Anderson, Dame Judith [ Frances Margaret Anderson-Anderson] (1898–1992), Australian actress of great passion and intensity, who first appeared on the stage in Sydney in 1915. She toured Australia for two years, and then went to the United States, where she adopted her present name and, after some experience in stock companies and on tour, made a great success on Broadway as Elise in Martin Brown's
Cobra (1924). Later roles included the Unknown One in
Pirandello's As You Desire Me (1931). In 1936 she played the Queen to John
Gielgud's Hamlet in New York. A year later she made her first appearance in London, where she gave an outstanding performance as Lady Macbeth with Lawrence
Olivier at the
Old Vic; she repeated the role with Maurice
Evans in New York in 1941. She was praised for her Olga in
Chekhov's Three Sisters (1942), but her greatest role was probably the name-part in
Euripides' Medea (1947), in a new adaptation in which she also appeared in Berlin, Paris, and with the
Elizabethan Theatre Trust. She was seen again at the Old Vic in 1960, as Arkadina in Chekhov's
The Seagull. She then toured the United States in a recital of scenes from her most famous parts. In 1970 she embarked on a further tour, playing Hamlet at the age of 71 in emulation of Sarah
Bernhardt. In 1982 she played the nurse in a revival of
Medea.
