Annis played Jacqueline Kennedy in Onassis: The Richest Man in the World in 1988. She appeared as Tuppence with James Warwick as Tommy in The Secret Adversary (1983) and the subsequent series, Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime (1983–84). Īnnis played the 'Widow of the Web' in the 1983 science fantasy film Krull, and starred as Lady Jessica in the 1984 David Lynch science fiction film Dune. and the wardrobe mistress rushes to cover Francesca with a dressing gown the instant Roman says, 'Cut''. though of course the set is closed, great curtains are drawn around the acting area. 'Francesca does it very sportingly and with no fuss. The critic Kenneth Tynan was present when the scene was shot:

She garnered attention for her performance as Lady Macbeth in Roman Polanski's film version of Macbeth (1971) in which she performs the sleepwalking soliloquy nude. She played Estella in a television adaptation of Great Expectations (1967) and presented children's television programmes. Her big break was as one of the leads in the 1965 West End stage musical Passion Flower Hotel. Her first major film role was as Elizabeth Taylor's handmaiden in Cleopatra (1963), in which she was cast at the age of 16 while still studying Russian ballet. Career Īnnis began acting professionally in her teens, and made her film debut in The Cat Gang (1959). Īnnis was educated at a convent school, and trained in her early years as a ballet dancer, with training in the Russian style at the Corona Stage Academy. In recollecting the years in Brazil, she described her parents as running 'a nightclub on Copacabana beach', and her mother Mara 'performing as a blues singer'. The Annises moved to Brazil when Francesca was one year old, and spent six years there, returning to England when she was seven. Mara was from a wealthy Brazilian family.

Both were sometime actors and Mara a sometime singer. Her film appearances include Krull (1983), Dune (1984), The Debt Collector (1999), and The Libertine (2004).Īnnis was born in Kensington, London in 1945, to an English father, Lester William Anthony Annis (1914–2001) and a Brazilian-French mother, Mariquita (Mara) Purcell (1913–2009). A six-time BAFTA TV Award nominee, she won the 1979 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the ITV serial Lillie. She is known for television roles in Reckless (1998), Wives and Daughters (1999), Deceit (2000), and Cranford (2007).

Francesca Annis (born ) is an English actress.

Francesca annis partners in crime