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Zeffie Tilbury

Zeffie Tilbury

Birthday: 1863-11-20 | Place of Birth: Paddington, London, England, UK

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.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1941
Tobacco Road

as    Grandma Lester

1941
Sheriff of Tombstone

as    Granny Carson

1940
The Grapes of Wrath

as    Grandma Joad

1939
Tell No Tales

as    Miss Mary

1939
Boy Trouble

as    Mrs. Jepson

1938
Arrest Bulldog Drummond

as    Aunt Meg

1938
Woman Against Woman

as    Grandma

1937
The King Without a Crown

as    Dying Duchess Marie (uncredited)

1937
Federal Bullets

as    Mrs. Crippen

1937
Rhythm in the Clouds

as    The Duchess de Lovely

1937
Bulldog Drummond Comes Back

as    Zeffie

1936
Desire

as    Aunt Olga

1935
The Mystery of Edwin Drood

as    The Opium Woman

1930
The Ship from Shanghai

as    Lady Daley

1929
The Single Standard

as    Mrs. Handley

1921
Camille

as    Prudence