Frances de la Tour

Frances de la Tour
Born	(1944-07-30) 30 July 1944 Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1970–present
Spouse(s)	Tom Kempinski (divorced)
Children	2

Frances de la Tour (born 30 July 1944) is an English actress of French descent perhaps best known for her role as Miss Ruth Jones in the British sitcom Rising Damp, Mrs Lintott in The History Boys both on-stage and in the film, and as Madame Olympe Maxime in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1. For her work in the theatre, de la Tour has won a Tony Award and three Olivier Awards.

Early life and family

De la Tour was born in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, to Moyra (née Fessas) and Charles de la Tour. She was educated at London's Lycée Français and the Drama Centre London

She is the sister of actor and screenwriter Andy de la Tour, and was briefly married to playwright Tom Kempinski. She has a son and a daughter.

RSC and National companies

On leaving drama school she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1965 where she studied with Michel Saint-Denis. Over the next six years, she played many small roles with the RSC in a variety of plays, gradually building up to larger parts such as Hoyden in The Relapse and culminating in Peter Brook's acclaimed production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in which she played Helena as a comic "tour de force". In the 1970s, she worked steadily both on the stage and on television. Some of her notable appearances were Rosalind in As You Like It at the Playhouse, Oxford in 1975 and Isabella in The White Devil at the Old Vic in 1976. She enjoyed a collaboration with Stepney's Half Moon Theatre, appearing in the London première of Dario Fo's We Can't Pay? We Won't Pay (1978), Eleanor Marx's Landscape of Exile (1979), and in the title role of Hamlet (1980).

In 1980, she played Stephanie, the violinist with MS in Duet for One, a play written for her by Kempinski, for which she won the Olivier for Best Actress. She played Sonya in Uncle Vanya opposite Donald Sinden at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in 1982. Her performance as Josie in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten won her another Olivier for Best Actress in 1983. She joined the Royal National Theatre for the title role in Saint Joan in 1984 and appeared there in Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1986. She again won the Olivier, this time for Best Supporting Actress for Martin Sherman's play about Isadora Duncan, When She Danced with Vanessa Redgrave at the Globe Theatre in 1991 and played Leo in Les Parents terribles at the Royal National Theatre in 1994, earning another Olivier nomination.

In 1994, de la Tour co-starred with Maggie Smith in Edward Albee's Three Tall Women at the Wyndham's and with Alan Howard in Albee's The Play About the Baby at the Almeida in 1998. In 1999, she returned to the RSC to play Cleopatra opposite Alan Bates in Antony and Cleopatra in which she did a nude walk across the stage. In 2004, she played Mrs Lintott in Alan Bennett's The History Boys at the National and later on Broadway, winning both a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She would also appear in the film version. In December 2005, she appeared in the London production of the highly acclaimed anti-Iraq war one-woman play "Peace Mom" by Dario Fo, based on the writings of Cindy Sheehan. In 2007 she appeared in a West End revival of the farce Boeing-Boeing. In 2009 she appeared in Alan Bennett's new play The Habit of Art at the National. In 2012 she returned to the National in her third Bennett premiere, People.

Film and Television roles

Her many television appearances during the 1980's and 1990's include the 1980 miniseries Flickers alongside Bob Hoskins, the TV version of Duet for One, for which she received a BAFTA nomination, the series A Kind of Living (1988-89), Dennis Potter's Cold Lazarus (1996) and Tom Jones (1997). Of all her TV roles, however, she is best known for playing spinster Ruth Jones in the successful Yorkshire Television comedy Rising Damp, from 1974-78. de la Tour told Richard Webber, who penned a 2001 book about the series, that Ruth Jones "was an interesting character to play. We laughed a lot on set, but comedy is a serious business and Leonard took it particularly seriously, and rightly so. Comedy, which is so much down to timing, is exhausting work. But it was a happy time.". For reprising her Rising Damp role in the 1980 film version she won Best Actress at the Evening Standard Film Awards.

In the mid-1980s, de la Tour was considered, along with Joanna Lumley and Dawn French, as a replacement for Colin Baker in Doctor Who. The idea was scrapped, and the job was given to Sylvester McCoy.

In 2003, de la Tour played a terminally ill gay woman in the film Love Actually, although her scenes were cut from the film's theatrical release, and appear only on the DVD..

In 2005 she played Olympe Maxime, headmistress of Beauxbaton's Academy, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a role she reprised in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (notable in that her character was not present in the novel). Television roles during this time include Agatha Christie's Poirot: Death on the Nile (2004), Waking the Dead (2004), the black comedy Sensitive Skin (2005), with Joanna Lumley and Denis Lawson, Agatha Christie's Marple: The Moving Finger (2006) and New Tricks as a rather morbid Egyptologist, also in 2006.

She was nominated for the 2006 BAFTA Award for Actress in a Supporting Role for her work on the film version of The History Boys.

She appeared in Tim Burton's 2010 Alice in Wonderland as Aunt Imogene, a delusional aunt of Alice's, opposite Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter and Mia Wasikowska. Also that year, she had a supporting role in the film The Book of Eli, directed by the Hughes brothers.

She appeared in the 2012 film Hugo.

Up until 2012, she was also a Patron for the Performing Arts group Theatretrain.

In 2013 de la Tour appeared as Violet in the British sitcom Vicious, opposite Sir Ian Mckellen and Sir Derek Jacobi

Politically, de la Tour is a socialist and was a member of the Workers' Revolutionary Party in the 1970s.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated Work	Result
1980	Olivier Award	Best Actress in a New Play	Duet for One	Won
1980	Evening Standard Film Award	Best Actress	Rising Damp	Won
1983	Olivier Award	Best Actress in a Revival	A Moon for the Misbegotten	Won
1986	BAFTA TV Award	Best Actress	Duet for One	Nominated
1992	Olivier Award	Best Supporting Actress	When She Danced	Won
1995	Olivier Award	Best Actress	Les Parents Terribles	Nominated
2006	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play	The History Boys	Won
2006	Tony Award	Best Featured Actress in a Play	The History Boys	Won
2006	British Independent Film Award	Best Actress	The History Boys	Nominated
2007	BAFTA Film Award	Best Supporting Actress	The History Boys	Nominated

Filmography

Film	Role	Notes
Our Miss Fred (1972)	Miss Lockhart
Rising Damp (TV) (1974–1978)	Miss Ruth Jones
Maggie: It's Me (1977)	Maggie
Rising Damp (1980)	Miss Ruth Jones	Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress
Flickers (1980)	Maud Cole
Duet for One (TV) (1985)	Stephanie Anderson	Nominated - British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
Cold Lazarus (1996)	Emma Porlock
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1997)	Aunt Western
The Cherry Orchard (1999)	Charlotte Ivanova
Agatha Christie's Poirot (2004)	Salome Otterbourne	Episode Death on the Nile
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)	Madame Olympe Maxime
Sensitive Skin (TV series) (2005)	Sarah Thorne
Agatha Christie's Marple (2006)	Mrs. Maud Dane Calthrop	Episode The Moving Finger
The History Boys (2006)	Dorothy Lintott	Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated – British Independent Film Awards
The Book of Eli (2010)	Martha	The wife of George (Michael Gambon).
Alice in Wonderland (2010)	Aunt Imogene
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010)	Madame Olympe Maxime
The Nutcracker in 3D (2010)	The Rat Queen
Hugo (2011)	Madame Emile
Private Peaceful (2012)	Grandma Wolf
Vicious (2013) (TV series)	Violet Crosby	(7 episodes)

External links

• Frances de la Tour's website
• Frances de la Tour at the Internet Movie Database
• Frances de la Tour at the Internet Broadway Database
• But you're beautiful, Miss Jones: Interview
• Oliviers for Actress category
• Biography at Official Rising Damp web site