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
- Comin' Round the Mountain as Granny Stokes
- She Couldn't Say No as Ma Hawkins
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)
- Kidnapped as Old Woman
- Arrest Bulldog Drummond as Aunt Meg
- Bulldog Drummond's Peril as Mrs. Weevens
- Hunted Men as Flower Woman
- Woman Against Woman as Grandma
1937
- Bulldog Drummond Escapes as Drunk in Jail Cell
- Parnell as Old Lady
- Maid of Salem as Goody Hodgers
- Midnight Taxi as Mrs. Lane
- Rhythm in the Clouds as The Duchess de Lovely
- Bulldog Drummond Comes Back as Zeffie
- Hideaway as Mrs. Beamish
- It Happened in Hollywood as Miss Gordon
- Under Cover of Night as Mrs. Nash
- The King Without a Crown as Dying Duchess Marie (uncredited)
- Federal Bullets as Mrs. Crippen
1936
- Camille as Old Duchess Bidding 3750 Francs
- After the Thin Man as Aunt Lucy (uncredited)
- Desire as Aunt Olga
- The Gorgeous Hussy as Mrs. Daniel Beall
- 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)
- Give Me Your Heart as Esther Warren
- Second Childhood as Grandma
- Grandma's Buoys as Grandma
- Old Hutch as Elderly Woman in Bank
- Vamp Till Ready as Woman
1935
- Werewolf of London as Mrs. Moncaster
- The Farmer Takes a Wife as Old Townswoman
- The Last Days of Pompeii as The Wise Woman (uncredited)
- Alice Adams as Mrs. Dresser (uncredited)
- Bad Boy as Deaf Woman
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood as The Opium Woman
- Stranded as Old Hag (uncredited)
- Public Hero Number 1 as Deaf Woman in Scottsdale Bar (uncredited)
- Navy Wife as Bridge Player
- Women Must Dress as Peg Martin
1934
- Two Alone as Rogers' Neighbor (uncredited)
- Bachelor Bait as Miss Turner (uncredited)
- Mystery Liner as Granny Plimpton
- The Fuller Gush Man as Grandma
- Ocean Swells as Auntie
1933
- Blind Adventure
- Made on Broadway as Aunt Ada
1931
- Charlie Chan Carries On as Mrs. Luce
1930
- The Ship from Shanghai as Lady Daley
1929
- The Single Standard as Mrs. Handley
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
- Mothers of Men as Mrs. De La Motte
- Clothes as Mrs. Cathcart
1919
- The Avalanche as Mrs. Ruyler
- A Society Exile as Mrs. Stanley Shelby
1917
- Blind Man's Luck as Mrs. Guerton