Frances de la Tour

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Frances de la Tour : biography

30 July 1944 –

Frances de la Tour (born 30 July 1944) is an English actress of French descent perhaps best known for her role as Miss Ruth Jones in the British sitcom Rising Damp, Mrs Lintott in The History Boys both on-stage and in the film, and as Madame Olympe Maxime in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1. For her work in the theatre, de la Tour has won a Tony Award and three Olivier Awards.

Early life and family

De la Tour was born in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, to Moyra (née Fessas) and Charles de la Tour. She was educated at London’s Lycée Français and the Drama Centre London

She is the sister of actor and screenwriter Andy de la Tour, and was briefly married to playwright Tom Kempinski. She has a son and a daughter. accessed 23 May 2007

RSC and National companies

On leaving drama school she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1965 where she studied with Michel Saint-Denis. Over the next six years, she played many small roles with the RSC in a variety of plays, gradually building up to larger parts such as Hoyden in The Relapse and culminating in Peter Brook’s acclaimed production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which she played Helena as a comic "tour de force". In the 1970s, she worked steadily both on the stage and on television. Some of her notable appearances were Rosalind in As You Like It at the Playhouse, Oxford in 1975 and Isabella in The White Devil at the Old Vic in 1976. She enjoyed a collaboration with Stepney’s Half Moon Theatre, appearing in the London première of Dario Fo’s We Can’t Pay? We Won’t Pay (1978), Eleanor Marx’s Landscape of Exile (1979), and in the title role of Hamlet (1980).

In 1980, she played Stephanie, the violinist with MS in Duet for One, a play written for her by Kempinski, for which she won the Olivier for Best Actress. She played Sonya in Uncle Vanya opposite Donald Sinden at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in 1982. Her performance as Josie in Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten won her another Olivier for Best Actress in 1983. She joined the Royal National Theatre for the title role in Saint Joan in 1984 and appeared there in Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1986. She again won the Olivier, this time for Best Supporting Actress for Martin Sherman’s play about Isadora Duncan, When She Danced with Vanessa Redgrave at the Globe Theatre in 1991 and played Leo in Les Parents terribles at the Royal National Theatre in 1994, earning another Olivier nomination.

In 1994, de la Tour co-starred with Maggie Smith in Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women at the Wyndham’s and with Alan Howard in Albee’s The Play About the Baby at the Almeida in 1998. In 1999, she returned to the RSC to play Cleopatra opposite Alan Bates in Antony and Cleopatra in which she did a nude walk across the stage. In 2004, she played Mrs Lintott in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys at the National and later on Broadway, winning both a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She would also appear in the film version. In December 2005, she appeared in the London production of the highly acclaimed anti-Iraq war one-woman play "Peace Mom" by Dario Fo, based on the writings of Cindy Sheehan. In 2007 she appeared in a West End revival of the farce Boeing-Boeing. In 2009 she appeared in Alan Bennett’s new play The Habit of Art at the National. In 2012 she returned to the National in her third Bennett premiere, People.

Filmography

Film Role Notes
Our Miss Fred (1972) Miss Lockhart
Rising Damp (TV) (1974–1978) Miss Ruth Jones
Maggie: It’s Me (1977) Maggie
Rising Damp (1980) Miss Ruth Jones Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress
Flickers (1980) Maud Cole
Duet for One (TV) (1985) Stephanie Anderson Nominated – British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
Cold Lazarus (1996) Emma Porlock
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1997) Aunt Western
The Cherry Orchard (1999) Charlotte Ivanova
Agatha Christie’s Poirot (2004) Salome Otterbourne Episode Death on the Nile
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) Madame Olympe Maxime
Sensitive Skin (TV series) (2005) Sarah Thorne
Agatha Christie’s Marple (2006) Mrs. Maud Dane Calthrop Episode The Moving Finger
The History Boys (2006) Dorothy Lintott Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting RoleNominated – British Independent Film Awards
The Book of Eli (2010) Martha The wife of George (Michael Gambon).
Alice in Wonderland (2010) Aunt Imogene
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010) Madame Olympe Maxime
The Nutcracker in 3D (2010) The Rat Queen
Hugo (2011) Madame Emile
Private Peaceful (2012) Grandma Wolf
Vicious (2013) (TV series) Violet Crosby (7 episodes)