Anna Massey
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| Anna Massey | |
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 Massey in Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) |
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| Born | Anna Raymond Massey 11 August 1937 Thakeham, West Sussex, England, UK |
| Died | 3 July 2011 (aged 73) London, England, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1958–2010 |
| Spouse | Jeremy Brett (m. 1958–1962, divorced); 1 son Uri Andres (m. 1988–2011, her death) |
| Parents | Raymond Massey Adrianne Allen |
Anna Raymond Massey CBE (11 August 1937 – 3 July 2011[1][2]) was an English actress.[3] She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner’s novel Hotel du Lac [4] in a role which one of her co-stars, Julia McKenzie, has said 'could have been written for her.'[5]
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[edit] Early life
Massey was born in Thakeham, West Sussex, England, the daughter of British actress Adrianne Allen and Canadian-born Hollywood actor Raymond Massey.[6] Her brother, Daniel Massey, was also an actor. She was the niece of Vincent Massey, a Governor General of Canada, and her godfather was film director John Ford.[7]
[edit] Career
Though she had no formal training at either drama school or in repertory, in May 1955 at the age of 17 Anna Massey made her first appearance on stage 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 [8]". She then left the cast in London to repeat her performance in New York in October 1956.[9]
She made her cinema debut in 1958 in the Scotland Yard film Gideon's Day, as Sally, daughter of Jack Hawkins's detective inspector. The director was her godfather John Ford.[8]
In 1960, she played a potential murder victim in Michael Powell's cult thriller Peeping Tom; she then appeared in Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) opposite Laurence Olivier and later played the role of the cockney barmaid Babs in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972). In the extras for the DVD release of Frenzy, Massey states that she originally auditioned for the part of the secretary Monica, a part which was eventually played by Jean Marsh. Massey appeared with her brother Daniel playing deadly siblings in the 1973 horror film The Vault of Horror.
Massey continued to make occasional film and stage appearances, but worked more frequently in television, making her first small screen appearance as Jacqueline in Green of the Year in October 1955[9] and in dramas such as The Pallisers (1974), the 1978 adaptation of Rebecca (in which she starred with her ex-husband, Jeremy Brett), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978), 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.[8]
In 1986, Massey was awarded the British Academy TV 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.[5] She also appeared as Mrs. D'Urberville in the 2008 BBC adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, an older version of May and as Rosie in An Angel For May, and in the 2004 BBC version of Our Mutual Friend.[7]
[edit] Acting style
One of Massey's assets as an actress was her 'extraordinary voice... it was so listenable.'[5] Although Massey's parts were varied, her 'cut-glass English accent, conveyed a cold and repressed character on screen'.[10] On the stage, a number of her performances were said to be characterised by 'stillness', such as the National Theatre's production of Harold Pinter's A Kind of Alaska.[11]
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.'[5]
[edit] Personal life
In the New Year's Honours List published 31 December 2004 she was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to drama.[12]
She published an autobiography in 2006, Telling Some Tales, which revealed a difficult early life and her failed marriage to actor Jeremy Brett (who struggled with bipolar disorder), their son, writer David Raymond William Huggins (b. 1959), her successful second marriage in 1988 to Russian scientist Uri Andres[11] and of being a grandmother. 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."[13]
[edit] Death
Massey died from cancer on 3 July 2011, aged 73. She is survived by her son, grandson and second husband.[7]
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1958 | Gideon's Day | Sally Gideon | |
| 1960 | Peeping Tom | Helen | |
| 1965 | Bunny Lake Is Missing | Elvira Smollett | |
| 1972 | Frenzy | Babs Milligan | |
| 1973 | The Vault of Horror | Donna Rogers | |
| 1978 | The Mayor of Casterbridge | Lucetta Templeman | |
| 1979 | Rebecca | Mrs. Danvers | TV movie |
| 1983 | Mansfield Park (1983 TV serial) | Mrs. Norris | TV series |
| 1986 | Hotel du Lac | Edith Hope | BAFTA award-winning TV role |
| 1986 | Foreign Body | Miss Furze | |
| 1991 | Impromptu | George Sand's mother | |
| 1992 | Inspector Morse | Lady Emily Balcombe | TV series, 'Happy Families' |
| 1997 | Deja Vu | Fern Stoner | |
| 1999 | Captain Jack | Phoebe Pickles | |
| 2002 | The Importance of Being Earnest | Miss Prism | |
| Possession | Lady Bailey | ||
| 2004 | The Machinist | Mrs Shrike | |
| He Knew He Was Right | Miss Stanbury | TV Movie | |
| Belonging | TV Movie | ||
| 2005 | Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont | Mrs Arbuthnot | |
| The Worst Week of My Life | Aunt Yvonne | ||
| 2006 | The Gigolos | Edwina | |
| 2007 | Fairy Stories by The Brothers Grimm | Narrator | Audiobook |
| Doctor Who - The Girl Who Never Was | Miss Pollard | 8th Doctor audiobook | |
| 2008 | Tess of the D'Urbervilles | Mrs D'Urberville | |
| The Oxford Murders (Film) | Mrs. Julia Eagleton | ||
| Affinity (film) | Miss Haxby | TV movie |
[edit] Books
- Massey, Anna (2006). Telling Some Tales. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-179645-8.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Anna Massey dies at 73". The Guardian. 2011-07-04. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/04/anna-massey-dies-73. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
- ^ The Sunday Times Magazine, The Sunday Times, 18th December 2011, page 64
- ^ Maitland, Peter (Nov 23, 1956). "Anna Massey Recalls Sudden Leap to Stardom on Stage". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix: p. 10. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=16lkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=E28NAAAAIBAJ&pg=4773,3328168&dq=anna-massey&hl=en. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
- ^ Associated Press (July 6, 2011). "Anna Massey, TV and Film Actress, Dies at 73". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/arts/television/anna-massey-british-tv-and-film-actress-dies-at-73.html?ref=deathsobituaries.
- ^ a b c d "[Radio 4, "Last Word"]". Presented by John Wilson. [Word]. BBC. Radio 4. 2011-07-08.
- ^ "Anna Massey: Obituaries". The Telegraph (London): p. 27. 5 July 2011. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/8615826/Anna-Massey.html. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
- ^ a b c BBC News: "Actress Anna Massey dies at the age of 73"
- ^ a b c "Anna Massey (Obituary)". The Times (London): p. 49. 5 July 2011. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/obituaries/article3083481.ece.
- ^ a b Who's Who in the Theatre, 17th edition, Gale 1981 ISBN 0810302357
- ^ Ronald, Bergen (5 July), "Obituary, 'Anna Massey", The Guardian: Page 28
- ^ a b Billington, Michael (5 July), "Obituary, 'Anna Massey", The Guardian: Page 28
- ^ BBC NEWS: "Anna Massey collects CBE"
- ^ "IMDB entry for Anna Massey". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0557281/bio. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
[edit] External links
- Anna Massey at the Internet Movie Database
- Anna Massey at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
- Stage performances in Theatre Archive University of Bristol
- Anna Massey at AllRovi
- Obituary in The Independent
- Obituary in The Telegraph
- Anna Massey at Find a Grave
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