---
name: "Jessie Royce Landis"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/jessie-royce-landis"
fi1m_id: "jessie-royce-landis"
imdb_id: "nm0484829"
tmdb_id: 2640
wikidata_id: "Q541270"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "25 November 1896"
died: "2 February 1972"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 72
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-20T05:21:49.447594+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Jessie Royce Landis

## Identity

Jessie Royce Landis

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/jessie-royce-landis
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** jessie-royce-landis
- **IMDb ID:** nm0484829
- **TMDB ID:** 2640
- **Wikidata ID:** Q541270
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Royce_Landis, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q541270, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0484829/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2640

Actor. Born 25 November 1896 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Died 2 February 1972.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 25 November 1896, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- **Died:** 2 February 1972
- **Active:** 1959–1970
- **Also known as:** Jessie Medbury, Jessie Royce-Landis
- **Average Fi1m score:** 72, as actor, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1950s 89 (1), 1970s 56 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Royce_Landis, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q541270, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0484829/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2640

## Streaming the US now

- **Tubi:** [*North by Northwest*](https://film.one/film/north-by-northwest.md) (89)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

Jessie Royce Landis was an American actress. Born Jessie Medbury in Chicago, Illinois, she trained at the Hinshaw Dramatic School and began her stage career in the 1920s with the Evanston Stock Company, later appearing in over forty-five Broadway and London productions.

She made her film debut in the late 1940s and became known in the 1950s for character roles, often as aristocratic mothers. Her notable screen credits include Jessie Stevens in *To Catch a Thief* (1955), Princess Beatrix in *The Swan* (1956), Clara Thornhill in *North by Northwest* (1959), and Harriet DuBarry Mossman in *Airport* (1970). She also appeared in television series such as *Alfred Hitchcock Presents*, *The Man from U.N.C.L.E.* and *Columbo*. Landis published her autobiography, *You Won't Be So Pretty*, in 1954.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *Airport* (1970), Fi1m 56, as Harriet DuBarry Mossman — [page](https://film.one/film/airport.md)
- *North by Northwest* (1959), Fi1m 89, as Clara Thornhill — [page](https://film.one/film/north-by-northwest.md)

## Complete filmography (30)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones* (1971), as Grandmother Greher
- *Columbo* (1971), series, as Mrs. Chadwick — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/tv/columbo.md)
- *The Ceremony of Innocence* (1970), as Queen Mother Alfreda
- *Airport* (1970), as Harriet DuBarry Mossman — Fi1m 56, [page](https://film.one/film/airport.md)
- *Ironside* (1967), series, Actor
- *The Man from U.N.C.L.E.* (1964), series, as Madame Olga Nemirovitch
- *Valentine's Day* (1964), series, as Mrs. Edwina Pierce
- *Gidget Goes to Rome* (1963), as Albertina Blythe
- *Critic's Choice* (1963), as Charlotte Orr
- *Boys' Night Out* (1962), as Ethel Williams
- *Bon Voyage!* (1962), as Countessa 'La Comtesse' DuFresne
- *Goodbye Again* (1961), as Mrs. Van der Besh
- *Thriller* (1960), series, as Mrs. Kilburn
- *Adventures in Paradise* (1959), series, as Madame Vachet
- *A Private's Affair* (1959), as Elizabeth T. Chapman
- *North by Northwest* (1959), as Clara Thornhill — Fi1m 89, [page](https://film.one/film/north-by-northwest.md)
- *I Married a Woman* (1958), as Mrs. Blake
- *My Man Godfrey* (1957), as Angelica Bullock
- *The Girl He Left Behind* (1956), as Mrs. Madeline Shaeffer
- *The Swan* (1956), as Princess Beatrix
- *Alfred Hitchcock Presents* (1955), series, as Claire Crane
- *To Catch a Thief* (1955), as Jessie Stevens
- *Climax!* (1954), series, as Olivia Chesney
- *The United States Steel Hour* (1953), series, Actor
- *Meet Me Tonight* (1952), as Olive Lloyd Ransome (segment "Ways and Means")
- *Mother Didn't Tell Me* (1950), as Mrs. Wright
- *My Foolish Heart* (1950), as Martha Winters
- *It Happens Every Spring* (1949), as Mrs. Greenleaf
- *Mr. Belvedere Goes to College* (1949), as Mrs. Chase
- *Derelict* (1930), as Helen Lorber

## Gallery

- ![Jessie Royce Landis](https://film.one/media/person/59215/gallery-5e3568bb5bfb.jpg) Jessie Royce Landis — unknown (Universal Pictures), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Jessie_Royce_Landis.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Photo of Jessie Royce Landis (J.J.'s grandmother) and Julie Sommars (J.J.) from the television program The Governor and J.J..](https://film.one/media/person/59215/gallery-bce7912d28a4.jpg) Photo of Jessie Royce Landis (J.J.'s grandmother) and Julie Sommars (J.J.) from the television program The Governor and J.J.. — CBS Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Jessie_Royce_Landis_Julie_Sommars_Governor_and_JJ_1970.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Photograph of Jessie Royce Landis in the 1938 production of The Millionairess at the Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, Connecticut Caption reads as follows:](https://film.one/media/person/59215/gallery-836d45a7a1dc.jpg) Photograph of Jessie Royce Landis in the 1938 production of The Millionairess at the Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, Connecticut Caption reads as follows: — Westport Country Playhouse, photograph by Vandamm Studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/The-Millionairess-Landis.jpg/1280px-The-Millionairess-Landis.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Jessie Royce Landis](https://film.one/media/person/59215/gallery-f4ca5ef27ada.jpg) Jessie Royce Landis — Image via TMDB

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/jessie-royce-landis