Anderson, Judith

Anderson, Judith [née Frances Margaret Anderson‐Anderson] (1898–1992), actress. Coming to New York after gaining her earliest theatrical experience in her native Australia, she played with the stock company at the 14th Street Theatre, then toured with William Gillette in Dear Brutus in 1920. She first called attention to herself in New York with her clawing Elsie Van Zile in Cobra (1924), followed by recognition as the spoiled, unstable Antoinette Lyle in Behold the Bridegroom (1927), succeeding Lynn Fontanne as Nina Leeds in Strange Interlude (1928), and playing the Unknown One in As You Desire Me (1931). After touring as Lavinia Mannon in Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), Anderson enjoyed a succès d'estime as the Woman in Come of Age (1934), and a year later played Delia Lovell, who raises her sister's illegitimate child, in The Old Maid. In 1936 she was Gertrude opposite John Gielgud's Hamlet, and her Clytemnestra in A Tower Beyond Tragedy (1940), Lady Macbeth in 1941, and Olga in The Three Sisters (1942) further enhanced her reputation. Her greatest performance was probably in Medea (1947). Writing in Theatre Arts, Rosamund Gilder observed, “Her Medea is pure evil, dark, dangerous, cruel, raging, ruthless. From beginning to end she maintains an almost incredible intensity, yet she varies her moods so constantly, she moves with such skill through explored regions of pain and despair that she can hold her audience in suspense throughout the evening.” In 1953 Anderson was the domineering mother Gertrude in In the Summer House, stumbled badly as Hamlet in 1971, then triumphed as the Nurse in a 1982 revival of Medea. One critic described the dark, hard‐faced actress as a “diminutive woman, burning with passion, [who] gave heroic performances.” In 1984 an Off‐Off‐Broadway theatre on Theatre Row was named after her.