LONDON – British actor Anna Massey has died aged 73, her agent said.
Massey won a string of awards for her stage and TV roles, including a Bafta for her performance in the 1986 TV adaptation of Hotel du Lac.
Her agent said in a statement: “Actress Anna Massey CBE passed away peacefully on Sunday 3rd July, with her husband and son by her side.”
Massey's film work included roles in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy, Neil LaBute's Possession, with Gwyneth Paltrow, and an adaptation of The Importance Of Being Earnest.
Massey received a CBE for services to drama at Buckingham Palace in 2005.
Divorced from the late actor Jeremy Brett, she met Russian scientist Uri Andres 27 years later at a dinner party and married him within three months.
Massey's TV period dramas included Tess Of The D'Urbervillesin 2008, Oliver Twist in 2007, and the BBC's version of Anthony Trollope's He Knew He Was Right, in 2004. Most recently, she had appeared in episodes of Poirotand Midsomer Murdersin 2009.
In 2006, she played Baroness Thatcher in the TV film Pinochet In Suburbia.
She was born into the business – both her parents were actors, while her godfather was the veteran director John Ford.
Her father, Canadian actor Raymond Massey, walked out when she was one, and remained "the glamorous film star who lived far away". She appeared in numerous plays including The Doctor's Dilemma, School For Scandal, The Glass Menagerieand The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie.
One of her last film roles was as Miss Prism in The Importance Of Being Earnest, with Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Reese Witherspoon, in 2002. – (PA)