Anna Massey, a screen and stage verteran who wroked with such greats as Alfred Hitchcock, Laurence Olivier and Michael Powell has died at the age of 73 following a long battle with cancer.
She was born into a thespian family (both her parents were actors as was her brother) in 1937. She got her first start playing a potential victim in Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom in 1960 and went on to play opposite Laurence Olivier in Otto Preminger’s Bunny Lake is Missing in 1965. She had a prominent role in Hitchcock’s Frenzy in 1972 as the cockney barmaid Babs.
She went on to have many TV roles including an adaptation of Rebecca (1978), The Darling Buds Of May, Inspector Morse and Midsomer Murders and won a BAFTA for Best Actress in 1986 for her performance in Hotel du Lac. She made occasional appearances in film including one as Chrisitian Bale’s landlady in The Machinist (2004).
She was awarded in CBE for services to drama in 2004.
He agent said in a statement, “She will be remembered as a loving wife and mother, a cherished grandmother, a generous colleague and, always, a consummate professional. She will be greatly missed.”
She is survived by her son, grandson and second husband.
