Jessie Royce Landis

Actor

About

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Also Known As

Jessie Royce Medbury

Birth Place

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Born

November 25, 1896

Died

February 02, 1972

Cause of Death

Cancer

Biography

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Mature character actress who specialized in portraying aristocrats and wealthy society matrons. Although Landis appeared in over 45 plays on the Broadway and London stage and made her film debut in 1930, it was not until the 1950s that she gave her most notable film performances. She was twice cast as the mother of Grace Kelly--in Alfred Hitchcock's "To Catch a Thief" (1955), as the caus...

Filmography

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Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (1971)

Mrs. Harriet DuBarry Mossman

Gidget Goes to Rome (1963)

Critic's Choice (1963)

Boys' Night Out (1962)

Bon Voyage! (1962)

Photos & Videos

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Gidget Goes To Rome (1963) -- (Movie Clip) Any Reference To My Age

Swan, The (1956) -- (Movie Clip) Open, Send For Caesar!

Family & Companions

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J F R Seitz

Husband

Military officer. Second husband; Major General; survived Landis.

Biography

Mature character actress who specialized in portraying aristocrats and wealthy society matrons. Although Landis appeared in over 45 plays on the Broadway and London stage and made her film debut in 1930, it was not until the 1950s that she gave her most notable film performances. She was twice cast as the mother of Grace Kelly--in Alfred Hitchcock's "To Catch a Thief" (1955), as the caustic mother who stubs out her cigarette in a soft-boiled egg, and again in "The Swan" (1956). Landis also played Cary Grant's sophisticated mother in "North By Northwest" (1959), although she was ten months younger than him.

Filmography

Cast (Feature Film)

Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (1971)

Mrs. Harriet DuBarry Mossman

Gidget Goes to Rome (1963)

Critic's Choice (1963)

Boys' Night Out (1962)

Bon Voyage! (1962)

Goodbye Again (1961)

Mrs. Van der Besh

A Private's Affair (1959)

Elizabeth Chapman

North by Northwest (1959)

Clara Thornhill

I Married a Woman (1958)

My Man Godfrey (1957)

Angelica [Bullock]

The Swan (1956)

Princess Beatrix

To Catch a Thief (1955)

Mrs. Jessie Stevens

Mother Didn't Tell Me (1950)

My Foolish Heart (1950)

It Happens Every Spring (1949)

Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949)

Cast (Special)

Ceremony of Innocence (1970)

Queen Mother Alfreda

The Man in the Dog Suit (1960)

Life Events

1926

Broadway debut in "The Honor of the Family"

1930

Acted in first feature, "Derelict"

1970

Last film, "Airport"

Videos

Gidget Goes To Rome (1963) -- (Movie Clip) Any Reference To My Age Just landed in Rome, James Darren as Jeff, (a.k.a. Moondoggie), with Peter Brooks and Joby Baker, greeting Jessie Royce Landis, his aunt and their chaperone, and the gals (Cindy Carol as Gidget, with Trudi Ames and Noreen Corcoran) playing along, in Gidget Goes To Rome, 1963.

Swan, The (1956) -- (Movie Clip) Open, Send For Caesar! Opening credits and Princess Beatrix (Jessie Royce Landis) in a panic, from Charles Vidor's The Swan, 1956, starring Grace Kelly, Alec Guinness and Louis Jourdan, shot at the Vanderbilt (Biltmore) Estate in North Carolina.

Critic's Choice (1963) -- (Movie Clip) Even By French Standards At a Manhattan restaurant, Broadway critic Parker (Bob Hope) with his mom (Jessie Royce Landis) explaining that his second wife Angie (Lucille Ball) is thinking about becoming a playwright, his son (Rick Kelman), from a previous marriage to an actress, providing sparks, in Critic’s Choice, 1963.

North By Northwest (1959) -- (Movie Clip) Take Me To The United Nations With his mother (Jessie Royce Landis) at the Plaza, Thornhill (Cary Grant), evades the same thugs (Adam Williams, Robert Allenstein) who abducted him, then races to Alfred Hitchcock’s mocked-up U-N, unhappy to learn that Townsend (Philip Ober) isn’t James Mason, in North By Northwest, 1959.

My Man Godfrey (1957) -- (Movie Clip) Next Cage On The Left His first day on the job, the until-now vagrant David Niven (title character) with mother Angelica (Jessie Royce Landis) then daughter Irene (June Allyson), neither immediately recalling the circumstances of his hiring, maid Jeff Donnell swooning between, in the 1957 re-make, My Man Godfrey.

Goodbye Again (1961) -- (Movie Clip) Sheer Brazen Thievery First appearance of breezy young American Philip (Anthony Perkins), greeting Paris designer Paula (Ingrid Bergman), come to see his flighty mother (Jessie Royce Landis), in Anatole Litvak's Goodbye Again, 1961.

Girl He Left Behind, The -- (Movie Clip) Our Secret Kitty Pampered athlete Andy (Tab Hunter) working first his mom (Jessie Royce Landis) then his dad (Vinton Hayworth), in The Girl He Left Behind, 1956, co-starring Natalie Wood.

To Catch A Thief (1955) -- (Movie Clip) Open, My Jewels! Interesting shop-window reflections and comical reactions to jewel theft in the opening credit sequence from Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief, 1955, starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.

Swan, The - (Original Trailer) On the eve of her marriage to a prince, a noblewoman falls for her brother's tutor in The Swan (1956) starring Grace Kelly.

Goodbye Again (1961) - (Original Trailer) Ingrid Bergman trades Yves Montand for young Anthony Perkins in the Parisian romance Goodbye Again (1961) with fashions by Christian Dior.

Critic's Choice - (Original Trailer) Bob Hope and Lucille Ball star in the movie Critic's Choice (1962) based on Ira Levin's Broadway comedy hit.

It Happens Every Spring - (Textless Trailer) Ray Milland is a scientist who invents a baseball that cannot be hit in It Happens Every Spring (1949).

I Married A Woman - (Original Trailer) I Married A Woman (1958) and what a woman! as comedian George Gobel weds buxom Diana Dors.

North By Northwest - (Original Trailer) An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) starring Cary Grant.

North By Northwest -- (Movie Trailer) Hitchcock Tour Alfred Hitchcock with one of his signature personal invitations, the theatrical trailer for North By Northwest, 1959, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason.

To Catch A Thief - (Original Trailer) Cary Grant is a retired cat burglar trying to clear himself by romancing an American heiress (Grace Kelly) in Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief (1955).

Companions

J F R Seitz

Husband

Military officer. Second husband; Major General; survived Landis.

Bibliography

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