Zeffie Tilbury
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.
Known for
The Grapes of Wrath
Grandma Joad
Camille
Old Duchess Bidding 3750 Francs
After the Thin Man
Aunt Lucy (uncredited)
Marie Antoinette
Dowager at Birth of Dauphin (uncredited)
Bulldog Drummond's Peril
Mrs. Weevens
Bulldog Drummond Escapes
Drunk in Jail Cell
Camille
Prudence
Bulldog Drummond Comes Back
Zeffie
Desire
Aunt Olga
Mystery Liner
Granny Plimpton
Werewolf of London
Mrs. Moncaster
Tobacco Road
Grandma Lester
Anthony Adverse
Old Woman at Chalet
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Opium Woman
Alice Adams
Mrs. Dresser (uncredited)
Hunted Men
Flower Woman
The Last Days of Pompeii
The Wise Woman (uncredited)
The Gorgeous Hussy
Mrs. Daniel Beall
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell
Mrs. Sanders
Kidnapped
Old Woman
The Farmer Takes a Wife
Old Townswoman
Arrest Bulldog Drummond
Aunt Meg
Flying with Music
Fortune Teller
Under Cover of Night
Mrs. Nash
Maid of Salem
Goody Hodgers
Give Me Your Heart
Esther Warren
Parnell
Old Lady
Balalaika
Natalya Petrovna
Lady of the Tropics
Woman Congratulating Manon
Stranded
Old Hag (uncredited)
Made on Broadway
Aunt Ada
Woman Against Woman
Grandma
Emergency Squad
Mrs. Cobb
Public Hero Number 1
Deaf Woman in Scottsdale Bar (uncredited)
Boy Trouble
Mrs. Jepson
Tell No Tales
Miss Mary
It Happened in Hollywood
Miss Gordon
The Single Standard
Mrs. Handley
Midnight Taxi
Mrs. Lane
The Earl of Chicago
Miss Nana (uncredited)
Bad Boy
Deaf Woman
Blind Adventure
Charlie Chan Carries On
Mrs. Luce
Two Alone
Rogers' Neighbor (uncredited)
The Bohemian Girl
Gypsy Queen
Bachelor Bait
Miss Turner (uncredited)
Second Childhood
Grandma
Navy Wife
Bridge Player
Sheriff of Tombstone
Granny Carson
Hideaway
Mrs. Beamish
The Ship from Shanghai
Lady Daley
The White Angel
Woman Donating Sheets (uncredited)
The King Without a Crown
Dying Duchess Marie (uncredited)
The Night of Love
Lady in Waiting
Federal Bullets
Mrs. Crippen
Rhythm in the Clouds
The Duchess de Lovely
She Couldn't Say No
Ma Hawkins
Parole!
Molly Smith
Big Game
Aunt Sarah Winthrop
Grandma's Buoys
Grandma
Women Must Dress
Peg Martin
Comin' Round the Mountain
Granny Stokes
The Avalanche
Mrs. Ruyler
Ocean Swells
Auntie
Old Hutch
Elderly Woman in Bank
Mothers of Men
Mrs. De La Motte
A Society Exile
Mrs. Stanley Shelby
The Marriage of William Ashe
Lady Tranmore
Another Scandal
Brownie
Clothes
Mrs. Cathcart
Blind Man's Luck
Mrs. Guerton
Vamp Till Ready
Woman
The Fuller Gush Man
Grandma