Frances de la Tour

Frances de la Tour was born on 30 July 1944 in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, to Moyra (née Fessas) and Charles de la Tour (1909–1982). Her birth was registered under the spelling de Lautour. She holds English, French, Greek, and Irish ancestry and is the sister of actor and screenwriter Andy de la Tour. She received her education at the Lycée Français in London and subsequently at the Drama Centre London.

After completing her training, de la Tour joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1965, spending six years building from smaller parts to more substantial roles, including Hoyden in The Relapse. Her RSC tenure culminated in Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which she played Helena. That production later transferred to Broadway, marking her first appearance there in 1971. Throughout the 1970s, she worked across both stage and television, taking on roles such as Rosalind in As You Like It at the Playhouse, Oxford in 1975 and Isabella in The White Devil at the Old Vic in 1976. She also collaborated with Stepney's Half Moon Theatre, appearing in the London premiere of Dario Fo's We Can't Pay? We Won't Pay in 1978, Eleanor Marx's Landscape of Exile in 1979, and the title role of Hamlet in 1980.

During the same period, de la Tour became widely recognized to television audiences for playing Ruth Jones, a spinster, in the Yorkshire Television comedy Rising Damp, which ran from 1974 to 1978. She reprised the role in the 1980 film version, for which she won Best Actress at the Evening Standard British Film Awards. Her television work in the 1980s and 1990s included the 1980 miniseries Flickers opposite Bob Hoskins, a TV adaptation of Duet for One that earned her a BAFTA nomination, the series A Kind of Living from 1988 to 1989, Dennis Potter's Cold Lazarus in 1996, and Tom Jones in 1997.

On stage, 1980 also brought de la Tour the role of Stephanie, a violinist with multiple sclerosis, in Duet for One, a play written for her by Kempinski, earning her the Olivier Award for Best Actress. She played Sonya in Uncle Vanya opposite Donald Sinden at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in 1982, and her performance as Josie in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten brought her a second Olivier Award for Best Actress in 1983. She joined the Royal National Theatre for the title role in Saint Joan in 1984 and appeared there again in Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1986. A third Olivier Award, this time for Best Supporting Actress, followed her work in Martin Sherman's play about Isadora Duncan, When She Danced, with Vanessa Redgrave at the Globe Theatre in 1991. She played Leo in Les Parents terribles at the Royal National Theatre in 1994, receiving an additional Olivier nomination. That same year she co-starred with Maggie Smith in Edward Albee's Three Tall Women at the Wyndham's, and in 1998 she appeared with Alan Howard in Albee's The Play About the Baby at the Almeida. In 1999, she returned to the RSC to play Cleopatra opposite Alan Bates in Antony and Cleopatra.

In 2004, de la Tour originated the role of Mrs. Lintott in Alan Bennett's The History Boys at the National Theatre, subsequently bringing the performance to Broadway in 2006. That Broadway run earned her both the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play. She also reprised the role in the 2006 film adaptation, for which she received a BAFTA nomination for Actress in a Supporting Role. In December 2005, she appeared in the London production of Dario Fo's Peace Mom, based on the writings of Cindy Sheehan. Later stage work included a West End revival of Boeing-Boeing in 2007, Alan Bennett's The Habit of Art at the National in 2009, and a third Bennett premiere, People, at the National in 2012.

De la Tour's film work includes the role of Madame Olympe Maxime, headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005, a role she reprised in a cameo in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 in 2010. She appeared as Aunt Imogene in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in 2010, took a supporting role in The Book of Eli, and appeared in Hugo in 2012. Television credits from later in her career include Agatha Christie's Poirot: Death on the Nile in 2004, Waking the Dead in 2004, Sensitive Skin in 2005, Agatha Christie's Marple: The Moving Finger in 2006, and New Tricks in 2006. From 2013 to 2014, she portrayed headmistress Ms. Baron in the BBC One sitcom Big School, and from 2013 to 2016 she played Violet Crosby in the ITV sitcom Vicious alongside Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi. In April 2016, she joined the second series of Outlander as Mother Hildegarde, and in 2021 she appeared in the ITV production Professor T, playing the mother of the titular character.