The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) as Questular Rontok
The Dreamers (2003) as Mother
What a Girl Wants (2003) as Glynnis Payne
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) as Henrietta - Wedding Two
Short Info
Date Of Birth
April 27, 1965
Spouse
Redha Debbah, Nigel Willoughby
Fact
Once famously shocked TV hosts Richard & Judy, the TV audience, and the ITV network bosses, when she uttered the 'f' word live on This Morning (1988) whilst being interviewed.
Anna Chancellor (born 27 April 1965) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Duckface in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral, Henrietta “Hetty” Wainthropp in the 1996–1998 television series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, and Olivia Manning in the 2002 miniseries The Forsyte Saga. She has also appeared in the films The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), St. Trinian’s (2007), and The Debt (2010).
Born in Richmond, Surrey, Chancellor was educated at St Paul’s Girls’ School in London and then at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She made her film debut in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), and her television debut in an episode of Inspector Morse (1993). She has since appeared in numerous films and television programmes. In 2010, she won a BAFTA Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Hazel Woodus in the BBC One drama series Poldark.
Chancellor has been married twice: first to actor Richard Ayoade from 2005 to 2006, and then to writer Benjamin Wood from 2010 to 2012. She has two sons, born in 2007 and 2009.
General Info
Date Of Birth
April 27, 1965
Place Of Birth
Richmond, United Kingdom
Height
1.79 m
Profession
Actor
Education
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
Nationality
British
Family
Spouse
Redha Debbah, Nigel Willoughby
Children
Poppy Chancellor
Parents
John Chancellor, Mary Alice Jolliffe
Accomplishments
Nominations
Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress, British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress, Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Movies
The Dreamers, Four Weddings and a Funeral, What a Girl Wants, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, How I Live Now, This Beautiful Fantastic, Testament of Youth, Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, St. Trinian's, The Man Who Knew Too Little, The Carer, FairyTale: A True Story, Hysteria, Breaking...
TV Shows
Pride and Prejudice, The Hour, Tipping the Velvet, Fortysomething, Spooks, Pramface, Suburban Shootout, Kavanagh QC, The Cazalets, New Blood, Mapp and Lucia, Jupiter Moon, The Vice, Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond, Hidden, Longitude, Karaoke, Queen Victoria's Letters: A Monarch Unveiled
[referring to her character in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)] When I die, my obituary will probably be, "Duckface dies".
2
I do try and curb my mouth, but I find it really hard. I wonder how many jobs I've talked myself out of!
3
I was brought up with two sisters, so I do know about a three-way dynamic. It's a complex one, because it's easy for one to get left out and the others to gang up. In my family, we were all pretty up for it, but the dynamics would constantly change.
4
I did become quite well known from Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), and it helped hugely. I wasn't as famous as Hugh Grant, but I certainly began to work. I couldn't complain. It got me jobs in the theatre. I went for endless auditions for tiny parts in obscure plays and never got one job, until I was in "Four Weddings".
Facts
#
Fact
1
She's a descendant of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.
2
She's twice a descendant of Mary Boleyn.
3
She has one daughter, Poppy Chancellor, born in 1988. Her father is Scots poet Jock Scott.
4
She has twice lost Colin Firth to another woman in a film. First in Pride and Prejudice (1995) when, as "Caroline Bingley", she loses out to Jennifer Ehle's "Elizabeth Bennet". Then, in What a Girl Wants (2003) as "Glynnis Payne", she loses him to Kelly Preston's "Libby Reynolds". Her bad luck when it comes to landing film hubbies apparently began in 1994's Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), in which her "Henrietta" was jilted at the altar by terminal bachelor "Charles", played by actor Hugh Grant.
5
Once famously shocked TV hosts Richard & Judy, the TV audience, and the ITV network bosses, when she uttered the 'f' word live on This Morning (1988) whilst being interviewed.
6
Trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, but left at the age of 21 when she became pregnant with her daughter, Poppy.
7
She was nominated for the 1997 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role of 1996 for her performance in "Stanley".
8
Anna's father was the great-grandson (maternally) of the 12th Earl of Winchilsea & Nottingham, who was himself the son of the 10th Earl of Winchilsea & Nottingham (two separate earldoms) by his *third* wife Fanny Margaretta Rice. Fanny Rice was herself the granddaughter maternally of one Edward Knight, of Chawton, Hants, and Godmersham, Kent, whose younger sister just happened to be one Jane Austen, novelist.
9
The niece of journalist/commentator Alexander Chancellor, and the daughter of John Chancellor by his 1st wife Hon. Mary Joliffe, of the Lords Hylton (and herself a great-granddaughter of H.H. Asquith, formerly a Prime Minister and then 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith). So that means she is related to actress Helena Bonham Carter (also a great-granddaughter of Asquith - but via his elder daughter Violet, instead of his eldest son like Anna).
