Jane Lapotaire, the veteran actress who played Marie Curie and Cleopatra on television and Princess Alice of Greece on The Crown, has died.
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Lapotaire passed away on March 5 in the UK, according to The Guardian. No cause of death for the 81-year-old was disclosed.
A veteran of British stage and television, Lapotaire co-founded London’s The Young Vic in 1970 alongside Laurence Olivier and others.
Lapotaire became known to American audiences with her transformative performance in Pam Gems’ Broadway musical Piaf. She had already won an Olivier Award for the same role in the West End two years prior. In 1981, she won the Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, surpassing competitors like Glenda Jackson (Rose), Eva Le Gallienne (To Grandmother’s House We Go), and Elizabeth Taylor (The Little Foxes).
Following her Broadway success, Lapotaire pursued a Hollywood career, a decision she later regretted. She explained in interviews that, at age 40, she became “very aware of not being ‘glamorous’ in the accepted sense.”
Her London stage career was far more successful. In addition to co-founding The Young Vic, Lapotaire performed at revered venues like the Bristol Old Vic, the National Theatre, and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
She was appointed a CBE and attended the investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle just last month.
Jane Lapotaire’s Prolific Acting Career Dates Back to the 1960s
Born on December 26, 1944, in Ipswich, Suffolk, Lapotaire studied acting at the Bristol Old Vic before joining the National Theatre under Olivier’s leadership in 1967. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1974.
Her numerous British stage credits include The Homecoming, The Taming of the Shrew, Oedipus, Measure for Measure, As You Like It, Shadowlands, and Hamlet (alongside Kenneth Branagh).
She also took on the role of Maria Callas in a touring production of Terrence McNally’s Master Class. It was during a performance of this play in 2000 that Lapotaire suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage. She later detailed this experience in her 2003 memoir, Time Out of Mind.
Following her surgeries and recuperation, Lapotaire returned to the stage and screen. Her later credits include appearances in Casualty (2009) and Downton Abbey (2014). In two episodes of The Crown, she played Princess Alice of Battenberg, the mother of Prince Philip.
In 2020, she played Granny in Netflix’s adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. The film also starred Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Armie Hammer. Lapotaire’s other film credits include Antony and Cleopatra (1972), Lady Jane (1986), James Ivory’s Surviving Picasso (1996), Shooting Fish (1997), and The Young Messiah (2016).
Lapotaire is survived by her son, Rowan Joffé, from her marriage to director Roland Joffé. The couple was married from 1974 to 1980.