The 1950s provided her with very few opportunities in film, but in the 1960s she asserted herself as a character Actress, and her career enjoyed a revival. Among her successful films of this period were Ten North Frederick (1958), The Pawnbroker (1964) and Rachel, Rachel (1968). Her later films included The Mango Tree (1977) (for which she received an Australian Film Institute Best Actress nomination), and Harry and Tonto (1974), in one scene opposite Art Carney. In the comedy Arthur (1981), she portrayed Dudley Moore's wealthy and eccentric grandmother, even though she was only 22 years older than Moore. Fitzgerald would appear in a Rodney Dangerfield comedy, Easy Money, the horror film Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986), and the comedy sequel Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988). Fitzgerald began to act more often on stage and won acclaim for her performance in the 1971 revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. She achieved success as a theatre director; in 1982 she became one of the first women to receive a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play, for the production Mass Appeal.