Zeffie Tilbury

Born: 1863-11-18 in Paddington, London, England, UK

Died: 1950-07-24

Known For: Acting

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Zeffie Agnes Lydia Tilbury (November 20, 1863 – July 24, 1950) was an English actress. Tilbury was known first on the London stage and on Broadway in New York City. In 1881, she debuted on stage in Nine Points of the Law at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, England. 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. 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. Tilbury was married twice. First to Arthur Frederick Lewis in June, 1887, and later to L. E. Woodthorpe, who died on April 8, 1915. She died in Los Angeles, California in 1950 at the age of 86.

Filmography

1955

MGM Parade as Self

1942

Flying with Music as Fortune Teller

1941

Tobacco Road as Grandma Lester
Sheriff of Tombstone as Granny Carson

1940

The Grapes of Wrath as Grandma Joad
The Earl of Chicago as Miss Nana (uncredited)
Emergency Squad as Mrs. Cobb
She Couldn't Say No as Ma Hawkins
Comin' Round the Mountain as Granny Stokes

1939

The Story of Alexander Graham Bell as Mrs. Sanders
Tell No Tales as Miss Mary
Balalaika as Natalya Petrovna
Lady of the Tropics as Woman Congratulating Manon
Boy Trouble as Mrs. Jepson

1938

Marie Antoinette as Dowager at Birth of Dauphin (uncredited)
Hunted Men as Flower Woman
Bulldog Drummond's Peril as Mrs. Weevens
Kidnapped as Old Woman
Woman Against Woman as Grandma
Arrest Bulldog Drummond as Aunt Meg

1937

Parnell as Old Lady
Maid of Salem as Goody Hodgers
Midnight Taxi as Mrs. Lane
It Happened in Hollywood as Miss Gordon
Bulldog Drummond Comes Back as Zeffie
Under Cover of Night as Mrs. Nash
Federal Bullets as Mrs. Crippen
Bulldog Drummond Escapes as Drunk in Jail Cell
The King Without a Crown as Dying Duchess Marie (uncredited)
Rhythm in the Clouds as The Duchess de Lovely
Hideaway as Mrs. Beamish

1936

Camille as Old Duchess Bidding 3750 Francs
After the Thin Man as Aunt Lucy (uncredited)
Desire as Aunt Olga
Anthony Adverse as Old Woman at Chalet
Parole! as Molly Smith
The Bohemian Girl as Gypsy Queen
The White Angel as Woman Donating Sheets (uncredited)
The Gorgeous Hussy as Mrs. Daniel Beall
Give Me Your Heart as Esther Warren
Old Hutch as Elderly Woman in Bank
Second Childhood as Grandma
Vamp Till Ready as Woman
Grandma's Buoys as Grandma

1935

Werewolf of London as Mrs. Moncaster
Alice Adams as Mrs. Dresser (uncredited)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood as The Opium Woman
Public Hero Number 1 as Deaf Woman in Scottsdale Bar (uncredited)
Stranded as Old Hag (uncredited)
Bad Boy as Deaf Woman
The Last Days of Pompeii as The Wise Woman (uncredited)
The Farmer Takes a Wife as Old Townswoman
Navy Wife as Bridge Player
Women Must Dress as Peg Martin

1934

Mystery Liner as Granny Plimpton
Ocean Swells as Auntie
Bachelor Bait as Miss Turner (uncredited)
Two Alone as Rogers' Neighbor (uncredited)
The Fuller Gush Man as Grandma

1927

The Night of Love as Lady in Waiting

1924

Another Scandal as Brownie

1921

Camille as Prudence
Big Game as Aunt Sarah Winthrop
The Marriage of William Ashe as Lady Tranmore

1920

Clothes as Mrs. Cathcart
Mothers of Men as Mrs. De La Motte

1919

The Avalanche as Mrs. Ruyler
A Society Exile as Mrs. Stanley Shelby

1917

Blind Man's Luck as Mrs. Guerton