Jessie Royce Landis was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actress.

Career

She was born Jessie Royce Medbury in Chicago, Illinois. Landis was a stage actress for much of her career. In the 1950s, she began appearing in movies as a character actress, most notably in To Catch a Thief

To Catch a Thief (film)

To Catch a Thief is a 1955 romantic thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis and John Williams. The movie is set on the French Riviera, and was based on the 1952 novel of the same name by David Dodge...

(1955), and North by Northwest

North by Northwest

North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau...

(1959), both starring Cary Grant

Cary Grant

Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...

 and directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

. In North by Northwest she played Grant's character's mother, and in To Catch a Thief she played Grace Kelly

Grace Kelly

Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...

's mother. She also played Grace Kelly's mother in The Swan

The Swan (film)

The Swan is a 1956 remake by MGM of a 1925 Paramount film with the same title. . The film is a romantic comedy directed by Charles Vidor, produced by Dore Schary from a screenplay by John Dighton based on the play by Ferenc Molnár...

. She also made many television appearances.

Personal life and death

She was married three times. Her third husband was Major General J.F.R. "Jeff" Seitz. He died in 1978. Her autobiography

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

, titled You Won't Be So Pretty (But You'll Know More) was published in 1954.

Landis died of cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 in Danbury, Connecticut

Danbury, Connecticut

Danbury is a city in northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It had population at the 2010 census of 80,893. Danbury is the fourth largest city in Fairfield County and is the seventh largest city in Connecticut....

 on February 2, 1972.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1949	Mr. Belvedere Goes to College Mr. Belvedere Goes to College Mr. Belvedere Goes to College is a 1949 American comedy film directed by Elliott Nugent. The screenplay written by Mary Loos, Mary C. McCall, Jr., and Richard Sale was based on characters created by Gwen Davenport...	Mrs. Chase
1949	It Happens Every Spring It Happens Every Spring It Happens Every Spring is a 1949 comedy film starring Ray Milland directed by Lloyd Bacon. The story of a baseball pitcher is completely fictitious, and the main character King Kelly is not based on or related to the actual player....	Mrs. Greenleaf
1949	My Foolish Heart My Foolish Heart (film) My Foolish Heart is a 1949 American film which tells the story of a woman's reflections on the bad turns her life has taken. It was directed by Mark Robson and stars Dana Andrews and Susan Hayward. Adapted from J. D...	Martha Winters
1955	To Catch a Thief To Catch a Thief (film) To Catch a Thief is a 1955 romantic thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis and John Williams. The movie is set on the French Riviera, and was based on the 1952 novel of the same name by David Dodge...	Jessie Stevens
1956	Climax!	Olivia Chesney	Episode: "An Episode of Sparrows"
1956	The Swan The Swan (film) The Swan is a 1956 remake by MGM of a 1925 Paramount film with the same title. . The film is a romantic comedy directed by Charles Vidor, produced by Dore Schary from a screenplay by John Dighton based on the play by Ferenc Molnár...	Princess Beatrix
1957	My Man Godfrey My Man Godfrey (1957 film) My Man Godfrey is a 1957 comedy film starring June Allyson and David Niven. It is a remake of Gregory La Cava's 1936 screwball comedy of the same name....	Angelica Bullock
1958	I Married a Woman I Married a Woman I Married a Woman is a 1958 film made in 1956, starring Diana Dors and George Gobel. It also features John Wayne in a cameo role as himself. It was filmed in RKO-Scope and black and white except for one of Wayne's two scenes, which was shot in Technicolor...	Mrs. Blake, Janice's Mother
1959	North by Northwest North by Northwest North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau...	Clara Thornhill
1960	Alfred Hitchcock Presents Alfred Hitchcock Presents Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...	Claire Crane	Episode: "Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?"
1960	Thriller	Mrs. Killburn	Episode: "The Mark of the Hand"
1961	Goodbye Again Goodbye Again (1961 film) Goodbye Again, also known as Aimez-vous Brahms?, is a 1961 Franco-American romantic drama film directed by Anatole Litvak It was produced and from a screenplay by Samuel A. Taylor, based on the novel Aimez-Vous Brahms? by Françoise Sagan. The music score was by Georges Auric with additional music...	Mrs. Van der Besh
1962	Boys' Night Out Boys' Night Out (film) Boys' Night Out is an American comedy film released in 1962, starring Kim Novak, James Garner, and Tony Randall, and directed by Michael Gordon...	Ethel Williams
1963	Critic's Choice Critic's Choice (1963 film) Critic's Choice is a 1963 film comedy directed by Don Weis. Based on the 1960 Broadway play of the same name by Ira Levin, the movie starred Bob Hope and Lucille Ball and included Rip Torn, Marilyn Maxwell, Jim Backus, Marie Windsor and Jerome Cowan in the cast.This was the last of four films that...	Charlotte Orr aka Charlie
1963	Gidget Goes to Rome Gidget Goes to Rome Gidget Goes to Rome is a 1963 Columbia Pictures feature film starring Cindy Carol as the archetypal high school teen surfer girl originally created by Sandra Dee in the 1959 film Gidget. The film is the third of three Gidget films directed by Paul Wendkos and expands upon Gidget's romance with...	Albertina Blythe
1965	The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international espionage and law-enforcement...	Madame Olga Nemirovitch	Episode: "The Adriatic Express Affair"
1970	Airport	Mrs. Harriet DuBarry Mossman
1971	Columbo	Mrs. Chadwick	Episode: "Lady in Waiting"

External links

• Jessie Royce Landis from Great Character Actors