Anna Massey
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| Anna Massey | |
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| Born | Anna Raymond Massey 11 August 1937 Thakeham, West Sussex, England, UK |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Spouse(s) | Jeremy Brett (1958-1962) 1 Child Uri Andres (1990-Present) |
Anna Raymond Massey, CBE (born 11 August 1937) is a British actress.
Massey was born in Thakeham, West Sussex, England, the daughter of British actress Adrianne Allen and Canadian-born Hollywood actor Raymond Massey. Her late brother, Daniel Massey, was also an actor. She is the niece of Vincent Massey, a Governor General of Canada.
Massey was on stage as a teenager and made her film debut in 1958. In 1960, she played a potential murder victim in Michael Powell's cult thriller Peeping Tom. Her film role best-known to international audiences is probably that of the cockney barmaid Babs in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972). Late in the film, her character becomes a murder victim, setting up a memorable sequence in which the killer must retrieve an incriminating diamond stickpin from the corpse, which he has loaded onto a potato truck. Massey later said that the scenes of her character nude or as a corpse in the film were performed by doubles.[1]
Massey continued to make occasional film and stage appearances, but has become better known as a television actress, appearing in classic dramas such as The Pallisers in 1974, the 1978 adaptation of Rebecca (in which she starred along with her ex-husband, Jeremy Brett), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978), The Cherry Orchard (1980), and Anna Karenina (1985). She had roles in the quirky British sitcoms The Darling Buds of May (1991) and The Robinsons (2005). She has also appeared in a number of mysteries and thrillers on British television, including episodes of Inspector Morse, The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Midsomer Murders, Strange, and Lewis. She is the narrator of This Sceptred Isle on BBC Radio.
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. She published an autobiography in 2006.
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[edit] Other roles
- The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) (as Miss Prism)
- The Machinist (2004)
- He Knew He Was Right TV (2004)
- Belonging (2004)
- Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (2005)
- The Gigolos (2006)
- Fairy Stories By The Brothers Grimm (audiobook) (2007)
[edit] Books
- Massey, Anna (2006). Telling Some Tales. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-179645-8.
[edit] References
- ^ Interview with Anna Massey on the DVD release of Frenzy, 2001
