Judith Anderson

Australian actress who had a successful career in stage, film and television, becoming Australia’s second Oscar nominee. A pre-eminent stage actress in her era, she won two Emmy Awards (Macbeth, 1954, 1960) and a Tony Award (Medea, 1947) and was also nominated for a Grammy Award (Wuthering Heights) along with her Academy Award nomination (Rebecca, 1940). She is considered one of the 20th century's greatest classical stage actors.

Anderson received a career boost when cast in Alfred Hitchcock's film Rebecca (1940). As the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, Anderson was required to mentally torment the young bride, the "second Mrs. de Winter" (Joan Fontaine), even encouraging her to commit suicide; and to taunt her husband (Laurence Olivier) with the memory of his first wife, the never-seen "Rebecca" of the title. The movie was a huge critical and commercial success, and Anderson was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Anderson was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1960 and thereafter was often billed as "Dame Judith Anderson". On 10 June 1991, in the Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), "in recognition of service to the performing arts".

Anderson was married twice and declared that "neither experience was a jolly holiday". She had a stepson. Anderson spent much of her life in Santa Barbara, California, where she died of pneumonia on 3 January 1992, aged 94.