Francesca Annis

Francesca Annis (born 14 May 1945)[1] is an English actress. She is known for television roles in Reckless (1998), Wives and Daughters (1999), Deceit (2000) and Cranford (2007). A six-time BAFTA TV Award nominee, she won the 1979 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the ITV serial Lillie. Her film appearances include Krull (1983), Dune (1984), The Debt Collector (1999) and The Libertine (2004).

Francesca Annis
Annis in trailer for Flipper's New Adventure (1964)
Born	(1945-05-14) 14 May 1945 Kensington, London, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1959–present
Partner(s)	Patrick Wiseman (1976–1997) Ralph Fiennes (1995–2006)
Children	3

Early life and education

Annis was born in Kensington, London in 1945, to an English father, Lester William Anthony Annis (1914–2001) and a Brazilian-French mother, Mariquita (Mara) Purcell (1913–2009). Both were sometime actors and Mara a sometime singer.[2] Mara was from a wealthy Brazilian family.[2] The Annises moved to Brazil when Francesca was one year old, and spent six years there, returning to England when she was seven.[2] In recollecting the years in Brazil, she described her parents as running "a nightclub on Copacabana beach", and her mother Mara "performing as a blues singer".[2]

Annis was educated at a convent school, and trained in her early years as a ballet dancer,[2][3] with training in the Russian style at the Corona Stage Academy.[4]

Career

Annis began acting professionally in her teens, and made her film debut in The Cat Gang (1959). Her first major film role was as Elizabeth Taylor's handmaiden in Cleopatra (1963), in which she was cast at the age of 16 while still studying Russian ballet.[2] Her big break was as one of the leads in the 1965 West End stage musical Passion Flower Hotel.[4] She played Estella in a television adaptation of Great Expectations (1967) and presented children's television programmes. She garnered attention for her performance as Lady Macbeth in Roman Polanski's film version of Macbeth (1971) in which she performs the sleepwalking soliloquy nude. The critic Kenneth Tynan was present when the scene was shot:

"Francesca does it very sportingly and with no fuss ... though of course the set is closed, great curtains are drawn around the acting area ... and the wardrobe mistress rushes to cover Francesca with a dressing gown the instant Roman says, 'Cut'".[5]

Annis played the Widow of the Web in the 1983 science fantasy film Krull,[6] and starred as Lady Jessica in the 1984 David Lynch science fiction film Dune.[7][8] She appeared as Tuppence with James Warwick as Tommy in The Secret Adversary (1983) and the subsequent series, Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime (1983–84).[9][10] Annis played Jacqueline Kennedy in Onassis: The Richest Man in the World in 1988. She portrayed Mrs. Wellington in the second film and directorial debut by Prince, Under The Cherry Moon (1986).

Annis has also pursued a stage career, playing leading roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company – Luciana in Trevor Nunn's musical version of The Comedy of Errors in 1976, and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet alongside Ian McKellen in 1977. At the National Theatre in 1981, she played Natalya Petrovna in Peter Gill's production of Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country. At the Comedy Theatre between September 2005 and January 2006, Annis starred as Ruth in Epitaph for George Dillon with Joseph Fiennes.[11] She returned to the stage in April 2009, to star as Mrs. Conway in Rupert Goold's National Theatre revival of J. B. Priestley's Time and the Conways.[12]

She has appeared in television productions in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, appearing in series such as Edward the Seventh (1975) as Lillie Langtry, a role she reprised in Lillie (1978); Madame Bovary (1975); and Parnell and the Englishwoman (1991), in which she played Kitty O'Shea; as well as the miniseries Reckless (1998) and its 2000 sequel. Annis co-starred with Michael Gambon and Dame Judi Dench as Lady Ludlow (an aristocrat opposed to the education of the lower classes) in the BBC1 costume-drama series Cranford (2007). More recently, Annis played a leading role in the ITV drama Home Fires.

Personal life

Annis was in a relationship with photographer Patrick Wiseman that began in 1974,[2] raising three children, Charlotte, Taran, and Andreas, all of whom were given their father's surname. Annis began a relationship with Hamlet co-star Ralph Fiennes in 1995, ending her 23-year relationship with Wiseman in 1997;[2] Fiennes in turn divorced his wife of four years, Alex Kingston.[13] Annis is said to have "apologised to Wiseman" over their parting.[2] Annis and Fiennes announced their separation on 7 February 2006, after 11 years together,[2][14][15] in a parting described as "acrimonious", following rumours that he had had an affair with a Romanian singer.[2]

In an interview with Tim Auld of The Telegraph in 2009, Annis described herself as being one that tends "to forget the bad things – I don't dwell on them. I think, 'Oh, f– it, life's too short,'" and that though single, she "believes it is better to be with someone than alone", stating "I think you live a fuller life... to have someone else's input on anything – a book, a meal, your children, life, a walk – is fantastic" and expressing optimism as she looked to the rest of her seventh decade, stating "'I like to have a big open canvas. I am a glass-half-full person. Something will turn up, you know, and whatever it is it'll be fine.'"[2]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1959	The Cat Gang	Sylvia
	Carry On Teacher	Schoolgirl
1960	No Kidding	Priscilla
	His and Hers	Wanda
1963	Cleopatra	Eiras
	West 11	Phyl
1964	Murder Most Foul	Sheila Upward
	Saturday Night Out	Jean
	Crooks in Cloisters	June
	The Eyes of Annie Jones	Annie Jones
	Flipper's New Adventure	Gwen
1965	The Pleasure Girls	Sally
1966	Run with the Wind	Jean Packer
1970	The Walking Stick	Arabella Dainton
1971	Macbeth	Lady Macbeth
1973	Penny Gold	Delphi/Diane
1978	The Comedy of Errors	Luciana
1980	Why Didn't They Ask Evans?	Lady Frances Derwent
1982	Coming Out of the Ice	Galina
1983	Krull	Widow of the Web
1984	Dune	Lady Jessica
1986	Under The Cherry Moon	Mrs. Wellington
1994	Doomsday Gun	Sophie
1999	The Debt Collector	Val Dryden
2002	Copenhagen	Margrethe Bohr
2004	The Libertine	Countess
2005	Revolver	Lily Walker
2008	Shifty	Valerie
2012	Loving Miss Hatto	Joyce
2018	King Of Thieves	Lynne Reader

Selected stage appearances

• Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, as Luciana (1976), with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
• Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, as Juliet (1977), with the RSC[16]
• Shakespeare's Hamlet, as Gertrude (1995), with the Almeida Theatre at the Hackney EmpireHamlet (1995): Almeida Theatre Company, Hackney Empire | BBA Shakespeare
• Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country, as Natalya Petrovna (1981), with the National Theatre
• John Osborne and Anthony Creighton's Epitaph for George Dillon, as Ruth (2005), at the Comedy Theatre[11]
• J. B. Priestley's Time and the Conways, as Mrs. Conway (2009), with the National Theatre[12]

Selected television appearances

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1960	BBC Sunday-Night Play	Anne Miller	(Episode: "The Wind and the Sun")
	Probation Officer	Judy Bealle	1 episode
1962	ITV Play of the Week	Margery Hamilton	(Episode: "The Gentle Assassi")
	Sir Francis Drake	Princess Mariella	(Episode "Visit to Spain)
1964	Danger Man	Sheila/Judy	(Episodes: "No Marks For Servility" "That's Two of Us Sorry")
	The Human Jungle	Mary	(Episode: "Wild Goose Chase")
1965	ITV Play of the Week	Christine Burrows	(Episode: "An Aspidistra in Babylon")
1966	The Saint	Maria	(Episode: "Locate and Destroy")
	ITV Play of the Week	Catherine	(Episode: "A View from the Bridge")
1967	Great Expectations	Estella
1972	Stage 2	Solveig
1973	A Pin to See the Peepshow	Julia Almond
1974	The Wood Demon	Helen
1975	Madame Bovary	Emma Bovary
1975	Edward the Seventh	Lillie Langtry	(Episodes 7 "Dearest Prince" and 8 "The Royal Quadrille")
1978	Lillie	Lillie Langtry
1980	Why Didn't They Ask Evans?	Lady Frances "Frankie" Derwent
1983	The Secret Adversary	Prudence Cowley
	Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime	Prudence "Tuppence" Beresford
1984	I'll Take Manhattan	Lily Davina Adamsfield
1985	Magnum P.I.	Penelope St. Clair	(Episode: "Deja Vu")
1986	Inside Story	Paula Croxley
1991	Parnell and the Englishwoman	Katharine O'Shea
1993	Between the Lines	Angela Berridge
1996	Dalziel and Pascoe	Bonnie Fielding	(Episode: "An Autumn Shroud")
1998	Reckless	Anna Fairley
1999	Wives and Daughters	Hyacinth Gibson
2005	Jericho	Lady Clare Wellesley
2006	Jane Eyre	Lady Ingram
2007	Agatha Christie's Marple	Lady Selina Hazy	(Episode: At Bertram's Hotel)
	Cranford	Lady Ludlow
2009	Return to Cranford	Lady Ludlow
2010	The Little House	Elizabeth
2015–2016	Home Fires	Joyce Cameron	11 episodes
2020	Flesh and Blood	Vivien

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
1974	BAFTA TV Award	Best Actress	A Pin to See the Peepshow	Nominated
1976	BAFTA TV Award	Best Actress	Madame Bovary	Nominated
1977	Olivier Award	Best Actress in a Revival	Troilus and Cressida	Nominated
1979	BAFTA TV Award	Best Actress	Lillie	Won
1998	BAFTA TV Award	Best Actress	Reckless	Nominated
1999	BAFTA TV Award	Best Actress	Reckless	Nominated
2000	BAFTA TV Award	Best Actress	Wives and Daughters	Nominated

References

1. Birthdays, Timesonline.co.uk, 14 May 2008; accessed 12 August 2014.
2. "Francesca Annis interview". Telegraph. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
3. Ciara Dwyer. "Fine without Fiennes". Independent.ie. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
4. "Francesca Annis, actor – portrait of the artist | Film". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
5. Diary, 16 February 1971: The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan (ed. John Lahr, 2001)
6. Maslin, Janet (29 July 1983). "Krull, Adventure with Magic and a Beast". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
7. Maslin, Janet (14 December 1984). "Movie Review: Dune (1984)". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2010.
8. Corliss, Richard (17 December 1984). "Cinema: The Fantasy Film as Final Exam". Time. Retrieved 15 March 2010.
9. Shields, Danielle (4 September 2013). "The Sleuths in Tommy & Tuppence: Partners in Crime are Intimately Acquainted". PopMatters. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
10. Pitts, Michael R. (25 May 2004). Famous Movie Detectives III. Scarecrow Press. pp. 255–256. Retrieved 24 May 2020 – via Google Books.
11. Matt Wolf (4 October 2005). "Epitaph for George Dillon". Variety. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
12. Michael Billington (5 May 2009). "Theatre review: Time and the Conways / Lyttelton, London | Stage". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
13. Sheldon, Michael (14 August 2003). "'I'm not afraid to take risks'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
14. Hoggard, Liz (12 February 2006). "Francesca Annis: Pretty woman – Profiles – People". The Independent. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
15. Hoggard, Liz (12 February 2006). "Francesca Annis: Pretty woman – Profiles – People – The Independent". Webcache.googleusercontent.com. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 2015-08-30.
16. "Romeo and Juliet in focus - Trevor Nunn production 1976 | Royal Shakespeare Company". www.rsc.org.uk.

External links

• Francesca Annis on IMDb
• Francesca Annis at the Internet Broadway Database