From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Nancy Kelly (March 25, 1921 – January 2, 1995) was an American actress. She became a movie leading lady in the late 1930s, while still in her teens. She made 36 movies between 1926 and 1977, including portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James (1939), and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingstone later that same year. She had her greatest success in a character role, the distraught mother in The Bad Seed, receiving a Tony Award for the 1955 stage production and an Oscar nomination for the 1956 film adaptation.