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A highly praised stage actress, Jane Elizabeth Marie Lapotaire was born in Ipswich, England, of French descent. Her early years were challenging. Abandoned by her mother at six months old and never having met her father, she was raised by a foster mother she called Granny Grace (Grace Chisnell), who had also cared for Lapotaire’s orphaned French mother. When she was twelve, her mother attempted to reclaim her, but Jane chose to stay with Grace. Both her mother and her mother’s partner, who acted as her stepfather, opposed her ambitions to become an actress.
After an unsuccessful audition at RADA, Lapotaire was eventually accepted into the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where she studied acting from 1961 to 1963. She made her debut with the Old Vic Theatre Company in 1965, playing Ruby Birtle in J.B. Priestley’s Victorian comedy When We Are Married. Between 1967 and 1970, she performed with the National Theatre under Laurence Olivier’s direction. She also co-founded the Young Vic Theatre in London, where she took on classical roles such as Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew, Jocasta in Oedipus, and Isabella in Measure for Measure. In 1974, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing roles including Rosalind in As You Like It, Viola in Twelfth Night, and Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View. She later toured with the RSC as Katharine of Aragon in Henry VIII. In a 2015 interview, Lapotaire described classical acting as a calling pursued out of love for the language rather than fame or fortune.
In 1978, Lapotaire originated the role of Édith Piaf, which moved from London to Broadway in 1981, earning her the Tony Award for Best Actress. New York Times critic Frank Rich praised her performance as full of heart-stopping intensity, perfectly embodying the “little sparrow.” In 1985, she starred opposite Anthony Quayle as Saint Joan at York Theatre Royal. Returning to the RSC, she portrayed Gertrude in Hamlet opposite Kenneth Branagh (1992-93), the Duchess of Gloucester in Richard II, and Queen Isobel in Henry V.
While her stage work has been prominent, Lapotaire’s screen career has featured significant roles in period dramas and literary adaptations, including Antony and Cleopatra (1972), Macbeth (1983), Lady Jane (1986), and Uncle Silas (1989). She played Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Devil’s Crown (1978), Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1982), and Dowager Empress Dagmar in Edward the King (1975). She starred as the pioneering scientist Marie Curie in the 1977 miniseries, earning a TV BAFTA nomination. More recently, she appeared as Russian émigré Irina Kuragin in Downton Abbey (2010). Lapotaire also received a second BAFTA nomination for her role as a feminist barrister in the miniseries Blind Justice (1988).
Jane Lapotaire has served as honorary president of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Club. She has authored several memoirs, including Grace and Favour (1989) and Everybody’s Daughter, Nobody’s Child (2007), both recounting her difficult childhood. Another memoir, Time Out of Mind (2005), details her recovery from a cerebral hemorrhage suffered in 2000.
