Judith Anderson was a popular character actress known for playing menacing women
She was born Frances Margaret Anderson on February 10, 1897 in Adelaide, South Australia. Her father, James Anderson, was a prospector and her mother, Jessie Anderson, was a former nurse. When she was a teenager she dropped out of school to become an actress. Judith went to Sydney where she appeared in several plays. She eventually moved to New York and joined a stock company. In 1922 she made her Broadway debut in Up The Stairs. Her performance in the 1925 play The Dove won rave reviews and established her as a star. Judith's success on the Broadway continued with starring roles in Unknown Woman, Strange Interlude, and The Old Maid. She worked with Lillian Gish in Ophelia and with Laurence Olivier in a London production of Hamlet. Although she was not conventionally beautiful she had a commanding stage presence. Judith had an affair with married producer Jed Harris. She married Benjamin Lehmann, an English professor, in 1937. They divorced two years later. Alfred Hitchcock cast her as Mrs Danvers, a wicked housekeeper, in his 1940 drama Rebecca.
