Judith Anderson

Judith Anderson

Born: February 8, 1897
Died: January 3, 1992
in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Dame Judith Anderson was born Frances Margaret Anderson on February 10, 1897 in Adelaide, South Australia. She began her acting career in Australia before moving to New York in 1918. There 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.

Movies for Judith Anderson...

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
Title: Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: July 27, 2018
Type: Movie
A deliciously scandalous portrait of unsung Hollywood legend Scotty Bowers, whose bestselling memoir chronicled his decades spent as sexual procurer to the stars.
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Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
Title: Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
Character: actress 'Laura' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: October 28, 1991
Type: Movie
This documentary, hosted by actor Burgess Meredith, explores the life and career of movie director Otto Preminger, whose body of work includes such memorable films as Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Laura, Forever Amber, Advise and Consent, In Harm's Way, The Moon Is Blue, The Man with the Golden Arm, and many other movies made from the '30s through the '70s. Interviews with actors Frank Sinatra, Vincent Price, James Stewart, Michael Caine, and others who worked with the flamboyant and sometimes control-obsessed director add information and insight to the story.
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Impure Thoughts
Title: Impure Thoughts
Character: The Sister of Purgatory (voice)
Released: November 25, 1986
Type: Movie
Four male friends are reunited after not being in contact with each other for several years. However, the meeting place is Purgatory, the afterlife state of limbo between heaven and hell. In Purgatory, these friends reflect on their pasts while they were living. They especially focus on their years in Catholic School and their coming of age. This film talks a lot about sexual issues. One of the characters is an 18-year old sent to Vietnam who dies without ever losing his virginity and there is a middle-aged, homosexual alcoholic playwright who has still has problems dealing with his identity.
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Title: Santa Barbara
Character: Minx Lockridge
Released: July 30, 1984
Type: TV
Santa Barbara is an American television soap opera, first broadcast in the United States on NBC on July 30, 1984, and last aired on January 15, 1993. The show revolves around the eventful lives of the wealthy Capwell family of Santa Barbara, California. Other prominent families featured on the soap were the rival Lockridge family, and the more modest Andrade and Perkins families. Santa Barbara aired in over 40 countries around the world and is best remembered for its witty dialogue and sometimes tongue-in-cheek situations that often seemed like an affectionate parody of the genre. The show won 24 Daytime Emmy Awards and 18 Soap Opera Digest Awards among various other awards.
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Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Title: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Character: Vulcan High Priestess
Released: June 1, 1984
Type: Movie
Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis planet to recover Spock's body.
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Medea
Title: Medea
Character: Nurse
Released: January 1, 1983
Type: Movie
Medea is in Corinth with Jason and their two young sons. King Kreon wants to reward Jason for his exploits: he gives the hand of his daughter, Glauce, to Jason.
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Inn of the Damned
Title: Inn of the Damned
Character: Caroline Straulle
Released: November 13, 1975
Type: Movie
A sheriff investigates why the guests at a local hostelry check in, but never check out.
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The Underground Man
Title: The Underground Man
Character: Mrs. Snow
Released: May 6, 1974
Type: Movie
A private detective goes after the kidnappers of his ex-girlfriend's son and becomes involved in a series of murders.
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The Borrowers
Title: The Borrowers
Character: Aunt Sophie
Released: December 14, 1973
Type: Movie
An eight-year-old boy discovers a family of tiny people, only a few inches tall, living beneath the floorboards of a Victorian country home.
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A Man Called Horse
Title: A Man Called Horse
Character: Buffalo Cow Head
Released: May 1, 1970
Type: Movie
In 1825, English peer Lord John Morgan is cast adrift in the American West. Captured by Sioux Indians, Morgan is at first targeted for quick extinction, but the tribesmen sense that he is worthy of survival. He eventually passes the many necessary tests that will permit him to become a member of the tribe.
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The File on Devlin
Title: The File on Devlin
Character: Elizabeth Devlin
Released: November 21, 1969
Type: Movie
A young woman finds herself engulfed in Cold War intrigue when her father, a Nobel Prize-winning author, vanishes while travelling near the Russian border. Entrusted by her father with an unfinished book he was working on before his trip, the young woman becomes engaged in a power struggle over the material with her estranged stepmother. Suspiciously befriended by a journalist in the midst of the crisis, the young woman ultimately learns that no one is to be trusted - as her father's work is of interest to the intelligence departments of several countries.
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Macbeth
Title: Macbeth
Character: Lady Macbeth
Released: March 16, 1964
Type: Movie
Hallmark Hall of Fame's second version of Shakespeare's classic play, with the same two stars and the same director as its first version, but a different supporting cast.
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The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre
Title: The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre
Character: Paulina
Released: January 1, 1964
Type: Movie
Terrified of being buried alive, a woman installs a phone in her crypt. A few days after her death, the phone suddenly rings and paranormal investigator Nelson Orion is brought in to probe the case.
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Hollywood: The Selznick Years
Title: Hollywood: The Selznick Years
Character: 'Rebecca' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: December 31, 1961
Type: Movie
Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in the 30s and 40s.
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Don't Bother to Knock
Title: Don't Bother to Knock
Character: Maggie Shoemaker
Released: May 28, 1961
Type: Movie
An Edinburgh travel agent loses his keys and his fiancé in one night. A friend finds the keys and makes loads of copies with his address attached as a joke. She gives them to him as he leaves for a holiday. He gives the keys to several women he romances across the continent. He gets engaged again by phone and arranges to meet his fiancé at his flat, but the flat isn't empty...
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Cinderfella
Title: Cinderfella
Character: Wicked Stepmother
Released: December 18, 1960
Type: Movie
When his father dies, poor Fella is left at the mercy of his snobbish stepmother and her two no-good sons Maximilian and Rupert. As he slaves away for his nasty step-family, Maximilian and Rupert attempt to find a treasure Fella's father has supposedly hidden on the estate. Hoping to restore her dwindling fortunes, the stepmother plans a fancy ball in honor of the visiting Princess Charmein whom she hopes will marry Rupert. Eventually, Fella's Fairy Godfather shows up to convince him that he has a shot at winning the Princess himself.
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A Christmas Festival
Title: A Christmas Festival
Character: Narrator of the final offering
Released: December 13, 1959
Type: Movie
A Christmas Festival was an annual television special by the anthology program Hallmark Hall of Fame. The 1959 event originally aired on December 13, 1959, and marked Elke Sommer's first appearance (in the role of The Princess) on American television.
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The Moon and Sixpence
Title: The Moon and Sixpence
Character: Tiare
Released: October 30, 1959
Type: Movie
A staid, dull Englishman abruptly deserts his wife and children to become a painter in the South Seas.
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Medea
Title: Medea
Character: Medea
Released: October 12, 1959
Type: Movie
A betrayed queen takes a terrible revenge.
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Title: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Character: Big Momma
Released: August 29, 1958
Type: Movie
An alcoholic ex-football player drinks his days away, having failed to come to terms with his sexuality and his real feelings for his football buddy who died after an ambiguous accident. His wife is crucified by her desperation to make him desire her: but he resists the affections of his wife. His reunion with his father—who is dying of cancer—jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.
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Title: DuPont Show of the Month
Character: Marquesa de Montemayor
Released: September 29, 1957
Type: TV
DuPont Show of the Month is an acclaimed 90-minute television anthology series that aired monthly on CBS from 1957 to 1961. The DuPont Company also sponsored a weekly half-hour anthology drama series hosted by June Allyson, The DuPont Show with June Allyson. During the Golden Age of Television, DuPont Show of the Month was one of numerous anthology series telecast between 1949 and 1962. Superficially, it resembled Playhouse 90 and other anthologies, but DuPont Show of the Month focused less on contemporary dramas and more on adaptations of literary classics, including Oliver Twist, The Prince and the Pauper, Billy Budd, The Prisoner of Zenda, A Tale of Two Cities and The Count of Monte Cristo.
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The Ten Commandments
Title: The Ten Commandments
Character: Memnet
Released: October 5, 1956
Type: Movie
Escaping death, a Hebrew infant is raised in a royal household to become a prince. Upon discovery of his true heritage, Moses embarks on a personal quest to reclaim his destiny as the leader and liberator of the Hebrew people.
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Title: Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Character: Mrs. Danvers (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: October 2, 1955
Type: TV
A television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries.
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Title: Climax!
Character: Rachel
Released: October 7, 1954
Type: TV
Climax! is an American anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Costa. It was one of the few CBS programs of that era to be broadcast in color. Many of the episodes were performed and broadcast live.
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Salome
Title: Salome
Character: Queen Herodias
Released: March 24, 1953
Type: Movie
In the reign of emperor Tiberius, Gallilean prophet John the Baptist preaches against King Herod and Queen Herodias. The latter wants John dead, but Herod fears to harm him due to a prophecy. Enter beautiful Princess Salome, Herod's long-absent stepdaughter. Herodias sees the king's dawning lust for Salome as her means of bending the king to her will. But Salome and her lover Claudius are (contrary to Scripture) nearing conversion to the new religion. And the famous climactic dance turns out to have unexpected implications...
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Title: Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Lady Macbeth
Released: December 24, 1951
Type: TV
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then changed to videotaped productions before finally changing to filmed ones. The series has received eighty Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes. Once a common practice in American television, it is the last remaining television program such that the title includes the name of the sponsor. Unlike other long-running TV series still on the air, it differs in that it broadcasts only occasionally and not on a weekly broadcast programming schedule.
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Title: Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Queen Elizabeth I
Released: December 24, 1951
Type: TV
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then changed to videotaped productions before finally changing to filmed ones. The series has received eighty Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes. Once a common practice in American television, it is the last remaining television program such that the title includes the name of the sponsor. Unlike other long-running TV series still on the air, it differs in that it broadcasts only occasionally and not on a weekly broadcast programming schedule.
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Title: Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Elizabeth Devlin
Released: December 24, 1951
Type: TV
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then changed to videotaped productions before finally changing to filmed ones. The series has received eighty Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes. Once a common practice in American television, it is the last remaining television program such that the title includes the name of the sponsor. Unlike other long-running TV series still on the air, it differs in that it broadcasts only occasionally and not on a weekly broadcast programming schedule.
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Title: Hallmark Hall of Fame
Released: December 24, 1951
Type: TV
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then changed to videotaped productions before finally changing to filmed ones. The series has received eighty Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes. Once a common practice in American television, it is the last remaining television program such that the title includes the name of the sponsor. Unlike other long-running TV series still on the air, it differs in that it broadcasts only occasionally and not on a weekly broadcast programming schedule.
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Title: Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: The Prioress
Released: December 24, 1951
Type: TV
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then changed to videotaped productions before finally changing to filmed ones. The series has received eighty Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes. Once a common practice in American television, it is the last remaining television program such that the title includes the name of the sponsor. Unlike other long-running TV series still on the air, it differs in that it broadcasts only occasionally and not on a weekly broadcast programming schedule.
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The Furies
Title: The Furies
Character: Flo Burnett
Released: August 16, 1950
Type: Movie
A New Mexico cattle man and his strong-willed daughter clash over land and love.
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Title: The Ed Sullivan Show
Character: Self
Released: June 20, 1948
Type: TV
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
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Tycoon
Title: Tycoon
Character: Miss Ellen Braithwaite
Released: December 27, 1947
Type: Movie
Engineer Johnny Munroe is enlisted to build a railroad tunnel through a mountain to reach mines. His task is complicated, and his ethics are compromised, when he falls in love with his boss's daughter
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Pursued
Title: Pursued
Character: Mrs. Callum
Released: March 2, 1947
Type: Movie
A boy haunted by nightmares about the night his entire family was murdered is brought up by a neighboring family in the 1880s. He falls for his lovely adoptive sister but his nasty adoptive brother and mysterious uncle want him dead.
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The Red House
Title: The Red House
Character: Ellen Morgan
Released: February 4, 1947
Type: Movie
An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods.
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The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Title: The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Character: Mrs. Ivers
Released: August 19, 1946
Type: Movie
Three childhood friends, Martha, Walter and Sam, share a terrible secret. Over time, the ambitious Martha and the pusillanimous Walter have married. She is a cold businesswoman; he is the district attorney: a perfect combination to dominate the corrupt city of Iverstown at will. But the unexpected return of Sam, after years of absence, deeply disturbs the life of the odd couple.
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Specter of the Rose
Title: Specter of the Rose
Character: Madame La Sylph
Released: July 5, 1946
Type: Movie
Ballet dancer Sanine may have murdered his first wife. A detective thinks so, and he's not the only one.
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The Diary of a Chambermaid
Title: The Diary of a Chambermaid
Character: Madame Lanlaire
Released: February 15, 1946
Type: Movie
Celestine, the chamber-maid, has a new job in the country, at the Lanlaires. She has decided to use her beauty to seduce a wealthy man, but Mr. Lanlaire is not a right choice: the house is firmly controlled by Madame Lanlaire, helped by the strange valet Joseph. Then she tries the neighbour, former officer Mauger. This seems to work. But soon the son of the Lanlaires comes back. He is young, attractive and does not share his mother's antirepublican opinions. So Celestine's beauty attracts Captain Mauger, young Georges Lanlaire, and Joseph. Three men, from three different social classes, with three different conceptions of life. Will Celestine be able to convince Georges of her sincerity?
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And Then There Were None
Title: And Then There Were None
Character: Emily Brent
Released: October 31, 1945
Type: Movie
Ten strangers are summoned to a remote island and while they are waiting for the mysterious host to appear, a recording levels serious accusations at each of the guests. Soon they start being murdered, one by one. As the survivors try to keep their wits, they reach a disturbing conclusion: one of them must be the killer.
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Laura
Title: Laura
Character: Ann Treadwell
Released: October 11, 1944
Type: Movie
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
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Stage Door Canteen
Title: Stage Door Canteen
Character: Judith Anderson
Released: June 24, 1943
Type: Movie
A young soldier on a pass in New York City visits the famed Stage Door Canteen, where famous stars of the theater and films appear and host a recreational center for servicemen during the war. The soldier meets a pretty young hostess and they enjoy the many entertainers and a growing romance
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Edge of Darkness
Title: Edge of Darkness
Character: Gerd Bjarnesen
Released: April 9, 1943
Type: Movie
The film pivots around the local Norwegian doctor and his family. The doctor's wife (Ruth Gordon) wants to hold on to the pretence of gracious living and ignore their German occupiers. The doctor, Martin Stensgard (Walter Huston), would also prefer to stay neutral, but is torn. His brother-in-law, the wealthy owner of the local fish cannery, collaborates with the Nazis. The doctor's daughter, Karen (Ann Sheridan), is involved with the resistance and with its leader Gunnar Brogge (Errol Flynn). The doctor's son has just returned to town, having been sent down from the university, and is soon influenced by his Nazi-sympathizer uncle. Captain Koenig (Helmut Dantine), the young German commandant of the occupying garrison, whose fanatic determination to do everything by the book and spoutings about the invincibility of the Reich hides a growing fear of a local uprising.
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Kings Row
Title: Kings Row
Character: Harriet Gordon
Released: February 2, 1942
Type: Movie
Five young adults in a small American town face the revelations of secrets that threaten to ruin their hopes and dreams.
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All Through the Night
Title: All Through the Night
Character: Madame
Released: January 10, 1942
Type: Movie
Broadway gamblers stumble across a plan by Nazi saboteurs to blow up an American battleship.
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Lady Scarface
Title: Lady Scarface
Character: Slade
Released: September 26, 1941
Type: Movie
A Chicago gang led by Slade carries out an audacious brokerage robbery. Lieutenant Bill Mason takes the case, continuing his friendly-enemy relationship with crime reporter Ann Rogers. One gang member is caught; eventually, others follow. But Mason hasn't a clue to Slade, principally because he's unaware she's a woman.
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Free and Easy
Title: Free and Easy
Character: Lady Joan Culver
Released: February 28, 1941
Type: Movie
This MGM B-picture was adapted from Ivor Novello's play The Truth Game. Max and Florian Clemington pretend to be members of the landed gentry. Max romances the much-older Lady Joan Culver before finding true love in the form of pretty heiress Martha Gray.
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Forty Little Mothers
Title: Forty Little Mothers
Character: Madame Granville
Released: April 26, 1940
Type: Movie
An out-of-work professor gets a break from an old college buddy to teach at an exclusive girl's school. But events conspire against him: he finds an abandoned child which he takes under his wing, despite the school's rules against teachers having a family; and the girls in the school resent his replacing a handsome and popular teacher, and do everything in their power to get him fired.
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Rebecca
Title: Rebecca
Character: Mrs. Danvers
Released: March 23, 1940
Type: Movie
Story of a young woman who marries a fascinating widower only to find out that she must live in the shadow of his former wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years earlier. The young wife must come to grips with the terrible secret of her handsome, cold husband, Max De Winter. She must also deal with the jealous, obsessed Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, who will not accept her as the mistress of the house.
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Blood Money
Title: Blood Money
Character: Ruby Darling
Released: November 17, 1933
Type: Movie
The title refers to the business of affable, ambitious bail bondsman (and politically-connected grifter) Bill Bailey, who, in the course of his work, crosses paths with every kind of offender there is, from first-time defendants to career criminals.