Judith Anderson Biography

Australian-born Dame Judith Anderson (she was knighted in 1960) was for nearly 70 years one of the foremost Shakespearian actresses of the stage, playing everything from Lady MacBeth to Portia to Hamlet (yes, Hamlet). In films, she was Cruella DeVil--over and over again. Perhaps this is an oversimplification, but it is true that movies seldom took full advantage of Anderson's versatility and rich speaking voice, opting instead to confine her to unsympathetic roles on the basis of her hard, cruel facial features. She made her first film appearance as an incongrously sexy temptress in 1933's Blood Money; seven years later, she essayed her most famous screen role, the obsessed housekeeper Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca (1940). For the rest of her career, she was apparently regarded by Hollywood as an alternate for Gale Sondergaard in roles calling for refined truculence. She played the New York society dragon who "keeps" weak-willed Vincent Price in Laura (1944), the sinister wife of tormented farmer Edward G. Robinson in The Red House (1948), the imperious Queen Herodias in Salome (1953) and the wicked stepmother of Jerry Lewis in Cinderfella (1960). Some of Judith Anderson's later film roles allowed her a modicum of audience empathy, notably the aged Sioux Indian matriarch in A Man Called Horse (1970) and the High Priestess of the Vulcans in Star Trek IV: The Search for Spock (1984). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

• 1. Martha Ivers: Its the only room I didn't change. [on showing her childhood room to Sam]
  2. Sam Masterson: We were just a couple of kids.
  3. Mrs. Ivers: Sorry that you ever left here. [to Sam]
  From The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. Submitted by rick b (32 days ago)

• 1. Mrs. de Winter: How do you do?
  2. Mrs. Danvers: How do you do.... I have everything in readiness for you.
  From Rebecca. Submitted by Uditha D (6 months ago)

• 1. Big Mama Pollitt: When a marriage goes on the rocks, the rocks are there, right there! (She points at the bed)
  From Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Submitted by Dusan D (11 months ago)