Anna Massey: Biography

The second child of actors Raymond Massey and Adrienne Allen, Anna Massey made her own film bow as the spunky daughter of Jack Hawkins in John Ford's Gideon's Day (1958). Anna was one of the few members of the female cast of the controversial Peeping Tom (1960) who was not murdered by psycho photographer Karl Boehm; conversely, she was the second victim of the necktie strangler in Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972) (she's the one whose murder occurs off-camera, as Hitchcock dollies from a second-floor flat to the street below). Maturing into a versatile character actress in her 40s, Massey had an amazing facility for appearing in TV redos of earlier films: she played Miss Ronberry in the 1979 remake of The Corn is Green, Mrs. Danvers in the 1981 remake of Rebecca, and Betsy in the 1985 remake of Anna Karenina. In 1994, Anna Massey was among the stars of the weekly British sitcom Nice Day at the Office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide