Anna Massey

Anna Raymond Massey (11 August 19373 July 2011)The Sunday Times Magazine, The Sunday Times, 18 December 2011, page 64 was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Best Actress Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel Hotel du Lac, a role that one of her co-stars, Julia McKenzie, has said "could have been written for her". Massey is also well known for her roles in Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960) and Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972), each as a woman who becomes involved with a suspected killer. She performed over one hundred character roles in British film and television.* On the stage, in 1982, Massey won the Laurence Olivier Award for Actress of the Year in a Supporting Role for The Importance of Being Earnest and was nominated for the Award for Actress of the Year in a New Play for Summer.

Early life Massey was born in Thakeham, Sussex, England, the daughter of British actress Adrianne Allen and Canadian-born Hollywood actor Raymond Massey. Her parents divorced when she was an infant and she continued to live in England with her mother. Her older brother Daniel Massey also became an actor. She was the niece of Vincent Massey, a Governor General of Canada, and her godfather was film director John Ford.

Career Although she had no formal training at either drama school or in repertory, Anna Massey made her first appearance on stage in May 1955 at the age of 17, at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, as Jane in The Reluctant Debutante, subsequently making her first London appearance in the same play at the Cambridge Theatre in May 1955 "and was suddenly famous". She then left the cast in London to repeat her performance in New York in October 1956.Who's Who in the Theatre, 17th edition, Gale 1981 In the 1990s she appeared with Alan Bennett in a dramatised reading of T.S. Eliot's and Virginia Woolf's letters, in a production at the Charleston Festival devised by Patrick Garland.

Several of her early film roles were in mystery thrillers. She made her cinema debut in the Scotland Yard film Gideon's Day (1958) as Sally, daughter of Jack Hawkins's Detective Inspector. The director was her godfather John Ford. She played a potential murder victim in Michael Powell's cult thriller Peeping Tom (1960) and appeared in Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965). In 1972 she played the role of the barmaid Babs in Alfred Hitchcock's penultimate film Frenzy. In the documentary on the film's DVD release, Massey mentioned that she originally auditioned for the much smaller role of the secretary Monica, a part for which Jean Marsh was cast. She also noted that her character's nude scenes in Frenzy were performed by body doubles. She appeared alongside her brother Daniel—they played siblings—in the horror anthology film The Vault of Horror (1973).

Massey continued to make occasional film and stage appearances, but worked more frequently in television. She made her first small-screen appearance as Jacqueline in Green of the Year in October 1955, and thereafter featured in dramas such as The Pallisers (1974), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978), the 1979 adaptation of Rebecca (in which she starred with her ex-husband Jeremy Brett), The Cherry Orchard (1980), and Anna Karenina (1985). She had roles in the British comedy series The Darling Buds of May (1991) and The Robinsons (2005). She also appeared in a number of mysteries and thrillers on television, including episodes of Inspector Morse, The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Midsomer Murders, Strange, Lewis, and Agatha Christie's Poirot.

With Imelda Staunton, she co-devised and starred as Josephine Daunt in Daunt and Dervish on BBC radio. She was the narrator of This Sceptred Isle on BBC Radio 4, a history of Britain from Roman times which ran for more than 300 fifteen-minute episodes. In 2009, she also appeared in a new radio version of The Killing of Sister George.

In 1987, Massey was awarded the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for her role in Hotel du Lac after acquiring the TV rights two years earlier, only a few weeks before the novel won the Booker Prize. She also appeared as Mrs D'Urberville in the 2008 BBC adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles.BBC News: "Actress Anna Massey dies at the age of 73"

Acting style One of Massey's assets as an actress was her "extraordinary voice... it was so listenable". Although Massey's parts were varied, her "cut-glass English accent conveyed a cold and repressed character on screen". Michael Billington of The Guardian characterised her work as being informed by "stillness", such as in the National Theatre's production of Harold Pinter's A Kind of Alaska. Massey was the principal narrator of the BBC Radio series on British history This Sceptred Isle. She also recorded several audiobooks, including Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.

She was known for a high level of preparation and effort, with one producer saying that she had a practice of using five different coloured pens on scripts to mark out "breaths and pauses" and the development of a scene; for example, "if a phrase early in a paragraph was going to be picked up again later, she would highlight those two bits in the same colour, so that it would remind her that that first phrase was referring to something later".

Personal life In the New Year's Honours List published on 31 December 2004, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to drama.BBC NEWS: "Anna Massey collects CBE"

In 2006 Massey published an autobiography, Telling Some Tales, in which she revealed a difficult early life, including a distant relationship with her father and estrangement from her brother. She also described her failed marriage (1958–1962) to Jeremy Brett, discussing his struggle with bipolar disorder. Brett and Massey divorced on 22 November 1962 after, she claimed, he left her for a man. The couple had one son.David Huggins "At Christmas I dreaded playing charades", The Guardian, 17 November 2001 At an August 1988 dinner party held at the home of their mutual friend, Joy Whitby, she met Russian-born metallurgist Uri Andres, who had been based at Imperial College, London since 1975.Sue Fox "How we met: Uri Andres and Anna Massey", The Independent, 7 March 1993 The couple were married from November 1988 until her death in 2011.

Massey was quoted as saying, "Theatre eats up too much of your family life. I have a grandson and a husband, and I'd rather I was able to be a granny and a wife.""Actress Anna Massey loses battle with cancer at 73". London Evening Standard (4 July 2011). Retrieved 4 June 2021.

She died from lung cancer in Kensington, London on 3 July 2011, aged 73.

Selected TV and filmography Year Title Role Notes1958Gideon's DaySally Gideon1960Peeping TomHelen Stephens1963The Trip to BiarritzMarjorie Robertson1965Bunny Lake Is MissingElvira Smollett1969David CopperfieldJane Murdstone1969De SadeRenée de Montreuil1969ITV PlayhouseEdwinaEpisode: Remember the Germans (S02 E39)1970The Looking Glass WarAvery's Wife1970Wicked WomenChristiana Edmunds TV episode1972FrenzyBabs Milligan1972ITV PlayhouseCynthia RandolphEpisode: Dear Octopus (S06 E06)1973The Vault of HorrorDonna Rogers(segment 1 "Midnight Mess")1973A Doll's HouseKristine Linde1973ITV PlayhouseRachelEpisode: Relics (S07 E01)1974The PallisersLaura KennedyTV miniseries1978The Mayor of CasterbridgeLucetta Templeman1979RebeccaMrs DanversTV miniseries1979A Little RomanceMs. Seigel1979ITV PlayhouseJemimaEpisode: You're Not Watching Me, Mummy (S11 E16)1980Sweet WilliamEdna McClusky1981ITV PlayhouseMummyEpisode: Little Girls Don't (S13 E01)1982Five Days One SummerJennifer Pierce1982I Remember NelsonLady Frances NelsonTV series, Episode: "Love"1983Mansfield ParkMrs NorrisTV series - 6 episodes1984Another CountryImogen Bennett1984Journey into the Shadows: Portrait of Gwen JohnGwen JohnTV film1984The Little Drummer GirlChairlady1984The ChainBetty1985Sacred HeartsSister Thomas1986Hotel du LacEdith HopeBAFTA award-winning TV role1986Foreign BodyMiss Furze1987A Hazard of HeartsEudora, Serena's Maid1988La couleur du ventNorma1988Tears in the RainEmily1989The Tall GuyMary1989A Tale of Two CitiesMiss Pross1989Killing DadEdith1989Around the World in 80 DaysQueen Victoria1990Mountains of the MoonMrs Arundell1990Killing Dad or How to Love Your MotherEdith1991ImpromptuGeorge Sand's mother1991The Diamond Brothers: South by South EastMrs Bodega1992Inspector MorseEmily BalcombeTV series, Episode: "Happy Families"1992Emily's GhostMiss Rabstock1992The Darling Buds of May Mam’selle Antoinette Dupont 1993The Return of the Psammead Aunt Marchmont1995The GrotesqueMrs Giblet1995Angels and InsectsMiss Mead1995HauntedNanny Tess Webb1995The World of Peter Rabbit and FriendsMrs Thomasina TittlemouseTV series, Episode: "The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies and Mrs. Tittlemouse"1996Sweet Angel MineMother1997DriftwoodMother1997The Slab BoysElsie Walkinshaw1997Deja VuFern Stoner1998Midsomer MurdersHonoria LyddiardEpisode "Written in Blood"1999Captain JackPhoebe Pickles1999Mad CowsDwina Phelps2000Room to RentSarah2001Dark Blue WorldEnglish teacher2002The Importance of Being EarnestMiss Prism2002PossessionLady Bailey2003StrangeEmily HawthorneEpisode: "Zoxim"2004The MachinistMrs Shrike2004Agatha Christie: A Life in PicturesAgatha Christie2004He Knew He Was RightMiss StanburyTV film2004BelongingBrendaTV mini series2005Mrs. Palfrey at the ClaremontMrs Arbuthnot2005The Worst Week of My LifeAunt Yvonne2006The GigolosEdwina2007Fairy Stories by The Brothers GrimmNarratorAudiobook2007LewisMargaret GoldEpisode: "Whom the Gods Would Destroy"2007Oliver TwistMrs BedwinTV miniseries, 4 episodes2008Doctor Who – The Girl Who Never WasMiss Pollard8th Doctor audio drama2008The Oxford MurdersJulia Eagleton2008AffinityMiss HaxbyTV film2008Tess of the D'UrbervillesMrs D'UrbervilleTV miniseries, Episode #1.12009KingdomWinifredTV series, Episode #3.32009Midsomer MurdersBrenda PackardEpisode: "Secrets and Spies"2010Agatha Christie’s PoirotMiss PebmarshEpisode: "The Clocks"2011Act of Memory: A Christmas StoryOlder MariaShort (final film role)

Books

Sound recordings Massey can be heard in the Caedmon Records productions of Othello (as Desdemona), The Tempest (as Miranda), Cyrano de Bergerac (as Roxane), and The Comedy of Errors (as Adriana).

Anna Massey

Bron en licentie