“The Crown” and “Downton Abbey” star Jane Lapotaire has died. She was 81.
The Tony Award-winning actress passed away on March 5, and a spokesperson for the Royal Shakespeare Company confirmed the sad news Thursday. No cause of death has been released.
“We are saddened to hear of the death of Jane Lapotaire,” the statement began, per the Sun. “A truly brilliant actress, her RSC credits include Piaf, winning her TONY & Olivier awards, & Gertrude opposite Kenneth Branagh in Adrian Noble’s Hamlet.”
Born Jane Burgess in Ipswich, England, in December 1944, Lapotaire was put up for adoption and lived with a foster mother for 12 years.
However, the future actress’ birth mother returned to Ipswich when Lapotaire was 13, and a custody battle followed.
Although her foster mother was ultimately awarded custody, Lapotaire had to spend holidays with her birth mother.
Lapotaire’s acting career, meanwhile, began on the stage when she landed the role of Ruby Birtle in “When We Are Married” at the Bristol Old Vic in 1965.
“I knew then that I wanted to act,” she said during an interview before her death, according to the Sun. “I wanted it more than walking or breathing.”
She later became one of the founding members of the Young Vic Theatre around 1970, and went on to join the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1974.
But it wasn’t until 1977 that Lapotaire was cast as Marie Curie in the BBC mini-series “Marie Curie” that her popularity skyrocketed.
Following “Marie Curie,” Lapotaire starred as Edith Piaf in the original 1978 production of Pam Gems’ “Piaf.” She stayed with the play when it moved to Broadway in 1980, and she won the Tony Award for best actress in a play that same year.
While Lapotaire was highly acclaimed for her work on the stage, she also had an extensive and impressive career in film and TV beyond “Marie Curie.”
She starred as Queen Mary in “Lady Jane” (1980), Princess Irina Kuragin in Season 5 of “Downton Abbey” and Princess Alice of Battenberg in Season 3 of “The Crown.”
Lapotaire’s career was interrupted in 2000 after she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and underwent surgery.
After a four-week recovery in the ICU, she wrote an award-winning memoir titled “Time Out of Mind” and published it in 2004.
One of Lapotaire’s last public appearances was at Windsor Castle last month when she was honored with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Lapotaire is survived by her son, Rowan Joffe, whom she shared with her ex-husband, Roland Joffe.
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