Zeffie Tilbury

Zeffie Agnes Lydia Tilbury was an English-American actress.

Early years

Born in Paddington, Middlesex, England, Tilbury was the only child of the variety performer Lydia Thompson and John Christian Tilbury, a riding-master and "fashionable 'man about town'" from a comfortably wealthy background, his grandfather, of the Tilbury family firm of London coachbuilders, having created the Tilbury carriage. Her father died aged 26 in 1864; having borrowed an inexperienced horse, "All Fours", to participate in the South Essex Steeplechase at Brentwood, Essex, he was crushed by the horse when it failed to clear a fence and rolled on him. Although he didn't appear badly injured, his skull was fractured and he had suffered severe internal injuries, which caused his death the next day.

Career

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 woman in the 1936 Hal Roach Our Gang comedy Second Childhood. She 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 same year she also portrayed the Gypsy Queen in the Laurel and Hardy film The Bohemian Girl.

Personal life

Tilbury was married twice. First to Arthur Frederick Lewis in West Derby in June 1887, and later to L.E. Woodthorpe in 1904, who died on 8 April 1915.
In 1899 Zeffie had a painful accident:

Death

She died in Los Angeles, California in 1950 at the age of 86.

Stage performances

This list was created from a search of advertisements and reviews in British newspapers.

Year	Play	Role	Genre	Theatre
1881	Nine Points of the Law			Theatre Royal, Brighton
1884	The Private Secretary	Eva Webster	Farce	Globe
1885	Ruth's Romance		Comedietta	Olympic
1886	Turned Up	Sabina	Melodramatic Farcical Comedy	Comedy
1886	Curiosity	Mrs Daisy Bangerpush	Farcical Comedy	Vaudeville
1887	Pygmalion and Galatea	Cynisca	Mythological Comedy	Theatre Royal, Sheffield
1887	Fazio; or The Italian Wife's Revenge	Aldabella	Tragedy	Alexandra, Liverpool
1887	The Winter's Tale	Mopsa		Lyceum
1890		Valerie De Vaux	Military Comedy	Academy of Music, Halifax, Nova Scotia
1893	The Crust of Society			Grand Opera House, Toronto
1894	The Idler			Schiller, Chicago
1898	Love Wisely; or The Setting of the Sun	Lucy	One-act Play	The Avenue, London
1898	She Stoops to Conquer	Miss Neville	Farce	Terry's
1898	The School for Scandal	Lady Sneerwell	Comedy of Manners	Terry's
1899	Counsel's Opinion	Mrs Lovelace	A Legal Episode in One Act	Lyceum
1900	The Meeting	Constance	Duologue	St Martin's Town Hall
1900	Henry V	Isabel, Queen of France	History Play	Lyceum
1901	Twelfth Night	Maria		Her Majesty's
1901	Macaire	Aline	Melodramatic Farce	Her Majesty's
1901	The Red Lamp	Felise	Melodrama	Grand Theatre, Fulham
1901	The Last of the Dandies	Lady Carrollby	Four-act Play	Her Majesty's
1902	The Merry Wives of Windsor	Mistress Quickly	Farce	Her Majesty's
1903	The Merry Wives of Windsor	Mistress Quickly	Farce	Touring America
1909	The Passion Flower		Social Life in New York	Touring America
1911	Everywoman and Anyman	The Woman	Vaudeville Sketch	Winter Garden, New York