Word: cronyn
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Everybody loves the Cronyns. Other actors hold them in awe, audiences adore them, and the critics long ago exhausted the ordinary words of praise to describe their performances. "Let us celebrate the Cronyns," gushed the New York Daily News's Douglas Watt when they last appeared on Broadway, in 1986. But then who could say anything bad about Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, the husband and wife who, working together and separately, define acting in America...
Probably no one but Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, who have been pointing out each other's faults, professionally at least, for almost 50 years...
...with me, darling," responds Cronyn...
Unlike the Lunts -- Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne -- with whom they are often compared, the Cronyns do not insist on working together. Their most visible recent roles, in fact, have been done separately. For playing the lovably irascible lead in Driving Miss Daisy, Tandy was nominated for an Academy Award. The biggest commercial success of her career, as well as the most surprising hit of the past year, Daisy has so far made $70 million at the box office, an extraordinary sum for a movie without sex, violence or raunchy humor. Cronyn has not swept the field as his wife...
...Tandy notes, "you pay a price for being separated," and they clearly prefer working together, despite the sparks that sometimes ensue. "There is a tension that can build up," says Cronyn. "Sometimes I've been helpful to Jess, but sometimes I've been a pain in the ass, and she will say, 'Leave me alone! Let me do it my way! I can't play your part; don't you try to play mine.' We work differently. When Jessie gets her teeth into something, she is totally obsessed by it. We will go home at night after a rehearsal...