Biography

Francesca Annis

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English actress Francesca Annis, who has enjoyed a career spanning seven decades in movies, television and the theater, was born in London six days after V-E Day, on May 14, 1945. Her father, Lester, was English, but her mother, Mariquita (aka Mara Purcell), was of Brazilian-French heritage. From the time she was a year old to the age of seven, the family lived in Brazil. The young Francesca spoke Portuguese, that country's language, as a child. Educated at a convent school, she dreamed of becoming a nun but trained as a ballet dancer before studying drama at the Corona Theatre School. She began acting in bit parts in the 1950s, working her way up to better roles. In addition to appearing on the big and little screens, she was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Her most famous roles are as Lady Macbeth in Roman Polanski's version of Macbeth (1971), in which she had a notorious nude sleepwalking scene, and as Kyle MacLachlan (Paul Atreides)' mother Lady Jessica in David Lynch's adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune (1984). A highly respected performer, in 1979, she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress, playing Lily Langtry in the miniseries Lillie (1978). She appeared with James Warwick as husband and wife sleuths Tommy and Tuppence Beresford in the television series Partners in Crime (1983). She also appeared as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the television movie Onassis: The Richest Man in the World (1988).
- IMDb mini biography by: Jon C. Hopwood

Former long-term companion was British actor Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient (1996)). They meet while performing the play "Hamlet" in 1994. She portrayed Gertrude, he played Hamlet. The couple broke up in February 2006.
She played Ophelia to Nicol Williamson's famous Hamlet (1969), directed by Tony Richardson, in both London at the Roundhouse and on Broadway. Richardson cast Marianne Faithfull in the film version made that same year. When Roman Polanski was casting Macbeth (1971) a year later, he vetoed co-screenwriter Kenneth Tynan's suggestion of Williamson for the title role and nixed Faithfull for the role of Lady Macbeth that went to Annis due to her heroin addiction. A generation later, Annis played the role of Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, to her then-lover Ralph Fiennes 1995 Hamlet in London and Broadway.
She played the English stage actress Lily Langtry in both Edward the King (1975) and Lillie (1978).
She played Lily Langtry between the ages of 15 (in 1868) and 75 (in 1929) in Lillie (1978).
Has three children (daughters: Charlotte Wiseman (born 1979) and Taran Wiseman (born 1980), son: Andreas Wiseman - a.k.a. Rainbow) from a long relationship, with Patrick Wiseman, that began in 1976.

From 1 till 7, when we moved to England, I spoke only Portuguese. But I can't speak a word of it now.
Everything has changed. An interview has become such a confrontational thing. It makes you very defensive.
Eat well and sleep well. That will feed your nervous system and your psyche. As you get older, you look how you feel.
As you grow older, your whole life becomes very rich, multifaceted.
Each decade, I've lived in that decade, so I could easily shed the 20s, the 30s, the 40s.

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