The Frances de la Tour Page contains a biography of one of the new members of the Harry Potter cast, and gives access to more Frances de la Tour information.

Frances de la Tour was born in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire on 30th July 1944. After graduating from The Drama Centre, she joined the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) in 1965, but left after six years, dissatisfied with the "limited casting" she was constantly offered, including 'The Bumpkin' in As You Like It. She was determined to perform in more demanding, challenging roles - she once played the lead role (ie. a male) in Hamlet!

By the early 1970s, Frances de la Tour had appeared in a number of films, such as Every Home Should Have One and Our Miss Fred, but she still concentrated on developing her acting style on stage. On 17th May 1973, Frances took over the role of Ruth Jones in Eric Chappell's play The Banana Box at the Hampstead Theatre Club in London (the role was previously played by Heather Canning, Janet Michael and Rosemary Leach). By the time the play ended its run on 24th July at The Apollo theatre, plans were already afoot to bring the story to television, and Frances was to continue in her role as Miss Jones.

The TV series (renamed Rising Damp) bought Frances de la Tour fame, but also an unwanted, typecast label of "that woman who played Miss Jones", which annoys her to this day. And with reason, for Frances de la Tour is no "one-hit wonder". She has appeared in a seemingly endless number of plays across the UK and on Broadway, and the number of awards she has won for her roles proves not only that the RSC never saw her true worth, but also that she is now without doubt one of this country's finest theatre actresses.

These awards include Olivier Award for Best Actress (for Josie in A Moon For The Misbegotten) and both the Evening Standard Best Actress award and Society of West End Theatres Best Actress award (for Stephanie in Duet For One, a play written for her by former partner Tom Kempinski). She continued her TV and movie roles during this time, including films such as To The Devil A Daughter, The Time Bandits and Rising Damp: The Movie (for which she received the Best Actress award from the Evening Standard), in addition to raising her son Josh and daughter Tamasin.

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