I keep hoping some stills from the upcoming film Monstrous Beauty will be released, because longtime Irish frock flick actor Fiona Shaw will be playing Aphra Behn, famous English poet, author, and translator in the Restoration era (late 17th century) — but, no dice. NO DOUBT we’ll be covering the film as it’s released, so let’s look at Shaw’s long and illustrious career. Even if you don’t recognize the name, trust me, you know and appreciate her! And yes, she plays Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter film series.
Miss Morrison in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984)
A British TV series about the late 19th-century detective.
Isabel in Mountains of the Moon (1990)
British explorers “discover” the source of the Nile in the 1850s. Isabel Burton, was herself a writer and explorer; she was married to one of the co-“discoverers.”
Mrs. Croft in Persuasion (1995)
The one, the only, accept no substitutes, Jane Austen adaptation! Mrs. Croft is the independent and romantic woman who inspires Anne to reimagine her life.
Mrs. Reed in Jane Eyre (1996)
The William Hurt/Charlotte Gainsborough feature film. Mrs. Reed is Jane’s cruel aunt who sends her away to school.
Lydia in Anna Karenina (1997)
Actually Countess Lidia Ivanovna, who is a leader of society.
Marda Norton in The Last September (1999)
Set during the Irish War of Independence of the 1920s. It’s been too long for me to remember Shaw’s role, but Wikipedia says “The arrival of Marda Norton causes an upheaval amongst all in the house.”
Hedda Hopper in RKO 281 (1999)
A film about the making of Citizen Kane. Hopper was a popular gossip columnist renowned for her amazing hats!
Leontine in The Triumph of Love (2001)
A very meh 18th-century-set comedy with various people in love and swapping identities.
Fulvia in Empire (2005)
A TV miniseries about Octavian’s struggle to become emperor. Fulvia was an aristocratic woman who was very involved in politics and married to Mark Antony, among others.
Ramona Linscott in The Black Dahlia (2006)
The famously unsolved murder of a Hollywood starlet in the 1940s. Ramona is the mother of a friend of the murder victim.
Agatha in Dorian Gray (2009)
An adaptation of the Oscar Wilde novel. Looks like Agatha is a society lady?
Emilie Ashurst in We Believed (2010)
An Italian film “inspired by events around the 19th-century Young Italy political movement and based on the novel of the late art historian Anna Banti,” per Wikipedia. Shaw’s role appears to be small?
Miss Katherine Greenshaw in Marple: Greenshaw’s Folly (2013)
One of many of the 1950s-set Agatha Christie murder mysteries.
Madame Moncin in Maigret (2016)
A TV series starring the fictional French detective. Set in the 1950s.
Abby Borden in Lizzie (2018)
The story of the famous 1892 murders; Abby is Lizzie Borden’s stepmother and one of the victims.
Sido in Colette (2018)
Shaw plays French writer Colette’s mother in early scenes.
Coleman in Mrs. Wilson (2018)
A FASCINATING true-life story about a woman who’s husband dies in the 1960s, and she starts to learn about his hidden lives. I don’t remember Shaw’s role but I’m guessing she works at MI6 (British intelligence), where the husband worked?
Elizabeth Philpot in Ammonite (2020)
A romantic relationship develops between British paleontologist Mary Anning and another woman; Philpot was a fellow paleontologist and fossil collector.
Miss Harrison in Enola Holmes (2020)
About the fictional sister of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Miss Harrison runs the finishing school Enola attends.
What’s your favorite of Fiona Shaw’s many frock flick roles?
Between the cheekbones and the Romanesque nose, she always seems so aristocratic. The cropped hair in Persuasion was probably easier to care for when living on ship.
My Left Foot! Set in the 1960’s in Ireland.
“My Left Foot” is a brilliant movie, and Shaw was brilliant in it. I can’t think of any F.S. role I haven’t enjoyed (even though Isabella Arundell would not have gone to bed with her fiance, as happened in “Mountains of the Moon”). AND I saw her live in a production of “Medea”! Don’t remember much about the costumes, though…
Richard II
It’s a stage play, but I saw the recorded version and the way she shifted from the emphases that other actors gave those speeches…. made parts feel fresh and new. Like I was hearing some for the first time.
She was Iconic as Harry’s horrible Aunt Petunia, a 1950s style housewife! Not historical though!
That’s where I know her from! Thank you.
Loved her in Ammonite. Her attire, like her character, is relaxed and comfortable compared to the heavyiness of Anning’s or the constricting details of Charlotte’s. I think Sophie Croft in Persuasion is 40-year-old Austen’s ideal woman and Fiona Shaw perfectly embodies Austen’s character. Plus the turbans! I started wearing scarves twisted in my hair because of her.
Absolutely love the blond hair in Ammonite- it’s very flattering. I’ve always enjoyed her roles.