Voting Station

Francesca Annis

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Actress

The Resume

    (May 14, 1945- )
    Born in Kensington, London, United Kingdom
    Member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
    Appeared in RSC/National Theatre productions of 'Hamlet' (1969), 'Comedy of Errors' (1976), 'Romeo and Juliet' (1977), 'A Month in the Country' (1981), 'Epitaph for George Dillon' (2005), and 'Time and the Conaways' (2009)
    Acted in films 'The Walking Stick,' 'Penny Gold,' 'Krull,' 'Dune,' 'Under The Cherry Moon,' 'The Debt Collector,' 'Copenhagen,' 'Revolver,' 'The Libertine,' and 'Shifty'
    Acted in British television serials 'Reckless' (1998), Wives and Daughters' (1999), 'Deceit' (2000), and 'Cranford' (2007)
    Portrayed Lillie Langtry in the 'Edward the Seventeenth' and 'Lillie' serials (1975-1978)
    Perhaps best known for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth in Roman Polanski's film adaptation of 'Macbeth' (1971)

Why she might be annoying:

    She was living with her Macbeth co-star, Jon Finch, at the time of filming.
    She left photographer Patrick Wiseman for Ralph Fiennes, who then cheated on her.
    She portrayed Joanna David's mother in 'Lillie' despite being little over a year apart in age.
    Controversy surrounded the filming of Lady Macbeth's Sleepwalking monologue in the nude, mainly because Hugh Hefner and several of his Playboy colleagues had financed the project. (Polanski insisted the scene had been conceived before they came on board.)
    She lost out on the role of Ophelia to Marianne Faithfull in Nicol Williamson's 1969 film adaptation of Hamlet.
    Faithfull was also sought for the role of Lady Macbeth, but her heroin addiction issues caused Polanski to put his foot down, paving the way for Annis to claim the role.
    She said in an interview about Lillie Langtry, 'I don't know if I would have gone to bed with a man to get what I wanted... But I can think of worse things people have done to succeed.'

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was educated in a convent and originally wanted to be a nun.
    She had a bit part as Elizabeth Taylor's handmaiden in 'Cleopatra' (1963).
    Her father was British, but her mother was of Brazilian-French descent.
    As such, she spent the first seven years of her life in Brazil (and, at one time, was fluent in Portuguese).
    She trained as a ballet dancer and studied drama at the Corona Theatre School.
    She successfully pulled off depicting Lady Macbeth as a misguided flower child over a Satanic shrew (not an easy task).
    She won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress, playing Lily Langtry in the miniseries Lillie (1978).
    She received six other BAFTA nominations for Best TV Actress over the course of her career, between the years 1974 and 2000.
    She convincingly aged over fifty years as Lillie Langtry in the 'Edward' and 'Lillie' series (the writers were inspired by her performance to do a Langtry series).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 25 Votes: 16.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 143 Votes: 46.85% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 94 Votes: 44.68% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 102 Votes: 51.96% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 117 Votes: 52.14% Annoying