Frances Barber

Frances Barber
Born	Frances J Brookes (1957-05-13) 13 May 1957 Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England
Occupation	Actress

Frances Barber (born 13 May 1957) is an English actress who has appeared in stage and television productions.

Life and career

Barber was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England. Her parents are S. W. Brookes and Gladys Simpson; Barber is the fourth of six children. She attended The Wolverhampton Municipal Grammar School.

Barber studied drama at Bangor University, in Wales where she was a contemporary of director Danny Boyle, who became her boyfriend.

With the Pet Shop Boys, she appeared in their musical Closer to Heaven in 2001 as well as guest singer for the song "Friendly Fire" on their 2006 live concert at the Mermaid Theatre. She also appeared alongside Ian McKellen and Roger Allam in the Old Vic's pantomime production of Aladdin in the 2005–06 Christmas season. She again starred with Ian McKellen in 2007 playing Goneril in Trevor Nunn's production of King Lear and as Arkadina in Chekhov's The Seagull with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon followed by a world tour throughout the year. They again performed the two plays in repertory at the New London Theatre on Drury Lane, opening in November 2007 and closing mid-January 2008.

In 2011, she guest-starred in the Doctor Who episodes A Good Man Goes to War and The Wedding of River Song (and 5 other episodes, sometimes uncredited) as Madame Kovarian. She also played alongside then Doctor Who star Karen Gillan in the television film We'll Take Manhattan as Diana Vreeland.

One of her closest friends is the actor Ian McKellen, who funded a library in her name in India. In 2006, she received an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Wolverhampton.

Theatre

• Ooh La La (Hull Truck Theatre, 1979)
• Riff Raff Rules (Theatre Royal Stratford East)
• Space Ache (Tricycle Theatre, 1980)
• Emilia in Othello (Oxford Playhouse)
• La Guerra (The Battle), Desperado Corner and Madame Louise (Glasgow Citizens', 1980, and Venice Biennale Festival, 1981)
• The Treat (Institute of Contemporary Arts)
• The Mission (Soho Poly)
• Hard Feelings (Oxford Playhouse and The Bush, 1983)
• Turning Over (The Bush, 1983)
• Marguerite in Camille (Royal Shakespeare Company, The Other Place, 1984, and Comedy Theatre, 1985 – Olivier nomination for Most Promising Newcomer)
• Ophelia in Hamlet (RSC Barbican Theatre, 1985)
• Love's Labour's Lost (RSC The Other Place, Comedy Theatre, 1985)
• The Dead Monkey (RSC The Pit, 1986))
• Summer and Smoke (Haymarket Theatre)
• Viola in Twelfth Night (Renaissance, Riverside Studios, 1987)
• Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (Royal Exchange, Manchester, 1988)
• My Heart's a Suitcase (Royal Court, 1990)
• Over a Barrel (Watford Palace Theatre)
• Imagine Drowning (Hampstead Theatre, 1991)
• Maxine Faulk in The Night of the Iguana (National Theatre, 1992)
• Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion (National Theatre, 1992)
• Insignificance (Donmar Warehouse, 1995)
• Uncle Vanya (Minerva Theatre, Chichester and Albery Theatre, 1996 – TMA Award)
• Closer (Lyric Theatre, National Theatre West End transfer, 1998)
• Closer to Heaven (Arts Theatre,2001)
• Valerie in Tales from the Vienna Woods (National Theatre, 2003)
• Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Gielgud Theatre, 2004)
• Dim Sum in Aladdin (Old Vic pantomime, 2005)
• The Narrator in Shane Cullinan's The Pieta St Paul's, Covent Garden, 2006)
• Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare's Globe, London, 2006)
• Arkadina in The Seagull and Goneril in King Lear (RSC, Courtyard Theatre Stratford-upon-Avon, and New London Theatre, 2007)
• Madame de Sade (Donmar West End, Wyndham's Theatre, 2009)
• Afterplay (Edinburgh Festival, then Gate Theatre, Dublin, 2009)
• Julius Caesar (Donmar Theatre, 2012-2013)

Filmography

• A Zed & Two Noughts (1985)
• Castaway (1986)
• Prick Up Your Ears (1987)
• Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987)
• Twelfth Night (1988) (TV)
• We Think the World of You (film) (1988)
• Behaving Badly (1989) (TV)
• Red Dwarf – "Polymorph" (1989) (TV)
• Inspector Morse (1992)
• Soft Top Hard Shoulder (1992)
• The Leaving of Liverpool (1992) (TV)
• Giorgino (1994)
• Space Precinct (1995) (TV)
• A Royal Scandal (1996) (TV)
• The Ice House (1997) (TV)
• Still Crazy (1998)
• Murder Most Horrid (1998)
• Bremner, Bird and Fortune (1999) (TV)
• Shiner (2000)
• Manchild (2002) (TV)
• Flyfishing (2002) (TV)
• My Family – "Owed to Susan" (as Vanessa, 2003) (TV)
• Boudica (2003)
• Monkey Dust (2003) (TV) (voice)
• Evilenko (2004)
• The IT Crowd – "Aunt Irma Visits" (2005) (TV)
• Agatha Christie's Marple – "A Murder is Announced" (as Hinch,2005) (TV)
• Funland (2005) (TV)
• Hustle (2007) (TV)
• King Lear (2008)
• Beautiful People (2008)
• The Fattest Man in Britain (2009)
• The Royal (2009)
• Midsomer Murders (2010) Episode: Master Class
• Doctor Who (seven episodes, 2011)
• Great Expectations (2011) (TV)
• Friday Night Dinner (2011)
• We'll Take Manhattan (2012) (TV)
• Silk (2012 - 2014)
• Vexed (2012)
• The Life of Rock with Brian Pern (2014)
• Mapp and Lucia (2014)

See also

• List of residents of Wolverhampton

External links

• Frances Barber at the Internet Movie Database