Francesca Annis
Birthday: Born in 1945-05-14 in Kensington, London, England, UK
Deathday: Alive
Francesca Annis (born 14 May 1945) is an English actress. She is known for television roles in Reckless (1998), Wives and Daughters (1999), Deceit (2000) and Cranford (2007). A six-time BAFTA TV Award nominee, she won the 1979 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the ITV serial Lillie. Her film appearances include Krull (1983), Dune (1984), The Debt Collector (1999) and The Libertine (2004). Description above from the Wikipedia article Francesca Annis, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
TV Credits
Wives and Daughters
Character: Hyacinth Gibson
Wives and Daughters is a 1999 four part BBC serial adapted from the novel Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story by Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell. It focuses on Molly Gibson (Justine Waddell), the daughter of the town doctor, and the changes that occur in her life after her widowed father chooses to remarry. The union brings into her once-quiet life an ever-proper stepmother (Francesca Annis) and flirtatious stepsister, Cynthia (Keeley Hawes), while a friendship with the local squire brings...
Lillie
Character: Lillie
The Rise and Fall of a Professional Beauty. It was the affair that shook Victorian society to its core. He was the Prince of Wales, the future monarch; she was a professional beauty, who became a royal bedmate. Follow the fascinating life of the Dean of Jersey's daughter from her modest childhood to her emergence as one of the most celebrated beauties of her time. Lillie's liaison with the heir to the throne marked only the beginning of a remarkable, scandalous and daring series of adventures in...
Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime
Character: Tuppence Cowley
Spirited dialogue, posh Roaring '20s style, and devious mysteries abound as Tommy and Tuppence Beresford mix marriage and mystery solving....
Cranford
Character: Lady Ludlow
A rich and comic drama about the people of Cranford, a small Cheshire town on the cusp of change in the 1840s. Adapted from the novels by Elizabeth Gaskell....
Reckless
Character: Anna Fairley
Owen is a Junior Doctor who falls for Anna - a sophisticated and glamorous older woman. Little does he know that she is married to his boss, consultant Richard Crane....
I'll Take Manhattan
Character: Lily Amberville
I'll Take Manhattan is a 1987 American television miniseries, adapted from Judith Krantz's novel of the same name. Screened by CBS, it tells the story of the wealthy Amberville family, who run their own publishing company in New York. After Zachary Amberville, the patriarch of the family, dies, the company is taken over by his unscrupulous brother Cutter. Zachary's children, especially his energetic and intelligent daughter Maxi, begin a battle to regain control of the father's company. I'll Ta...
Madame Bovary
Character: Emma Bovary
Francesca Annis and Tom Conti star in this acclaimed UK miniseries adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's classic tale of one woman's attempts to mold her own unfulfilling life in the shape of her favorite romantic novels. ...
Sir Francis Drake
Character: Mariella
Sir Francis Drake was a British adventure television series starring Terence Morgan as Sir Francis Drake, commander of the sailing ship the Golden Hind. As well as battles at sea, sword fights, the series also deals with intrigue at Elizabeth's court, often caused by Spaniard, Mendoza....
Home Fires
Character: Joyce Cameron
The story of a group of inspirational women in a rural Cheshire community with the shadow of World War II casting a dark cloud over their lives. As the conflict takes hold and separates the women from their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers, the characters find themselves under increasing and extraordinary pressures in a rapidly fragmenting world. By banding together as the Great Paxford Women’s Institute, they help maintain the nation’s fabric in its darkest hour, and discover inner resource...
Tales from the Crypt
Character: Sharon Bannister
Cadaverous scream legend the Crypt Keeper is your macabre host for these forays of fright and fun based on the classic E.C. Comics tales from back in the day. So shamble up to the bar and pick your poison. Will it be an insane Santa on a personal slay ride? Honeymooners out to fulfill the "til death do we part" vow ASAP?...
Jericho
Character: Lady Clare Wellesley
Jericho is an ITV British crime drama series which was transmitted in 2005. It was created and written by Stewart Harcourt and starred Robert Lindsay as Detective Inspector Michael Jericho, who is loved by the public but who is embarrassed by his status as a hero. The series was set in London in 1958....
Jane Eyre
Character: Lady Ingram
Charlotte Bronte's classic about an orphan girl who grows up to become a governess in a gloomy manor in Yorkshire, where she falls in love with the mysterious Edward Rochester....
The Human Jungle
Character: Mary
The Human Jungle is a British TV series about a psychiatrist, made for ABC Television by the small production company Independent Artists for transmission on ITV. Starring Herbert Lom, it ran for two series which were first transmitted during 1963 and 1965....
Between the Lines
Character: Angela Berridge
Detective Superintendent Tony Clark is an ambitious member of the Complaints Investigation Bureau, an internal organisation that investigates claims of corruption inside the police in England and Wales. Along the way Clark overcomes strong influence from his superiors and problems in his private life, most notably the break-up of his marriage following an affair with WPC Jenny Dean....
The Gravy Train Goes East
Character: Katya Princip
A fictitious Balkan state adaps to life after Communism....
Agatha Christie's Marple
Character: Lady Selina Hazy
The adventures of Miss Jane Marple, an elderly spinster living in the quiet little village of St Mary Mead. During her many visits to friends and relatives in other villages, Miss Marple often stumbles upon mysterious murders which she helps solve. Although the police are sometimes reluctant to accept Miss Marple's help, her reputation and unparalleled powers of observation eventually win them over....
Danger Man
Character: Judy
Danger Man is a British television series which was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the programme and wrote many of the scripts. Danger Man was financed by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment....
The Saint
Character: Maria
Simon Templar is The Saint, a handsome, sophisticated, debonair, modern-day Robin Hood who recovers ill-gotten wealth and redistributes it to those in need....
Great Expectations
Character: Estella
A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor....
The Young Jacobites
Character: Jean
Two children on holiday on The Isle of Skye, Scotland, go back in time and help Bonnie Prince Charlie escape from Scotland to France....
Performance
Character: Elizabeth Collier
An anthology series of various plays and dramatic performances....
Bancroft
Character: Carol Bancroft
A dark and compelling thriller centering on Detective Superintendent Elizabeth Bancroft, a female detective with an explosive secret....
Flesh and Blood
Character: Vivien
Three adult siblings find their family thrown into disarray when their recently widowed mother, Vivien, declares she is in love with a new man. The tension his presence creates threatens to drag the whole family towards tragedy, and perhaps crime....
Armchair Theatre
Character: Amy Racey
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968....
Movie Credits
Dune
Character: Lady Jessica
In the year 10,191, the most precious substance in the universe is the spice Melange. The spice extends life. The spice expands consciousness. The spice is vital to space travel. The spice exists on only one planet in the entire universe, the vast desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. Its native inhabitants, the Fremen, have long held a prophecy that a man would come, a messiah who would lead them to true freedom....
Krull
Character: Widow of the Web
A prince and a fellowship of companions set out to rescue his bride from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet....
Doomsday Gun
Character: Sophie
Dr Gerald Bull was a genius at designing and building superguns (very large long range guns capable of shooting at ranges more than 100 miles). When an operational plan by the CIA to export sanctioned arms to apartheid-South Africa through him was exposed, the CIA denied all knowledge and he went to jail. He was later released, and moved to Belgium to start a subsidiary, of which a major project was to help Saddam Hussein build a new supergun capable of firing over 500 miles....
Revolver
Character: Lily Walker
Hotshot gambler Jake Green is long on bravado and seriously short of common sense. Rarely is he allowed in any casino because he's a bona fide winner and, in fact, has taken so much money over the years that he's the sole client of his accountant elder brother, Billy. Invited to a private game, Jake is in fear of losing his life....
Shifty
Character: Valerie
Shifty, a young crack cocaine dealer in London, sees his life quickly spiral out of control when his best friend returns home. Stalked by a customer desperate to score at all costs, and with his family about to turn their back on him for good, Shifty must out-run and out-smart a rival drug dealer, intent on setting him up for a big fall....
Macbeth
Character: Lady Macbeth
Scotland, 11th century. Driven by the twisted prophecy of three witches and the ruthless ambition of his wife, warlord Macbeth, bold and brave, but also weak and hesitant, betrays his good king and his brothers in arms and sinks into the bloody mud of a path with no return, sown with crime and suspicion....
The Libertine
Character: Countess
The story of John Wilmot, a.k.a. the Earl of Rochester, a 17th century poet who famously drank and debauched his way to an early grave, only to earn posthumous critical acclaim for his life's work....
Cleopatra
Character: Eiras
Determined to hold on to the throne, Cleopatra seduces the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. When Caesar is murdered, she redirects her attentions to his general, Marc Antony, who vows to take power—but Caesar’s successor has other plans....
Under the Cherry Moon
Character: Mrs. Wellington
Two friends from Miami are in the French Riviera enjoying life by scamming money off of rich women. One day, they read about a young woman set to inherit $50 million from her father. At first, Tricky has Christopher Tracy talked into romancing her for her money, but in getting to know her, Christopher falls in love with her. This love comes between the brothers, and Tricky tells about the plan....
Saturday Night Out
Character: Jean
Five seamen and a passenger are intent on making the most of the 14 hours they will spend in London....
The Debt Collector
Character: Val Dryden
Mean, gritty, dirty and low, and that's just the policeman Gary Keltie, out for retribution for the horrendous crimes against the helpless people of Edinburgh during the 1970s, by notorious, torturous, and killer, debt collector Nickie Dryden....
The Pleasure Girls
Character: Sally
When Sally moves to London to pursue a modelling career, she moves in with Angela and Dee and discovers the world of the carefree bachelor girl in Swinging London. Over one weekend - filled with parties, blossoming friendships, and romantic encounters with Keith and Nikko (Klaus Kinski) - the vivacious girls learn about life's pleasures and pains....
Copenhagen
Character: Margrethe Bohr
No one knows for sure what transpired when German physicist Werner Heisenberg met with his Jewish Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr, in Copenhagen -- the event became the stuff of modern scientific mythology. Director Howard Davies puts his spin on the momentous meeting that occurred one night in September 1941, during which the longtime friends entered into a dangerous discussion about physics and politics....
The Young Jacobites
Character: Jean
The story of Highland children who help Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape to France after the battle of Culloden. Serial in 8 episodes: 1. Journey into the past (15mins; 1367 feet) 2. The traitor (16mins; 1423 feet) 3. The league in action (14mins; 1290 feet) 4. The ambush (15mins; 1385 feet) 5. The prince must be warned (14mins; 1292 feet) 6. The rescue (17mins; 1542 feet) 7. The enemy closes in (15mins; 1322 feet) 8. Over the threshold (20 mins; 1782 feet)...
Carry On Teacher
Character: Schoolgirl (uncredited)
When a well-loved headmaster decides to retire, his scheming pupils have other ideas. The cunning boys unleash a campaign of practical jokes, armed with gin, itching power, and bombs!...
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
Character: Lady Frances Derwent
This intriguing story is set in the 1930s at a country house, where two amateur sleuths, Bobby Jones and Lady Frankie Derwent, try to unravel the mystery behind a tale of murder, suspense and false identities. And the only clues the two have to go on are the puzzling last words of a dying man. Featuring characters created by Agatha Christie, Why Didn't They Ask Evans is a classic crime thriller sure to please murder-mystery fans....
Loving Miss Hatto
Character: Joyce Hatto
Drama inspired by the true story of classical pianist Joyce Hatto. Victoria Wood's new strange-but-true drama about musical deception and enduring love...
Crooks in Cloisters
Character: June
Having pulled off the smallest ever train robbery, Little Walter and his crew decide to get out of London. The six of them set up business in a disused monastery off the Cornish coast, despite the fact that none of them really qualifies as a monk - least of all Walter's moll Bikini. Bit by bit, the quiet way of life starts becoming a habit....
Coming Out of the Ice
Character: Galina
A biographical film about Victor Herman, based on the memoir of the same name....
Absolute Hell
Character: Elizabeth Collier
Black comedy set in Soho, London, right after World War II. Half of the fun is seeing a slew of very familiar faces kick up their heels as gay men, lesbians, party-girls, drunks, and drag queens. Originally aired as part of the anthology series "Performance."...
Weep No More, My Lady
Character: Leila
When demanding actress Leila is found drowned there are numerous suspects but the main suspect is her husband Ted. Adapted from the novel by Mary Higgins Clark....
The Eyes of Annie Jones
Character: Annie Jones
Murder unfolds around a young girl who sleepwalks and talks while she does so....
The Secret Adversary
Character: Tuppence
After a chance meeting and an indiscreet conversation, childhood friends Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley become involved in a convoluted intrigue led by a mysterious man known simply as Mr. Brown....
The Cat Gang
Character: Sylvia
The Cat Gang is a group of precocious British kids. They have a habit of hanging around a grown-up customs official who wishes that they'd beat it. But the Gang comes in handy when a smuggling gang arrives on the scene....
Hamlet
Character: Ghost
A tale of revenge that has stood the test of time, Shakespeare’s classic tragedy is reimagined for the modern day as a gripping psychological thriller! Transcending the confines of the stage, the film utilises nearly every room of the Theatre Royal Windsor to transform it into the immortal Elsinore Castle, from basement dungeon to roof-top battlement....
His and Hers
Character: Wanda
Author-explorer Reggie Blake takes an unorthodox approach to his craft, apparently finding inspiration in the adventures suggested by his agent Charles Lunton; it matters little that most of his experiences are wildly embellished or even entirely fictitious......
Flipper's New Adventure
Character: Gwen
While widowed Porter Ricks is away at school learning to be a park ranger, his teen-aged son, Sandy, under adult supervision from a neighbor, remains at the family home in the Florida Keys with his pet dolphin, Flipper. While Po (as Porter is called by most) is away, Sandy learns that the family home, built on state land, is being torn down to make way for a highway. In turn, Sandy would be sent to live with relatives, while Flipper would be sent to the seaquarium permanently. Not wanting to be ...
Onassis: The Richest Man in the World
Character: Jacqueline Kennedy
Biography of the life of Aristotle Onassis, a Greek who rose to become one of the world's most wealthiest men, detailing his rise to power and unhappy marriages....
The Maze
Character: Catherine Frode
A couple move to a country estate that turns out to be haunted....
Stronger Than the Sun
Character: Kate Crowley
Kate works in the nuclear industry. She is concerned about the way things are being run. So she smuggles out some Plutonium to prove how easy it is. She tries to pass it on to protest groups, but nobody is interested as they have their own agendas....
Penny Gold
Character: Delphi / Diane
While investigating a murder case, a detective stumbles upon a rare-stamp swindle involving the victim's twin sister....
Toil And Trouble: Making 'Macbeth'
Character: Self
A new documentary on the Criterion Collection edition of Roman Polanski's 1971 adaptation of Macbeth featuring interviews with the director, producer Andrew Braunsberg, assistant executive producer Victor Lownes, and actors Francesca Annis and Martin Shaw....
Polanski Meets Macbeth
Character: Self
A 1971 documentary by Frank Simon featuring rare footage of the film’s cast and crew at work....
Big Truck and Sister Clare
Character: Sister Clare
A middle-aged truck driver travelling through the desert with his good-for-nothing nephew and a pretty nun, gets stuck and are forced to wait to be rescued....
The Sky Pirate
Character: Uptight Girl
Low-budget film illustrates the various factors which have lead a man to hijack a plane to Cuba....
Milk
Character: Harriet
Forty-five-year-old Adrian has been living with his mother Lucy and running their Wiltshire dairy farm all his adult life. When Lucy unexpectedly dies of a heart attack, a rogue's gallery of family members show up at the farm to argue over the execution of Ruth's will. The one object that everyone seems to want, and several people try to steal, is Ruth's valuable Modigliani painting. In the midst of all this confusion over Ruth's death, a mysterious visitor named Ilaria inserts herself onto the ...
El río de oro
Character: Dubarry
During a long summer, the tranquility of a couple and their three children resting in a country house is altered with the arrival of the children's uncle, a character who exerts a curious influence on the boys and a morbid and strange attraction the wife. Twelve years after 'Los viajes escolares' (1973), his first commercial feature film, the Madrid director Jaime Chávarri returns to the same estate in the province of Segovia to shoot a new family story, about his own plot and script. Like its p...
The Walking Stick
Character: Arabella Dainton
A young woman's highly ordered and structured life is turned upside-down when she meets a handsome stranger at a party. Friendship soon develops into romance and for the first time in her life she is truly happy. This happiness is short lived, however, as little by little she discovers her partner has been lying to her about his past. It is soon revealed that he and his friends have been planning to rob the auction house that she works for and they require her inside knowledge in order to pull o...
King of Thieves
Character: Lyn Reader
London, England, April 2015. Brian Reader, a retired thief, gathers an unlikely gang of burglars to perpetrate the biggest and boldest heist in British history. The thieves assault the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company and escape with millions in goods and money. But soon the cracks between the gang members begin to appear when they discuss how to share the loot....
Romeo.Juliet
Character: Juliet (voice)
The tale centers on an eccentric bag lady who rescues the stray cats of Venice and puts them on a boat to set sail for the new world. It has not been re-released for the home video market. This lack of availability, which has been described as making it "more rare than the dinosaur" has made it a sought-after item in some circles....
Murder Most Foul
Character: Sheila Upward
A murderer is brought to court and only Miss Marple is unconvinced of his innocence. Once again she begins her own investigation....
West 11
Character: Phyl
Joe Beckett, seasoned citizen of the bedsitter belt, aged about 22, is the renegade son of modest, respectable parents and, to use his own description, 'an emotional leper'. He decides that he needs a violent shock to shake him back into life, and as a result accepts a commission to carry out the murder of a total stranger for a man he meets in a coffee bar......
A Haunting Harmony
Character: David's Mother
A young member of a choir becomes friends with a ghost in a school of English cathedral....
No Kidding
Character: Priscilla
A young couple, David and Catherine Robinson, has to turn their large country house into a money-making proposition. Their solution is to invite the kids of the rich and famous to spend a summer enjoying all the loving care and attention they miss at home. After the youngsters arrive, David quickly realizes what the offensive little punks need is some real discipline, and so the summer begins....
The London Studios: Home of the Stars
Character: Self
The end of an era as the studios where ITV filmed its many shows for 45 years closes its doors for the last time....
The Comedy of Errors
Character: Luciana
The Royal Shakespeare Company act (and sing and dance!) Shakespeare's play about two sets of identical twins, separated at birth and brought together by circumstance....
Onegin
Character: Katiusha (uncredited)
In the opulent St. Petersburg of the Empire period, Eugene Onegin is a jaded but dashing aristocrat – a man often lacking in empathy, who suffers from restlessness, melancholy and, finally, regret. Through his best friend Lensky, Onegin is introduced to the young Tatiana. A passionate and virtuous girl, she soon falls hopelessly under the spell of the aloof newcomer and professes her love for him...
The Wood Demon
Character: Helen
A luncheon party gathers to celebrate a wealthy unmarried man's birthday; his sister hopes he'll marry Sonya, the daughter of a selfish gout-ridden old professor who makes life Hell for his son George and his young wife, Helen. At the luncheon is Khrushchov, a passionate environmentalist, called "the Wood Demon" by all, in love with Sonya and she with him, but neither will say it. Two weeks later there's a family meeting at the professor's estate; two weeks after that, a supper at the cabin of D...
Sign it Death
Character: Tracy Conway
A young woman schemes to marry a wealthy businessman by becoming his secretary....