Biography
Francesca Annis is an English actress born on 14 May 1945 in Kensington, London. She trained as a ballet dancer and studied drama at the Corona Theatre School before beginning her career in the late 1950s with bit parts in film and television. She has worked extensively in theatre, including with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Annis is known for film roles including Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (1971), the Widow of the Web in Krull (1983), Lady Jessica in Dune (1984), the Countess in The Libertine (2004) and Valerie in Shifty (2008). On television she has appeared as Mrs Hyacinth Gibson in Wives and Daughters (1999), Lady Selina Hazy in Agatha Christie's Marple (2004) and Lady Ludlow in Cranford (2007). She won the 1979 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for Lillie and received five further BAFTA TV Award nominations.
