Name: Anna Chancellor
Date of Birth: 27 April 1965
Her eight-times great aunt is author Jane Austen.
Anna Chancellor is 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).
... 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.
She was nominated for the 1997 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role of 1996 for her performance in Stanley.
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.
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.
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 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'.
She has one daughter, Poppy.
Read more Less
