Anna Massey

Massey died from cancer

Actress Anna Massey, best known for her supporting roles as a lonely spinster, has died at the age of 73 from cancer,It published by British media reported on Tuesday.

Massey made her professional debut on stage at the age of 17 and enjoyed a career in film and television spanning five decades, including roles in Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy" and an adaptation of "The Importance of Being Ernest."

BIOGRAPHY OF ANNA MASSEY :
Short details -
Massey was born in Thakeham,West Sussex, England, the daughter of British actress Adrianne Allen and Canadian-born Hollywood actor Raymond Massey. Her brother Daniel Massey, was also an actor. She was the niece of Vincent Massey, a Governor General of Canada.

HER CAREER:

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, she then appeared in Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake is missing (1965) opposite Laurence Oliver and later played the role of the cockney barmaid Babs in Alfred Hitchcoock's Frenzy (1972). She appeared with her brother Daniel playing deadly siblings in the 1973 horror film The Vault of Horror.

Massey continued to make occasional film and stage appearances, but has worked more frequently in television, in dramas such as The Pallisers (1974), the 1978 adaptation of Rebecca (in which she starred along with her ex-husband, Jeremy,The mayor of Casterbridge (1978),The Cherry Orchard (1980), and Anna Karenin (1985). She had roles in the British comedy series 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,Lews, and Agatha Christie's Poirot. She was the narrator of This Sceptred Isle on BBC Radio 4 and several other novels. She also played the part of Josephine Daunt in Haunt and Dervish on BBC radio.

In 1986, Massey was awarded the British Academy TV Award for Best Actress for her role in Hotel du lac. She also appeared as Mrs. D'Urberville in the 2008 BBC adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, an older version of May and as Rosie in An Angel For May, and in the 2004 BBC version of Our Mutual Friend.

HER PERSONAL LIFE :

In the New Year's Honours List published 31 December 2004 she was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Drama

She published an autobiography in 2006, Telling Some Tales revealing a difficult early life and her failed marriage to actor Jeremy Brett (who struggled with bipolar disorder), their son, writer David Raymond William Huggins (b. 1959), her successful second marriage to Russian scientist Uri Andres, and of being a grandmother. Massey was quoted as saying, "Theatre eats up too much of your family life. I have a grandson and a husband and I'd rather I was able to be a granny and a wife."

HER FILMOGRAPHY:

• Peeping Tom (1960) as Helen
• Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
• Frenzy (1972)
• The Vault of Horror (1973)
• Hotel du Lac (1986)
• Foreign Body (1986)
  
• Déjà Vu (1997)
• The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) as Miss Prism
• The Machinist (2004)
• He Knew He Was Right TV (2004) TV movie
• Belonging (2004)
• Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (2005)
• The Gigolos (2006)
• Fairy Stories By The Brothers Grimm (audiobook) (2007)
• Tess of the D'Urbervilles (2008) as Mrs D'Urberville
• The Oxford Murders (2008)

"She will be remembered as a loving wife and mother, a cherished grandmother, a generous colleague and, always, a consummate professional," her agent said in a statement.

We pray for her.