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)
Comin' Round the Mountain as Granny Stokes
She Couldn't Say No as Ma Hawkins
Emergency Squad as Mrs. Cobb

1939

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

1938

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

1937

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

1936

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

1935

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

1934

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

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

1917

Blind Man's Luck as Mrs. Guerton