Anna Massey

[didi-5]

I don't see a thread for this talented actress, so let's start one. Always more of a character player than a lead, Anna Massey (daughter of actors Raymond Massey and Adrienne Allen, sister to Daniel Massey, former wife of Jeremy Brett), first made an impact on the screen in Michael Powell's controversial film 'Peeping Tom' but has appeared in many diverse dramas both on screen and stage in the intervening years.



My favourite performances of hers are in Hitchcock's 'Frenzy'; in the BBC adaptation of 'Rebecca' as Mrs Danvers, opposite Jeremy Brett and Joanna David; in the portmanteau chiller 'Vault of Horror'; as Aunt Norris in 'Mansfield Park'; and in the Beckett on Film version of 'Come and Go', also featuring Sian Phillips.



Never traditionally glamourous, Anna Massey has nevertheless been a memorable presence in any of her work because of her gift for both vulnerability and menace. See her on TV next in the opening play of the BBC's 'Moving On' series, this Monday at 2.15pm on BBC1.

[John Hamilton]

I don't see a thread for this talented actress, so let's start one. Always more of a character player than a lead, Anna Massey (daughter of actors Raymond Massey and Adrienne Allen, sister to Daniel Massey, former wife of Jeremy Brett), first made an impact on the screen in Michael Powell's controversial film 'Peeping Tom' but has appeared in many diverse dramas both on screen and stage in the intervening years.



My favourite performances of hers are in Hitchcock's 'Frenzy'; in the BBC adaptation of 'Rebecca' as Mrs Danvers, opposite Jeremy Brett and Joanna David; in the portmanteau chiller 'Vault of Horror'; as Aunt Norris in 'Mansfield Park'; and in the Beckett on Film version of 'Come and Go', also featuring Sian Phillips.



Never traditionally glamourous, Anna Massey has nevertheless been a memorable presence in any of her work because of her gift for both vulnerability and menace. See her on TV next in the opening play of the BBC's 'Moving On' series, this Monday at 2.15pm on BBC1.

Terrific actress, I thought she was a revelation in Peeping Tom, her film debut(ish) where she played totally against her usual repressed/plain type. I was really sorry when she dropped out of the West End production of Death Trap recently, I would love to see her on stage

[RogerThornhill]

An excellent actress and beautiful too. Here are a couple of shots from Peeping Tom.

[Zlatna]

And as she is in her episode of "Moving On" that will air this week



http://lifeofwylie.com/2010/10/26/mo...for-our-today/

[Windyridge]

She scared the bejesus out of me when young, particularly in her portrayals of Wicked Victorian Women. Still can't quite shake that feeling every time I see her. :

[Zlatna]

Yes, can be very scary. She's in a TV version of "Rebecca" with Jeremy Brett and Joanna David, as Mrs. Danvers, where she is just sinister, scary and creepy. For me, the best portrayal of that role I've seen

[jaycad]

anna massey pops up with her shotgun chin in many programmes that i watch-she's a great actress!

[John Hamilton]

An excellent actress and beautiful too. Here are a couple of shots from Peeping Tom.

Great shots- I found her strangely attractive in that film, I love her vitality and her great hair. Its a shame that she was nearly always struck with the represse and stern unappealing roles

[didi-5]

Her autobiography Telling Some Tales is well worth a read - an interesting life full of incident by all accounts.

[chuffnobbler]

She's outstanding in Frenzy: maybe my favourite Hitchcock film.



Last month, Mrs Chuff and I were in London. We were hoping to get to catch Ms Massey in Deathtrap, but she is sadly absent from the cast. We got to trot round some Frenzy locations, and enjoyed a pint in the pub where Ms Massey's character works. (The pub is all but unrecognisable, sadly).



When Alan Bennett's Talking Heads were released on CD, the Maggie Smith one (Bed Among The Lentils) replaces Dame Maggie with Anna Massey. A totally different reading of the piece, and actually rather better in my opinion.

[waldo_lydecker]

I wouldn't call her 'beautiful'. But she's a very interesting actress, and she's been in some great films.

[John Hamilton]

I wouldn't call her 'beautiful'. But she's a very interesting actress, and she's been in some great films.

not beautiful but striking. I haven't seen any of her earlier stuff apart from Peeping Tom but Powell certainly brought out her attractiveness

[didi-5]

Sad to hear today that Anna has died at the age of 73. A great actress and a fine and compassionate lady. RIP. Her husband and her son David are in my thoughts.

[Sleepin_Dragon]

So very very sad to hear this news, awesome actress. Superb actress, i loved her in Midsomer (Best performance in the series IMO) as well as Morse, Lewis and Mansfield Park. Sad news :-(

[Santonix]

Such sad news, an actress of great intelligence. R.I.P.

[icetorch]

Some years ago I saw her in a BBC interview, speaking about her looks. She said that on the inside she always felt like a very beautiful woman, and that she thought her voice was that of a beautiful woman, but when she looked in the mirror, she was always disappointed by the very plain face she saw, which seemed not at all in keeping with her voice or her mental image of herself. She said that people told her she had a "very striking" face, or that it was "interesting", or that she "had something", but she could never accept this and felt that the truth was that she was very plain. I was struck by the openness with which she spoke about this, very matter-of-factly, without self-pity. All the same I found it somehow very poignant. I was also fascinated by this at the same time, as I had never heard anyone speak so eloquently and in such depth on a subject that I had never heard anyone really talk about before, and so self-judgementally: the gap between the physical person they are and the one they'd like to be.

I always enjoyed watching her in film or TV, and found her to be a highly competent, understated actress. She was always Anna Massey but also always someone else, someone different each time, not in a showy actressy way and not with the sort of transcending genius that Vanessa Redgrave possesses, but very, very solid and substantial.