
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.
70
Films
1
TV Shows
Known For
71 Credits
MGM Parade
as Self
1955

Desire
as Aunt Olga
1936

Parnell
as Old Lady
1937

Bachelor Bait
as Miss Turner (uncredited)
1934

Big Game
as Aunt Sarah Winthrop
1921

The Grapes of Wrath
as Grandma Joad
1940

Camille
as Prudence
1921

Parole!
as Molly Smith
1936

Camille
as Old Duchess Bidding 3750 Francs
1936

Marie Antoinette
as Dowager at Birth of Dauphin (uncredited)
1938

Clothes
as Mrs. Cathcart
1920

After the Thin Man
as Aunt Lucy (uncredited)
1936