Who is Frances De La Tour?
Frances De La Tour is a Leo and a British national. She was born on July 30, 1944, in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, England. She is an actress best remembered for playing Miss Ruth Jones, one of the main characters, in the comedy series “Rising Damp,” which aired from 1974 to 1978. Along with Leonard Rossiter and Don Warrington, it featured a cast of characters that worked for the cruel and treacherous landlord Rigsby. In 1980, Frances earned the Best Actress Evening Standard Film Award for her work.
Adolescence And Education
Frances De La Tour (Pinterest)Frances grew up with her older brother Simon and younger brother Andy De La Tour, who is now best known for his parts in the drama “Plenty,” the romantic comedy “Notting Hill,” and the drama “Oliver Twist.” Andy is an actor and a screenwriter. The three were brought up by their housewife mother Moyra Fessas and their actor father Charles De La Tour, who is most known for his work on the short documentaries “Breathing Space,” “Cotswold Club,” and “Downlands.”
While attending the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle School in London, Frances developed an interest in acting. After graduating in 1962, she enrolled at the University of the Arts London Central Saint Martins Drama Centre, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in drama in 1966.
Theater Acting
A few months after graduating, Frances joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and started acting in plays; two of her first famous roles were in William Shakespeare’s comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the restoration comedy “The Relapse.”
She debuted as Rosalind in Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy “As You Like It” in 1975, which was presented at the Oxford Playhouse, and as Isabella in the tragedy “The White Devil” in 1976.
Later on, she continued to work as an actor in other plays presented at The Half Moon Theatre, including “We Can’t Pay? We Won’t Pay” in 1978, “Landscape of Exile” in 1979, and “Hamlet” in 1980. In the same year, Frances played Stephanie in the play “Duet for One,” which her ex-husband Kempinski wrote expressly for her. Frances received the Lawrence Olivier Award for Best Actress in recognition of her performance. Frances received her second Lawrence Olivier Award for Best Actress in 1982 after portraying Josie in the play “A Moon for the Misbegotten” and playing Sonya in Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.”
She appeared in other plays over the next few years, including “Saint Joan” in 1984, “Brighton Beach Memoirs” in 1986, and “When She Danced” in 1991, for which she was nominated for a Lawrence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Frances appeared on stage in her underwear while portraying Cleopatra in the tragedy “Antony and Cleopatra” the following year. Frances first appeared on stage with Maggie Smith in the two-act play “Three Tall Women” in 1994. In 1998, she appeared on stage with Alan Howard in “The Play About the Baby.” Frances won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2004 for her performance as Mrs. Lintott in “The History Boys.”
Her most recent theater appearances include those in the farce “Boeing-Boeing” from 2007, “The Habit of Art” by Alan Bennett in 2009, and “People” by Bennett in 2012.
Movies’ Parts
In addition to the more than 70 films and television shows for which Frances has been credited, we will now discuss some of her most noteworthy performances.
She made her film debut the same year she played Maud Crape in the British comedy “Every Home Should Have One” in the role of District Nurse in the British drama “Country Dance.”
She made her acting debut in the comedy “Our Miss Fred” in 1972, and some of her later roles included those in the horror films “To the Devil… A Daughter” (a British-German production) in 1976, “Wombling Trees” (a movie for children), and “Murder with Mirrors” (a mystery film with Helen Hayes, who made one of her final appearances before quitting acting) in 1985. Frances was cast as Mrs. De Vere in the romantic comedy “Strike It Rich” in 1990, which also starred Molly Ringwald, John Gielgud, and Robert Lindsay. Later, she made an appearance in the drama “The Cherry Orchard,” which was based on Chekhov’s original 1904 play of the same name.
Frances played Madame Olympe Maxime in the critically acclaimed fantasy film “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” in 2006, and the same year she played Dorothy Lintott in the comedy-drama “The History Boys,” starring Richard Griffiths and Clive Merrison and about two eccentric teachers who are teaching a class of charming and talented teenagers. For her performance, Frances was nominated for both a British Indy and an Academy Award.
She then went on to participate in several well-known films, including the 2010 live-action/animated fantasy adventure picture “Alice in Wonderland” (with Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway) and the 2011 adventure drama “Hugo,” both of which were set in a post-apocalyptic, neo-western world.
In the military film “Private Peaceful,” which starred Jack O’Connell and George MacKay and was based on the same-named novel by Michael Morpurgo, Frances played Grandma Wolf in 2012. She played Madame Schirmer in the 2015 mystery film “Mr. Holmes,” which was loosely based on Mitch Cullin’s book “A Slight Trick of the Mind.” Frances also had roles in the British-American spy thriller “Survivor,” the live-action/animated fantasy film “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” and the 2017 drama “Man in an Orange Shirt.”
Her three most recent film roles were in the historical drama “Vanity Fair” in 2018 and the fantasy adventure “Dolittle” in 2020, as well as the yet-to-be-released adventure crime drama “Enola Holmes” with a release date of 23 September 2020.
Television Show Roles
Frances was asked to play the lead role of Maggie in the 1977 television series “Maggie: It’s Me,” but no networks picked up the pilot episode. The following year, in 1983, she played Celia in the Peter Bowles-led sitcom “The Bounder,” which told the tale of an ex-convict who was living with Trevor Mountjoy, his brother-in-law.
She later went on to star as Millie Renfrew in the three-part miniseries “Ellis Island” in 1984, and in the five-part series “The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling” with Max Beesley and Brian Blessed in 1997, she played Aunt Western. Frances had a guest appearance in the police drama “Heartbeat” episode “Bad Penny” the following year and in the mystery drama “Agatha Christie’s Poirot” episode “Death on the Nile” the following year.
Before being asked to guest star as Professor Styles in the episode “Old Dogs” of the procedural crime drama “New Tricks,” she went on to make brief appearances in the dramas “Agatha Christie’s Marple” in 2006, the comedy-drama “Sensitive Skin,” and the police procedural crime drama “Waking the Dead” in 2004.
Three of Frances’ most recent noteworthy TV roles were in the comedies “Big School” and “Vicious,” both of which she appeared in and for which she was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance, both in 2014, and the historical drama “Outlander,” which featured Caitriona Balfe and followed a nurse during the Second World War who was sent back in time to 1743 Scotland.
Relationship Status
Frances has been married twice; she first married David Godman, a non-celebrity, in 1968 in a small ceremony attended by their nearest and dearest. The marriage did not survive long, however, and the two separated in the early 1970s.
Frances met Tom Kempinski, an actor and author who put her in many of his plays and is now renowned for his work on the 1965 drama “Othello,” the 1969 criminal science fiction picture “Moon Zero Two,” and the 1973 science fiction television series “Moonbase 3.”
The precise date of their covert wedding has remained a mystery to this day, and their divorce has also been kept a secret.
It is widely assumed that Frances’ children, a son and a daughter, each have a different father because she hasn’t revealed who their father is or isn’t.
Frances was married twice, has two children, and is currently single as of September 2020.
Activities And Other Passions
Frances is socialist and politically inclined; in the 1970s, she belonged to the Workers’ Revolutionary Party. She enjoyed traveling in her 30s and 40s, and her work as an actress allowed her to live in many different cities, including Toronto, Canada, Paris, France, and New York City, the United States, for a short period.
Frances has contributed money to the needy, concentrating primarily on helping disadvantaged kids.
Since the beginning of her acting career, she has owned various dogs as pets because she loves animals.
Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, and Julia Roberts are some of her favorite contemporary actors and actresses, and “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Good Will Hunting,” and “Notting Hill” are some of her favorite films.
Body Structure And Net Worth
Frances De La Tour (Pinterest)76 is Frances’ age. She stands at 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 meters) tall and weighs about 130 pounds. She has long brown hair and brown eyes (59kgs).
Her projected net worth as of September 2020 is more than $5 million.