Actress Anna Massey dies at age 73

LONDON, July 4 (UPI) -- British actress Anna Massey, who starred in films by Alfred Hitchcock and Michael Powell, has died at the age of 73, her agent said.

Her agent told The Guardian Massey died Sunday with her husband, Uri Andres, and her son, David Brett, at her side.

The daughter of Canadian film and TV actor Raymond Massey and British actress Adrienne Allen, Massey made her stage debut at 17 in "The Reluctant Debutante," the BBC reported.

Her film debut came in 1958 in "Gideon's Day," directed by her godfather, John Ford. She followed with roles as women threatened by crazed killers in Powell's "Peeping Tom" and Hitchcock's "Frenzy."

In later decades, Massey acted alongside Christian Bale in "The Machinist," Gwyneth Paltrow in "Possession" and Colin Firth in "The Importance of Being Earnest." But she became best-known on television, starring in such period dramas as "Tess of the d'Urbervilles," "Anna Karenina," "The Cherry Orchard," "Mansfield Park" and "Oliver Twist."

Massey was named a Commander of the British Empire by the queen in 2004.

Last year, she made her last screen appearance on the BBC's "Moving On" series.