 Slight of figure, with a small face dominated by enormous eyes that were
employed to great effect on screen, Anna Massey "cornered the market in the
prim, the spinsterly and the repressed", according to one interviewer, Elizabeth
Grice. Her BAFTA-winning role as cardigan-clad romantic novelist Edith Hope,
fleeing from a muddled love life to the Hotel du Lac (BBC, tx. 2/3/1986) is, for
many, her defining image.
But this is to forget the many times she deviated from the nervous, uncertain
and downtrodden to surprise and electrify her audiences, notably as Mrs Danvers
in Rebecca (BBC, 1979), who, she said, she played "like a lesbian in a French
film, in a slinky black silk dress"; as bossy aunt Norris in Mansfield Park
(BBC, 1983); as austere Miss Murdstone in David Copperfield (NBC (US), tx.
15/3/1970); or as monstrous Aunt Jemima Stanbury in He Knew He Was Right (BBC,
2006).
Massey seemed to have it all, with her privileged showbusiness background,
but all was not as it seemed. She was born on 11 August 1937 to extrovert,
party-giving actress Adrianne Allen and Canadian actor Raymond Massey, who left
the family home the following year to marry someone else. Allen then married
that woman's former husband. Anna's brother was the troubled actor Daniel
Massey, from whom she was estranged for many years. In her autobiography Telling
Some Tales, published in 2006, she described the loneliness of her life in this
dysfunctional family and how she relied for 30 years on the emotional and
practical support of her childhood nanny. Upon the nanny's death in 1968, Massey
had a nervous breakdown and her chestnut red hair turned white overnight. A
short early marriage to actor Jeremy Brett brought a child but no lasting
happiness.
She began her career in a starring role in the West End theatre, aged 17,
with no formal training. Her first film role was in Gideon's Day (1958), directed by
her godfather, John Ford. When she was not being spinsterly in cardigans,
she was falling foul of serial killers, notably in Peeping Tom (d. Michael
Powell, 1960) and Frenzy (d. Alfred Hitchcock, 1972). Throughout her career she
played in many British and Hollywood films, in most genres including horror,
often cast as an eccentric, and continued to make many memorable appearances on
stage.
Perhaps her television work was the most rewarding, giving her a chance to
show what critic Michael Billington has called "a hint of inner steel" behind
her delicate looks. Her best roles included Lucetta in The Mayor of Casterbridge
(BBC, 1978), Laura Kennedy in The Pallisers (BBC, 1974) and the artist in
Journey into the Shadows - Portrait of Gwen John (BBC, 1984), in which, aged 47,
she appeared nude. In more recent years she focused on radio work, lending her
cut-class diction to dramas and documentaries. A subtle and intelligent
performer, she was always able to find the strength as well as the vulnerability
of her characters, and she was awarded the CBE in 2005.
Janet Moat
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FILM & TV CREDITS
