Teresa Mary "Tessie" O'Shea (13 March 1913 – 21 April 1995) was a Welsh entertainer and actress.
Born in Cardiff to James Peter O'Shea, a soldier who was the son of Irish emigrants and his wife Nellie Theresa Carr, Tessie O'Shea was reared in the British music hall tradition. She performed on stage as early as age six, billed "The Wonder of Wales". As a ![]()
youngster she captured prizes for the talent contests she entered with her singing and dancing. The once-slim performer made her solo debut at the age of 12 at the Bristol Hippodrome and never stopped working. She was known for her popular BBC Radio broadcasts and appeared on stages in Britain and South Africa.
youngster she captured prizes for the talent contests she entered with her singing and dancing. The once-slim performer made her solo debut at the age of 12 at the Bristol Hippodrome and never stopped working. She was known for her popular BBC Radio broadcasts and appeared on stages in Britain and South Africa. She buried her burgeoning weight under loads of comic clothing -- complete with over-sized hats, striped stockings and elastic boots. She frequently finished her act by singing and playing a banjolele in the style of George Formby, belting out such bawdy favourites as "Don't Have Any More, Missus Moore" and "Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy.”
While appearing in Blackpool in the 1930s, she capitalised on her size by adopting "Two Ton Tessie from Tennessee" as her theme song. By the late 30s Tessie had become a major star on radio and
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stage and won the hearts and respect of soldiers everywhere touring with ENSA during World War II.
She also composed an epic song entitled "International Rhythm", which was unfortunately too long for the 10-inch recordings of the day. A pity, for it embraced her personal philosophy: "Every man that you meet he's your musical brother. Be mad about music and not at each other."
She later went out on the road with band-leader Billy Cotton in a highly successful musical revue called "Tess and Bill." In the 1940s, she was a frequent headliner at the London Palladium, and established herself as a hit recording artist in the 1950s.
During one show at the London Palladium, she made her entrance on top of an elephant. During one of her performances, the elephant, which was pregnant and quite moody at the time, threw her off. She was laid up for over three months.During the 50s, as the advent of television gradually closed most of the variety theatres, O’Shea continued to work in summer shows and cabaret, and on radio, as well as appearing in provincial productions of plays such as Sailor Beware, and Peter Ustinov’s Romanoff And Juliet.
In the 60s she had U.S. audiences eating out of the palm of her ![]()
hand. In 1963, Noël Coward created the part of the fish and chips peddler "Ada Cockle" specifically for O'Shea in his Broadway musical, The Girl Who Came to Supper. Her performance of traditional Cockney tunes charmed the critics and helped win her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She returned to Gotham three years later with the musical "A Time for Singing" which was based on Richard Llewellyn's "How Green Was My Valley."
hand. In 1963, Noël Coward created the part of the fish and chips peddler "Ada Cockle" specifically for O'Shea in his Broadway musical, The Girl Who Came to Supper. Her performance of traditional Cockney tunes charmed the critics and helped win her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She returned to Gotham three years later with the musical "A Time for Singing" which was based on Richard Llewellyn's "How Green Was My Valley." In 1963, O'Shea was a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show. She was popular enough that she came back in 1964 and shared the billing with The Beatles. Their joint appearance drew what was then the largest audience in the history of American television, helping ![]()
bring her to American audiences.
bring her to American audiences.She was a member of the repertory company on the short-lived CBS variety show The Entertainers (1964–65). In 1968, O'Shea was cast in the television movie The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which earned her an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Drama. She starred in a short-lived British sitcom As Good Cooks Go, which ran from 1969 and 1970.
Film appearances were extremely rare, however, appearing in The Blue Lamp (1950), The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966), and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) She also regularly appeared on BBC TV's long running variety show, The Good Old Days.
Back in Britain in the 70s she appeared to great advantage on TV and, of course, always seemed at home on the bawdy stage. Tessie died 21 April 1995, at her nursing home in Leesburg, Florida, USA of congestive heart failure at age 82, having lived quite the happy, hearty life, and allowing audiences everywhere in on much of it. (Info edited from Wikipedia & IMDB)