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Frances de la Tour (born July 30 1944) is an English actress who has made many appearances on television, in movies, and on the stage.

She is best remembered for playing spinster Ruth Jones in the hit Yorkshire Television comedy Rising Damp. De la Tour did not get on well with her Rising Damp co-star Leonard Rossiter, and subsequently she has declined, for the most part, to be interviewed about this period of her life. But she told Richard Webber, when he wrote his book about the series in 2001 ('Rising Damp: A Celebration'), that Miss 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."

Tennessee Williams described her performance in his play Small Craft Warnings in London's West End in 1973 as one of the best he had seen by any actress in any play. ^{[citation needed]}

She was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Revival Role in 1984 for A Moon for the Misbegotten, and again in 1992 for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for When She Danced.

In 2005 she played Olympe Maxime, headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

She recently starred in highly acclaimed political stage production "Peace Mom" by Dario Fo, in London, and also won a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award in 2006 for her work in The History Boys in New York.

Background

De la Tour was born in Bovingdon in Hertfordshire. She is the sister of Andy de la Tour.

In the 1970s, she was a member of the Trotskyist Workers Revolutionary Party alongside Vanessa Redgrave. She continued to work frequently with Redgrave, and later joined the same political grouping – the Marxist Party.

Selected filmography

Rising Damp (1974-1978) - Miss Ruth Jones
Rising Damp (1980) - Miss Ruth Jones
Flickers (1980) - Maud Cole
Cold Lazarus (1996) - Emma Porlock
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1997) - Aunt Western
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) - Madame Olympe Maxime
The Moving Finger (2006) - Mrs. Maud Dane Calthrop

External links

Frances de la Tour at the Internet Movie Database
Frances de la Tour at the Internet Broadway Database

This article about a British television actor is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

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 '''Frances de la Tour''' (born [[July 30]] [[1944]]) is an [[England|English]] actress who has made many appearances on [[television]], in [[movies]], and on the stage.
-She is best remembered for playing spinster Ruth Jones in the hit [[Yorkshire Television]] comedy ''[[Rising Damp]]''. De la Tour did not get on well with her ''Rising Damp'' co-star [[Leonard Rossiter]], and subsequently she has declined to be interviewed about this period of her life.
+She is best remembered for playing spinster Ruth Jones in the hit [[Yorkshire Television]] comedy ''[[Rising Damp]]''. De la Tour did not get on well with her ''Rising Damp'' co-star [[Leonard Rossiter]], and subsequently she has declined, for the most part, to be interviewed about this period of her life.  But she told Richard Webber, when he wrote his book about the series in 2001 ('Rising Damp: A Celebration'), that Miss 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."
 [[Tennessee Williams]] described her performance in his play ''Small Craft Warnings'' in London's [[West End theatre|West End]] in 1973 as one of the best he had seen by any actress in any play. {{fact}}