thompson and John Christian Tilbury, a riding-master, who died in a steeplechasing accident in 1864, when he was rolled on by his horse.[3]

Personal life

Tilbury was married twice. First to Arthur Frederick Lewis in June, 1887, and later to L. E. Woodthorpe, who died on 8 April 1915. She died in Los Angeles, California in 1950 at the age of 86.[4]

Career

Cigarette card from the 1880s

Tilbury was known first on the London stage and on Broadway in New York City.[5] In 1881, she debuted on stage in Nine Points of the Law at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, England.[6]

She is today best known for playing wise or evil older characters in films, such as the distinguished lady gambler at dinner with Garbo in The Single Standard, as the pitiful Grandma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath and Grandma Lester in Tobacco Road.

She appeared in over 70 films.[4] Her earliest surviving silent film is the Valentino / Nazimova 1921 production of Camille. Tilbury is probably best remembered as the old lady who is befriended by Spanky and his friends on her birthday and, as a result, is transformed from a lonely, disagreeable recluse to a happy and loving carefree soul in the 1936 Hal Roach Our Gang comedy Second Childhood. In the same year she also portrayed the Gypsy Queen in the Laurel and Hardy film The Bohemian Girl.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1917	Blind Man's Luck	Mrs. Guerton
1919	The Avalanche	Mrs. Ruyler	Lost film
1919	A Society Exile	Mrs. Stanley Shelby
1920	Mothers of Men	Mrs. De La Motte
1920	Clothes	Mrs. Cathcart	Lost film
1921	The Marriage of William Ashe	Lady Tranmore
	Big Game
	Camille	Prudence
1924	Another Scandal	Brownie	Lost film
1927	The Night of Love	Lady in Waiting	Uncredited
1929	The Single Standard	Mrs. Handley
1930	The Ship from Shanghai	Lady Daley
1931	Charlie Chan Carries On	Mrs. Luce	Lost film
1933	Made on Broadway	Aunt Ada	Uncredited
1933	Blind Adventure		Uncredited
1934	Two Alone	Rogers' Neighbor	Uncredited
	Mystery Liner	Granny Plimpton
	Bachelor Bait	Miss Turner	Uncredited
1935	Women Must Dress	Peg Martin
	The Mystery of Edwin Drood	The Opium Woman
	Werewolf of London	Mrs. Moncaster
	Public Hero No. 1	Deaf Woman in Scottsdale Bar	Uncredited
	Stranded	Old Hag	Uncredited
	The Farmer Takes a Wife	Old Townswoman	Uncredited
	Alice Adams	Mrs. Dresser	Uncredited
	Navy Wife	Bridge Player	Uncredited
	The Last Days of Pompeii	The Wise Woman
	Bad Boy	Deaf Woman	Uncredited
1936	The Bohemian Girl	Gypsy Queen
	Desire	Aunt Olga
	Second Childhood	Grandma	Short
	Parole!	Molly Smith	Uncredited
	The White Angel	Woman Donating Sheets	Uncredited
	Anthony Adverse	Old Woman at Chalet	Uncredited
	The Gorgeous Hussy	Mrs. Daniel Beall
	Give Me Your Heart	Esther Warren
	Old Hutch	Elderly Woman in Bank	Uncredited
	Camille	Old Duchess Bidding 3750 Francs	Uncredited
	After the Thin Man	Aunt Lucy	Uncredited
1937	Under Cover of Night	Mrs. Nash
	Bulldog Drummond Escapes	Jail Cell Drunk	Uncredited
	Maid of Salem	Goody Rogers
	Midnight Taxi	Mrs. Lane	Uncredited
	Parnell	Old Lady	Uncredited
	Rhythm in the Clouds	Maggie Conway - the Duchess de Lovely
	Hideaway	Mrs. Beamish	Uncredited
	Fit for a King	Duchess Louise - Reception Guest	Uncredited
	Bulldog Drummond Comes Back	Effie
	It Happened in Hollywood	Miss Gordon
	Federal Bullets	Mrs. Crippen
1938	Bulldog Drummond's Peril	Mrs. Weevens
	Kidnapped	Old Woman	Uncredited
	Hunted Men	Flower Woman	Uncredited
	Woman Against Woman	Grandma
	Marie Antoinette	Dowager at Birth of Dauphin	Uncredited
	Block-Heads	Dowager Seated Near Stairs	(scenes deleted)
	Arrest Bulldog Drummond	Aunt Meg
1939	Boy Trouble	Mrs. Jepson
	The Story of Alexander Graham Bell	Mrs. Sanders
	Tell No Tales	Miss Mary
	Lady of the Tropics	Woman Congratulating Manon	Uncredited
	Balalaika	Princess Natalya Petrovna
1940	Emergency Squad	Mrs. Cobb	Uncredited
	The Earl of Chicago	Miss Nana	Uncredited
	The Grapes of Wrath	Grandma Joad
	Comin' Round the Mountain	Granny Stokes
	She Couldn't Say No	Ma Hawkins
1941	Tobacco Road	Grandma Lester
1941	Sheriff of Tombstone	Granny Carson
1942	Flying with Music	Fortune Teller	Uncredited, (final film role)

References

Zeffie Tilbury profile at Probert Encyclopedia
Zeffie Tilbury profile at Cinemorgue
Gänzl, Kurt. Lydia Thompson in Encyclopaedia of the Musical Theatre, Blackwell/Schirmer (1994)
Zeffie Tilbury, The Internet Movie Database
"Classical Plays: Souvenirs and Portraits", Rob Wilton Theatricalia
Nissen, Axel (2016). Accustomed to Her Face: Thirty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood. McFarland. p. 192. ISBN 9781476626062. Retrieved 21 May 2018.

External links

Zeffie Tilbury on IMDb
Zeffie Tilbury at the TCM Movie Database
Zeffie Tilbury at the Internet Broadway Database
Zeffie Tilbury portrait at NYP Library
Zeffie Tilbury at Find a Grave
signed photograph(archived)

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[1] Zeffie Tilbury profile at Probert Encyclopedia

[Cine-2] Zeffie Tilbury profile at Cinemorgue

[3] Gänzl, Kurt. Lydia Thompson in Encyclopaedia of the Musical Theatre, Blackwell/Schirmer (1994)

[IMDB-4] Zeffie Tilbury, The Internet Movie Database

[5] "Classical Plays: Souvenirs and Portraits", Rob Wilton Theatricalia

[ahf-6] Nissen, Axel (2016). Accustomed to Her Face: Thirty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood. McFarland. p. 192. ISBN 9781476626062. Retrieved 21 May 2018.