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