English-Australian actress who started her career in British films and became best known for her acting career in Australia after emigrating there in 1970, particularly her iconic television soap opera roles with portrayals of nasty characters.
Her early work was in British-made feature films as an extra and bit-part player. This included bit parts in two films directed by her uncle Michael Powell: Peeping Tom (1960), and The Queen’s Guards (1961).
She met her future husband in 1963 but moved to Australia two years later where she worked as a TV presenter. She moved back to the U.K. in 1967, where she married Michael Eastland in 1969. Returning to Australia in 1970, she worked in TV with 26 bit roles, steadily advancing her reputation.
Dramatic, icy, aggressive, with an angular, intense face, Frances won the role of a bitchy female lead in the Australian soap, The Young Doctors, in September 1976 and it first aired in November 1976, bringing fame. In 1979 she left the show to join her husband at his new job in Perth.
She played Barbara Hamilton on Sons and Daughters from 1982 to 1986. In 1988, she landed the role of Morag Bellingham in the major Aussie series Home and Away until she left in June 1989. She then appeared on a semi-regular basis as the storyline permitted, rejoining briefly as a permanent cast member in 2001, before going back to an itinerant basis.
In 1997, Frances provided the voice of Tortoise on the Australian/Chinese children’s series Magic Mountain. She also hosted the Australian version of quiz show The Weakest Link (2001–2002). In the early 2000s, Frances worked for a winery in the Hunter Valley when she could not get acting work. Her autobiography And What Have You Done Lately? was published in 2003.
She had one son, Lawrence, born on 11 June 1971; she separated from her husband in the spring of 1991. Her mother had died the prior September, in 1990.
In January 2018, Frances revealed that she was battling bladder cancer that had spread to her hip. She succumbed to the cancer, after it had metastasized to her spine, despite having undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and died on 28 May 2018 at the age of 77.
Link to Wikipedia biography