Jane Lapotaire

Jane Lapotaire
Jane Elizabeth Marie Lapotaire (née Burgess; 26 December 1944) is an English actress.
Biography
Lapotaire was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, the daughter of Louise Elise (Burgess). Her stepfather, Yves Lapotaire, worked in the oil industry and was originally from Quebec, Canada. From the age of two months, she was raised as a foster child by an old-age pensioner, Grace Chisnell (Granny Grace), who was also the foster mother of Lapotaire's own biological mother, a French orphan, who was abandoned in England. When Lapotaire was about 12, her biological mother made a bid to get her back. The child welfare department of the Suffolk County Council intervened and decided that the mother had this right. Lapotaire chose to be with Granny Grace, but lived with her biological mother and stepfather, who worked in various French oil companies in North Africa (particularly Libya), three times a year. She also adopted their family name. The Lapotaires in North Africa were Francophones, and like French colonials at that time, lived around the French embassy. Granny Grace died in 1984 aged 96 and Louise Burgess died in 1999.
She studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School from 1961 to 1963, the programme was a two-year course at that time, unlike the three-year course today. She had earlier auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, but failed to get in. She joined the Bristol Old Vic theatre company in 1965. She joined the National Theatre in 1967, was a founding member of The Young Vic Theatre in 1970/1971, and moved to the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1974.
Her performance in the title role of Marie Curie (1977) first brought her to wide attention. In 1978, she performed the title role Édith Piaf for Pam Gems's play Piaf, directed by Howard Davies for the Royal Shakespeare Company, in Stratford-upon-Avon and in London at the Warehouse Theatre, Covent Garden in 1979. Two years later, the show moved to Broadway. Lapotaire won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play that year.
She was married to director Roland Joffé from 1974 to 1980; they had one son, screenwriter and director Rowan Joffé (born 1973). Following their divorce, she was for a time the partner of actor Michael Pennington.
She returned to the Royal Shakespeare Company in October–November 2013 as the Duchess of Gloucester in Gregory Doran's adaptation of Richard II with David Tennant in the title role. This was followed in October–December 2015 as Queen Isobel in Henry V. On Christmas Day in 2014, she appeared as Princess Irina Kuragin in season five, episode nine of Downton Abbey.
Writing
Lapotaire has written a number of memoirs: Grace and Favour, Out of Order: A Haphazard Journey Through One Woman's Year, and Everybody's Daughter, Nobody's Child, which includes an account of her childhood growing up in Levington Road, Ipswich.
Illness
On 11 January 2000, while preparing to teach a course on Shakespeare at the Ecole Internationale in Paris France, Lapotaire suffered a massive cerebral haemorrhage. Four days after her collapse, she underwent a six-hour surgery and spent the next three weeks largely unconscious. She writes about her recovery in Time Out of Mind.
Associations
Lapotaire is honorary president of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Club, and is president of the Friends of Shakespeare's Globe.
Filmography
Theatre
Her stage credits include:
Radio
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date !! Title !! Role !! Director !! Station
|-
|-
| || || Anna || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| || || Gelda || || BBC Radio 4 The Monday Play
|-
| || || The woman || || BBC Radio 3 Drama Now
|-
| || Caring Incorporated || Judith || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Theatre
|-
| || Dr Piffoel || || || BBC Radio 3
|-
| || Electra || Electra || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Theatre
|-
| || Plenty || || || BBC Radio 3
|-
| || Boris Godunov || || || BBC Radio 3
|-
| || || || || BBC Radio 4 Saturday-Night Theatre
|-
| || First Things Last || Simone || || BBC Radio 4
|-
| || That Cunard Woman || || || BBC Radio 4
|-
| || || || || BBC Radio 3
|-
| || || Miss Slighcarp || || BBC Radio 4 Saturday Night Theatre
|-
| || Pen Pals || || || BBC Radio 4 Globe Theatre 95
|-
| || Bertie and the Crime of Passion || || || BBC Radio 4
|-
| || Mansfield Park || Mrs Norris || || BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial
|-
| || Come to Me || Greta || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| || In Singapore || Sally || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| || Writing Home || Mother || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| 7 Dec 2000 || Plays of the Severn || Voice of the River || Sue Wilson || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| || I'll Be George || || || BBC Radio 4 The Friday Play
|-
| 15 Jun 2001|| Byron's Women || || || BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama
|-
| || Walk to the Paradise Garden || Miss Jordon || || BBC Radio 3 Sunday Play
|-
| || || Helen || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| || Arthur: The Sword of the King || Morgan || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| || Arthur: The Black Dog || Morgan || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| || Arthur: The Lake' ' || Morgan || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| || Arthur: The Moon Eats the Sun || Morgan || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| || Arthur: The Grail || Morgan || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| || Arthur: The Last Battle || Morgan || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| || || || || BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3
|-
| || Scenes of Seduction || || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| || Exiled from Paradise || Roznay || || BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
|-
| 30 Sep 2007 || || Jinny || || BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial
|-
| 28 Feb 2010 || Plantagenet || Queen Eleanor || || BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial
|-
| || Living with Princes || || || BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3
|-https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/
| 16 Dec 2012 || || Haydee || Sasha Yevtushenko || BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial
|-
|-
|}
Awards
In April 2018, Lapotaire became the 29th recipient of the prestigious Pragnell Shakespeare Birthday Award and gave the 454th Shakespeare Birthday Lecture on 20 April 2018.
|-
! scope="row" | 1978
| Marie Curie (1977)
| British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1989
| Blind Justice (1988)
| British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1981
| Piaf (1978-1981)
| Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1983
| Piaf (1978-1981)
| CableACE Award for Actress in a Theatrical or Non-Musical Program
|
|-
! scope="row" | 2020
| The Crown'' (2019)
| Gold Derby TV Award for Drama Guest Actress
|
References
External links
Jane Lapotaire at Theatricalia
1944 births
20th-century British actresses
21st-century British actresses
Alumni of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
British stage actresses
British film actresses
British radio actresses
British television actresses
British Shakespearean actresses
Living people
People educated at Northgate Grammar School, Ipswich
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Actresses from Suffolk
Actors from Ipswich
Tony Award winners
British memoirists
Laurence Olivier Award winners