Anna Massey dies aged 73

4 July 2011 9:00 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

The award-winning actor of stage and screen, who became the mainstay of the British costume drama, has died after suffering from cancer

Anna Massey, the award-winning British actor who played innocent victim for both Alfred Hitchcock and Michael Powell, has died from cancer at the age of 73. The news was confirmed in a brief statement from her agent: "Anna Massey Cbe passed away peacefully on Sunday 3rd July, with her husband and son by her side."

The daughter of the Hollywood actor Raymond Massey, Anna Massey began her career on stage, picking up a Tony nomination for her turn in The Reluctant Debutante at the age of 18. She made her screen debut in the 1958 crime drama Gideon's Day, directed by her godfather John Ford, and co-starred with Laurence Olivier on the cult 60s thriller Bunny Lake is Missing.

Yet Massey looks set to be best remembered for her roles in two of the most controversial pictures of post-war British cinema. In 1960 she played Helen, the sweet-natured friend of a serial killer in Michael Powell's notorious Peeping Tom. In 1972, she was cast as sacrificial barmaid Babs Milligan in Hitchcock's grubby, London-set thriller Frenzy. Peeping Tom found itself reviled by contemporary critics as "perverted" and "beastly", while Frenzy remains the only Hitchcock film to receive a prohibitive X-certificate in the UK. Today, both films are widely regarded as classics. »

- Xan Brooks

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