British actress Anna Massey dies at 73 (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – Veteran actress Anna Massey, best known for her supporting roles as a lonely spinster, has died at the age of 73 from cancer, British media reported on Tuesday.

Massey made her professional debut on stage at the age of 17 and enjoyed a career in film and television spanning five decades, including roles in Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy" and an adaptation of "The Importance of Being Ernest."

She won a BAFTA for her role in a 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel "Hotel du Lac.

In 2004 Massey was awarded a CBE, an honor from the Queen, for her services to acting.

Two years later she played former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the television drama "Pinochet in Suburbia."

"I find acting incredibly difficult -- it demands much more of my time than it does for some people," the actress told The Independent newspaper in 1996.

"I'm not instinctive. It takes enormous discipline and bravery to get me there."

Massey was married to Sherlock Holmes actor Jeremy Brett for four years until 1962. She met her second husband, Russian scientist Uri Andres, 27 years later.

"She will be remembered as a loving wife and mother, a cherished grandmother, a generous colleague and, always, a consummate professional," her agent said in a statement.

(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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British actress Anna Massey dies at 73 (AP)

LONDON – Anna Massey, the member of an acting dynasty whose roles ranged from lonely spinsters to Margaret Thatcher, has died. She was 73.

Massey died Saturday after a battle with cancer, with her husband and son at her side, her agent Pippa Markham said Monday.

The actress was born in 1937 into a performing family — her father was Canadian actor Raymond Massey and her mother British actress Adrianne Allen. Her brother Daniel Massey also became an actor, and her godfather was director John Ford.

Massey made her West End stage debut at 17 in "The Reluctant Debutante" and her film debut in Ford's 1958 police procedural "Gideon's Day."

She had roles in films including Michael Powell's classic chiller "Peeping Tom," Otto Preminger's "Bunny Lake is Missing," Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy" and the 2002 adaptation of "The Importance of Being Earnest," in which she played the comic governess Miss Prism.

Massey worked most frequently in television and was a stalwart of British period dramas, often cast as a waspish spinster or maiden aunt. She appeared in TV adaptations of Anthony Trollope's "The Pallisers," Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" and many others.

In 2006, she played former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the TV drama "Pinochet in Suburbia."

Markham said Massey would be remembered as "a consummate professional," but the actress revealed in a memoir that she had struggled with depression and stage fright, and suffered a nervous breakdown in the 1960s.

She once said that as an actor, "I'm not instinctive. It takes enormous discipline and bravery to get me there."

Massey won a BAFTA, Britain's top acting award, for her role in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel "Hotel du Lac."

In 2004 she was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama.

Massey is survived by her husband, Uri Andres, and David Huggins, her son from a first marriage to the late actor Jeremy Brett.

Funeral details were not immediately available.

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