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Dame Frances Margaret Anderson (10 February 18973 January 1992), known professionally as Judith Anderson, was an Australian actress who had a successful career in stage, film, and television.
A well-known stage actress in her era, she won two and a Tony Award, and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Awards.
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She attended a private school, Norwood, where her education ended before graduation.
After a period of poverty and illness, she found work with the Emma Bunting Stock Company at the Fourteenth Street Theatre in 1918–19. She then toured with other stock companies.
One year later, she had changed her acting forename (albeit not for legal purposes) to Judith and had her first triumph with the play Cobra (1924) co-starring Louis Calhern, which ran for 35 performances. Anderson then went on to The Dove (1925), which went on for 101 performances and really established her on Broadway.
She toured Australia in 1927 with three plays: Tea for Three, The Green Hat, and Cobra. Back on Broadway, she was in Behold the Bridegroom (1927–28) by George Kelly, and had the lead role in Anna (1928). She replaced Lynn Fontanne during the successful run of Strange Interlude (1929).
Anderson made her film debut in a short for Warner Bros., "Madame of the Jury" (1930). She made her feature-film debut with a role in Blood Money (1933).
In 1931, she played the Unknown Woman in the American premiere of Luigi Pirandello's As You Desire Me, which ran for 142 performances. (It was filmed the following year with Greta Garbo in the same role.) She was in a short-lived revival of Mourning Becomes Electra (1932), then did Firebird (1932), Conquest, The Drums Begin (both 1933), and The Mask and the Face (1933, with Humphrey Bogart). Anderson then focused on Broadway with Come of Age (1934) and Divided By Three (1934).Chapman, John (25 January 1952). "Judith Anderson Excels in Play". Chicago Daily Tribune, page A10.
In 1936, Anderson played Gertrude to John Gielgud's Hamlet in a production that featured Lillian Gish as Ophelia. (1973). 9780333153925, Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 9780333153925 In 1937, she joined the Old Vic Company in London and played Lady Macbeth opposite Laurence Olivier in a production by Michel Saint-Denis, at the Old Vic and the New Theatre.
She returned to Broadway with Family Portrait (1939), which she adored, but only it had a short run. She later toured in the show."Judith Anderson to Tour", The Christian Science Monitor, 19 October 1939: 16.Smith, Cecil (22 April 1985). "Dame Judith Anderson: Living, Working Legend". Los Angeles Times, page G2.
In 1941, she played Lady Macbeth again in New York City opposite Maurice Evans in a production staged by Margaret Webster, a role she was to reprise with Evans on television, firstly in 1954 and then again in 1960 (the second version was released as a feature film in Europe). This ran for 131 performances.
Anderson made her appearance in Robinson Jeffers' The Tower Beyond Tragedy at the outdoor Forest Theater in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, on July 2–5, 1941. This was the first time it played in a professional manner. John Burr's Carmel Pine Cone review admired Anderson's performance and proclaimed the production was “an unqualified success." Director Charles O'Neal persuaded Anderson to appear in both The Tower Beyond Tragedy and the Family Portrait.
She returned to films to make four movies at Warner Bros.: All Through the Night and Kings Row (both 1942), and Edge of Darkness and Stage Door Canteen (both 1943).
In 1942–43, on stage she played Olga in Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, in a production, which also featured Katharine Cornell, Ruth Gordon, Edmund Gwenn, Dennis King, and Alexander Knox. (Kirk Douglas, playing an orderly, made his Broadway debut in the production.) It ran for 123 performances. The production was so illustrious, it was featured on the cover of Time.
Anderson returned to Hollywood to appear in Laura (1944). She briefly returned to Australia to tour American army camps. She was back in Hollywood to appear in And Then There Were None (1945), The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), and The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946). Anderson had rare top billing in Specter of the Rose (1946), written and directed by Ben Hecht. She returned to support roles for Pursued (1947), The Red House (1947), and Tycoon (1947).
She returned to Broadway with The Tower Beyond Tragedy by Jeffers (1950), and toured Medea in German in 1951. She was in a New York revival of Come of Age in 1952. She was Herodias in Salome (1953) and played in Black Chiffon on The Motorola Television Hour.
In 1953, she was directed by Charles Laughton in his own adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benét's John Brown's Body with a cast also featuring Raymond Massey and Tyrone Power. Then, she did In the Summer House (1953–54) on Broadway.
On television, she was in Macbeth (1954) with Maurice Evans, for which she won an Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Single Performance,"Judith Anderson Signed", Chicago Daily Tribune, 19 September 1954, page R3. and The Elgin Hour. She was in several episodes of The Star and the Story and an episode of Climax! , as well as playing Memnet in Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments (1956).Lane, Lydia (28 October 1956). "Judith Anderson Never Let Self-Pity Hamper Success". Los Angeles Times, page D7.
In 1955, she toured Australia with Medea. In 1956, she was in a production of Caesar and Cleopatra for Producers' Showcase.
Anderson appeared in a 1958 adaptation of The Bridge of San Luis Rey for The DuPont Show of the Month and played the memorable role of Big Mama, alongside Burl Ives as Big Daddy, in the screen adaptation of Tennessee Williams's play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). She followed it with a return to Broadway, in the short-lived Comes a Day by Speed Lampkin (1958). "I don't profess to know much about films", she said around this time. "I seldom see one."Scott, John L. (1 June 1958). "Judith Anderson: Lady Macbeth to Medea to Big Mamma With Ease: Judith Anderson Stage Superwoman". Los Angeles Times, page E1.
Anderson reprised her performance as Medea for TV in 1959; in the same year, she appeared in a small-screen adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence with Laurence Olivier. She had a role in the Wagon Train episode "The Felizia Kingdom Story", and appeared in several episodes of Playhouse 90 and one of Our American Heritage.
That year she also performed in Cradle Song and Macbeth (both 1960) for TV. She won The Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, for once again playing Lady MacBeth. She had support roles in Cinderfella (1960) and Why Bother to Knock (1961).
In 1961, she toured an evening in which she performed Macbeth, Medea and Tower.Smith, Cecil (12 November 1961). "The Show? Just Call It Judith Anderson". Los Angeles Times, page A16. Anderson was in The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (1964) for TV.
In 1966, she did a performance on stage in Elizabeth the Queen, which received poor reviews..
She received acclaim for her lead performance in a TV version of Elizabeth the Queen (1968, with Charlton Heston). She followed it with The File on Devlin (1969) and A Man Called Horse (1970). The latter was her first feature since Why Bother to Knock.
In 1970, she realised a long-held ambition to play the title role of Hamlet on a national tour of the United States and at New York City's Carnegie Hall.
Her other credits that decade included The Borrowers (1973) and The Chinese Prime Minister (1974)
In 1984, she appeared in as the Vulcan High Priestess T'Lar.
That same year, she commenced a three-year stint as matriarch Minx Lockridge on the daytime NBC soap opera Santa Barbara elapsing from 1984 until 1987. When asked why, she replied "Why not? It's practically the same as doing a play." She had professed to be a fan of the daytime genre – she had watched General Hospital for 20 years – but after signing with Santa Barbara, she complained about her lack of screen time. The highlight of her stint was when Minx tearfully revealed the horrific truth that she had switched the late Channing Capwell with Brick Wallace as a baby, preventing her illegitimate grandson from being raised as a Capwell. This resulted in her receiving a Supporting Actress Emmy nomination although her screen time afterwards diminished to infrequent appearances. After leaving the series, she was succeeded in the role by the quarter-century younger American actress Janis Paige.
Her last movies were The Booth and Impure Thoughts (both 1985).
On 10 June 1991, in the 1991 Australian Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), "in recognition of service to the performing arts".
| Short |
| Episode: "The Silver Cord" |
| TV movie |
| Episode: "Black Chiffon" |
| Episode: "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" |
| Episode: "The Felizia Kingdom Story" |
| TV movie |
| Narrator of the final offering |
| The Prioress |
| Lady Macbeth |
| Episode: "Millionaire's Mite" |
| TV movie |
| Queen Elizabeth I |
| Elizabeth Devlin |
| Aunt Sophy |
| Mrs. Snow |
| She |
| Nurse |
| 66 episodes |
| TV movie |
| Black Chiffon |
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