Bafta-winning actress Anna Massey dies of cancer at the age of 73

VETERAN actress Anna Massey, who won a string of awards for her stage and TV roles has died at the age of 73.

Massey won a Bafta for her performance as a lonely spinster in the 1986 TV adaptation of Hotel du Lac.

Her agent said in a statement yesterday: "Actress Anna Massey CBE passed away peacefully on Sunday, 3 July, with her husband and son by her side.

"She will be remembered as a loving wife and mother, a cherished grandmother, a generous colleague and, always, a consummate professional. She will be greatly missed."

Massey's film work included roles in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy, Possession with Gwyneth Paltrow and the adaptation of The Importance Of Being Earnest.

Massey, who was well known for her supporting roles, often playing a spurned or repressed maiden aunt, had been suffering from cancer, her agent said.

She received a CBE for services to drama in 2005. Divorced from the late actor Jeremy Brett, she was alone for 27 years until she met Russian scientist Uri Andres at a dinner party and married him three months later.

Massey's TV period dramas included Tess Of The D'Urbervilles in 2008, Oliver Twist in 2007, and the BBC's version of Anthony Trollope's He Knew He Was Right in 2004. Most recently, she appeared in Poirot and Midsomer Murders in 2009. In 2006, she played Baroness Thatcher in the TV film Pinochet In Suburbia.

Massey was born into the business - both her parents were actors, while her godfather was the veteran director John Ford.