Anna Massey, British Stage and Screen Favorite, BAFTA Winner and Tony Nominee, Dies at 73

Anna Massey, a Tony nominated British actress known for her work on the small screen, passed away on July 2 in London, after a battle with cancer. She was 73.

Massey was born in West Sussex, England, in 1937, the daughter of British actress Adrianne Allen and Hollywood film and TV actor Raymond Massey. She made her West End debut at the age of 17 as Jane in The Reluctant Debutante, a role for which she earned a Tony nomination during the show’s Broadway production in 1956.

Massey made her film debut in 1958 police procedural Gideon’s Day, directed by her godfather John Ford. Her notable film credits include Michael Powell's cult thriller Peeping Tom, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake is Missing opposite Laurence Olivier and for playing cockney barmaid Babs in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy.

Massey was best to British audiences for her work in popular TV mysteries like Inspector Morse, The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Midsomer Murders, Lewis and Agatha Christie's Poirot, as well as TV adaptations of literary classics like Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Anna Karenina, The Cherry Orchard and Oliver Twist. She won a BAFTA Award for her work in the BBC's 1986 version of Hotel du Lac based on the novel by Anita Brookner, and played Miss Prism in the 2002 feature film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest opposite Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Judi Dench.

Massey is survived by her second husband, Uri Andres, a son from her first marriage to actor Jeremy Brett and a grandson.