Francesca Annis

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. Mara was from a wealthy Brazilian family. The Annises moved to Brazil when Francesca was one year old, and spent six years there, returning to England when she was seven. 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".

Annis was educated at a convent school, and trained in her early years as a ballet dancer,{{cite web |first=Ciara |last=Dwyer |url=http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/celebrity-news-gossip/fine-without-fiennes-1286415.html |title=Fine without Fiennes |work=Independent |access-date=30 August 2015 }} with training in the Russian style at the Corona Stage Academy.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jun/18/francesca-annis-actor-portrait-artist |first=Laura |last=Barnett |title=Francesca Annis, actor – portrait of the artist | Film |work=The Guardian |access-date=30 August 2015 }}

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. Her big break was as one of the leads in the 1965 West End stage musical Passion Flower Hotel. 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'".Diary, 16 February 1971: The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan (ed. John Lahr, 2001){{full citation needed|date=August 2015}}

Annis played the "Widow of the Web" in the 1983 science fantasy film Krull,{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/29/movies/krull-adventure-with-magic-and-a-beast.html|title=Krull, Adventure with Magic and a Beast|first=Janet|last=Maslin|author-link=Janet Maslin|date=29 July 1983|work=The New York Times|access-date=24 March 2010|url-access=limited}} and starred as Lady Jessica in the 1984 David Lynch science fiction film Dune.{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F06E2D71238F937A25751C1A962948260|title=Movie Review: Dune (1984)|last=Maslin|first=Janet|date=14 December 1984|work=The New York Times|access-date=15 March 2010|url-access=limited}}{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,923850-1,00.html |title=Cinema: The Fantasy Film as Final Exam |first=Richard |last=Corliss |author-link=Richard Corliss |magazine=Time |date=17 December 1984 |access-date=15 March 2010}}

She appeared as Tuppence with James Warwick as Tommy Beresford in the pilot film The Secret Adversary (1983){{Screenonline TV title | 1246017 |Agatha Christie's The Secret Adversary (1983) }} and the subsequent TV series, Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime (1983–84).{{Cite web|url=https://www.popmatters.com/174989-tommy-tuppence-partners-in-crime-2495727490.html|title=The Sleuths in Tommy & Tuppence: Partners in Crime are Intimately Acquainted|first=Danielle|last=Shields|date=4 September 2013|website=PopMatters|access-date=24 May 2020}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xSmWVsDh8WEC&q=partners+in+crime+annis+1983&pg=PA255|title=Famous Movie Detectives III|first=Michael R.|last=Pitts|date=25 May 2004|publisher=Scarecrow Press|via=Google Books|pages=255–256|isbn=9780810836907 |access-date=24 May 2020}} 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 pursued a stage career, playing leading roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, such as Luciana in Trevor Nunn's musical version of The Comedy of Errors (1976) and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet alongside Ian McKellen (1976)..https://www.rsc.org.uk/romeo-and-juliet/past-productions/in-focus-trevor-nunn-1976

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.{{cite web|author=Matt Wolf |url=https://variety.com/2005/legit/reviews/epitaph-for-george-dillon-1200521318/ |title=Epitaph for George Dillon |website=Variety |date=4 October 2005 |access-date=30 August 2015}} 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.{{cite web|author=Michael Billington |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/may/06/time-conways-review-priestley |title=Theatre review: Time and the Conways / Lyttelton, London | Stage |website=The Guardian |date=5 May 2009 |access-date=30 August 2015}}

She appeared in television productions in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s 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. She played a major role in J. C. Wilsher's police drama Between the Lines from 1993 to 1994, as well as the miniseries Reckless (1998) and its 2000 sequel. Annis co-starred with Sir 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.{{cn|date=March 2022}}

Annis was in a relationship with photographer Patrick Wiseman that began in 1974, raising three children, Charlotte, Taran, and Andreas.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/drama/5136654/Francesca-Annis-interview.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/drama/5136654/Francesca-Annis-interview.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Francesca Annis interview |first=Tim |last=Auld

|date=14 April 2009 |work=The Telegraph |access-date=30 August 2015 }}{{cbignore}} Annis began a relationship with Hamlet co-star Ralph Fiennes in 1995, ending her 23-year relationship with Wiseman in 1997; Fiennes in turn divorced his wife of four years, Alex Kingston.{{cite news|last=Sheldon|first=Michael|title='I'm not afraid to take risks' |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=14 August 2003 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3600438/Im-not-afraid-to-take-risks.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3600438/Im-not-afraid-to-take-risks.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=30 December 2011 |location=London}}{{cbignore}} Annis is said to have "apologised to Wiseman" over their parting. Annis and Fiennes announced their separation on 7 February 2006, after 11 years together, in a parting described as "acrimonious," following rumours that he had had an affair with the Romanian singer Cornelia Crisan.{{cite web|last=Hoggard |first=Liz |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/francesca-annis-pretty-woman-466292.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210102825/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/francesca-annis-pretty-woman-466292.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 December 2008 |title=Francesca Annis: Pretty woman – Profiles – People |work=The Independent |date=12 February 2006 |access-date=2015-08-30}}{{cite web|last=Hoggard |first=Liz |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/francesca-annis-pretty-woman-466292.html |title=Francesca Annis: Pretty woman – Profiles – People – The Independent |publisher=www.independent.co.uk |date=12 February 2006 |access-date=2015-08-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150510185301/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/francesca-annis-pretty-woman-466292.html |archive-date=10 May 2015 |df=dmy }}

At age 64, 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 her future, 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.'"

• 1976 Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors as Luciana, with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC){{citation needed|date=August 2015}}
• 1977 Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as Juliet, with the RSC{{Cite web|url=https://www.rsc.org.uk/romeo-and-juliet/past-productions/in-focus-trevor-nunn-1976|title=Romeo and Juliet in focus - Trevor Nunn production 1976 | Royal Shakespeare Company|website=www.rsc.org.uk}}
• 1995 Shakespeare's Hamlet as Gertrude, with the Almeida Theatre at the Hackney Empire[https://bbashakespeare.warwick.ac.uk/productions/hamlet-1995-almeida-theatre-company-hackney-empire Hamlet (1995): Almeida Theatre Company, Hackney Empire | BBA Shakespeare]
• 2001 Ibsen's Ghosts as Helen Alving (28 March-14 July 2001) at the Comedy Theatre, London.
• 1981 Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country as Natalya Petrovna, with the National Theatre{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}
• 2005 John Osborne and Anthony Creighton's Epitaph for George Dillon as Ruth, at the Comedy Theatre
• 2009 J. B. Priestley's Time and the Conways as Mrs. Conway, with the National Theatre

{{Reflist|40em}}

• {{IMDb name|0000768}}
• {{IBDB name|70978}}

{{British Academy Television Award for Best Actress 1960-1979}}

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Category:Living people

Category:1945 births

Category:20th-century English actresses

Category:21st-century English actresses

Category:Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners

Category:English film actresses

Category:English people of Brazilian descent

Category:English people of French descent

Category:English stage actresses

Category:English television actresses

Category:Actresses from London

Category:People from Kensington

Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members

Category:Actors from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea