Francesca Annis

Attractive and seemingly ageless, Francesca Annis was an aspiring dancer when she began her film acting career in the late 1950s in teen roles, receiving her first major exposure as a handmaiden of Elizabeth Taylor in "Cleopatra" (1963). She was fashionably radical during London's swinging 60s, befriending such scenesters as guitar legend Jimi Hendrix before portraying Ophelia to Nicol Williamson's "Hamlet" on Broadway in 1969. As Lady Macbeth, Annis appeared nude in the sleepwalking scene in Roman Polanski's extra-gruesome "Macbeth" (1971), but when Hugh Hefner (one of the film's backers) asked her to pose for PLAYBOY, she replied, "I'm an actress, not a pinup." While a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1975-1978, she also starred as "Madame Bovary" (1976) and portrayed Lillie Langtry in "Lillie" (1978), with both acclaimed British productions broadcast later as segments of "Masterpiece Theatre" (PBS).