Jane Lapotaire

Personal life

Jane Elizabeth Marie Burgess was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, the daughter of Louise Elise (Burgess). Her stepfather, Yves Lapotaire, worked in the oil industry and was originally from Quebec, Canada.

She studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the 1960s. Her performance in the title role of Marie Curie (1977) first brought her to wide attention. In 1978 she performed the title role Édith Piaf for Pam Gems's play Piaf, directed by Howard Davies for the Royal Shakespeare Company, in Stratford-upon-Avon and in London at the Warehouse Theatre, Covent Garden in 1979.

Two years later, the show moved to Broadway. Lapotaire won the Tony Award for Leading Actress in a Play that year.

She was married to director Roland Joffé from 1974 to 1980; they had one son, screenwriter and director Rowan Joffé (born 1973). Following their divorce, she was for a time the partner of actor Michael Pennington.

Writing

Lapotaire has written a number of memoirs: Grace and Favour, Out of Order: A Haphazard Journey Through One Woman's Year, and Everybody's Daughter, Nobody's Child, which includes an account of her childhood growing up in Levington Road, Ipswich.

Illness

In 2000 while working in France, Lapotaire suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. She writes about her recovery in Time Out of Mind.

Associations

Jane Lapotaire is Honorary President of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Club, and is President of the Friends of Shakespeare's Globe.