Jane Lapotaire, the English actress, died on March 5, 2026, aged 81.
Born Jane Elizabeth Marie Burgess in Ipswich, Suffolk, on December 26, 1944, she was from Suffolk and worked as an actress from 1965 to 2026. Her performance in the title role of Marie Curie in 1977 first brought her to wide attention.
In 1978, she played the title role in Pam Gems’s Piaf for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and in London, and later on Broadway, where she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Lapotaire also wrote three memoirs and was married twice, latterly to director Roland Joffé; their son is the screenwriter and director Rowan Joffé.
Jane Elizabeth Marie Lapotaire (née Burgess; 26 December 1944 – 5 March 2026) was an English actress from Suffolk.