Francesca Annis

Early life and education

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, with training in the Russian style at the Corona Stage Academy.

Career

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.

Annis played the "Widow of the Web" in the 1983 science fantasy film Krull, and starred as Lady Jessica in the 1984 David Lynch science fiction film Dune.

She appeared as Tuppence with James Warwick as Tommy Beresford in the pilot film The Secret Adversary (1983) and the subsequent TV series, Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime (1983–84). 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).

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. 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.

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). In 2015 and 2016, Annis played a leading role in the ITV drama Home Fires. More recently, in 2025, she starred as the "formidable matriarch" Ann in The Forsytes, a period drama broadcast in the UK on Channel 5.

Personal life

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

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.'"

Filmography

Selected stage appearances

• 1976 Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors as Luciana, with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
• 1977 Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as Juliet, with the RSC
• 1995 Shakespeare's Hamlet as Gertrude, with the Almeida Theatre at the Hackney EmpireHamlet (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
• 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

Television appearances

Awards and nominations

References

References

1. [https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article3924248.ece Birthdays]{{Dead link. (January 2026)
2. Dwyer, Ciara. "Fine without Fiennes". Independent.
3. Barnett, Laura. "Francesca Annis, actor – portrait of the artist | Film". The Guardian.
4. Maslin, Janet. (29 July 1983). "''Krull'', Adventure with Magic and a Beast". [[The New York Times]].
5. Maslin, Janet. (14 December 1984). "Movie Review: ''Dune'' (1984)". The New York Times.
6. Corliss, Richard. (17 December 1984). "Cinema: The Fantasy Film as Final Exam".
7. {{Screenonline TV title. 1246017. Agatha Christie's The Secret Adversary (1983)
8. Shields, Danielle. (4 September 2013). "The Sleuths in ''Tommy & Tuppence: Partners in Crime'' are Intimately Acquainted".
9. Pitts, Michael R.. (25 May 2004). "Famous Movie Detectives III". Scarecrow Press.
10. .https://www.rsc.org.uk/romeo-and-juliet/past-productions/in-focus-trevor-nunn-1976
11. Matt Wolf. (4 October 2005). "Epitaph for George Dillon".
12. Michael Billington. (5 May 2009). "Theatre review: Time and the Conways / Lyttelton, London | Stage".
13. https://www.imdb.com/fr-ca/title/tt4015216/
14. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/the-forsytes/#
15. Hoggard, Liz. (12 February 2006). "Francesca Annis: Pretty woman – Profiles – People – The Independent". www.independent.co.uk.
16. "Romeo and Juliet in focus - Trevor Nunn production 1976 | Royal Shakespeare Company".
17. "Television - 1974". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
18. "Television - 1976". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
19. "Olivier Winners 1977". [[Society of London Theatre]].
20. "1979 Television Actress".
21. "Television - 1998". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
22. "Television - 1999". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
23. "Television - 2000". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).