Aitken was born in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of Sir William Aitken, a Conservative MP, and Penelope Aitken, whose father was John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby. Her grandfather was the UK Representative to Ireland (1939–49). She is a great-niece of newspaper magnate and war-time minister Lord Beaverbrook, and sister to former Conservative cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken. She attended Riddlesworth Hall Preparatory School in Norfolk, Sherborne School for Girls in Dorset and St Annes College, Oxford, where she graduated with a degree in English Language and Literature.She has directed several plays in the West End and on Broadway. Her production of The 39 Steps, which ran in London for nine years, also played three years on Broadway and won Olivier and Tony Awards. In 2011, she directed Frank Langella in Man and Boy on Broadway. She is a Visiting Lecturer at Yale, NYU and Juilliard drama schools. Her extensive acting career includes leading roles at the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and in the West End. She has played more Noël Coward leads than any other actress. Her film career includes appearances in Doctor Faustus (1967), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Half Moon Street (1986), A Fish Called Wanda (1988) (for which she was nominated for a BAFTA award), The Fool (1990), The Grotesque (1995), Fierce Creatures (1997), Jinnah (1998) and Asylum (2005).She is the author of A Girdle Round the Earth, a story of some of the more remarkable women travellers of the last 200 years, and Style Acting in High Comedy, published in 1996, which contends that High comedies are not bloodless, refined, wordy plays — their themes are sex, money and social advancement. They contain a splendid contradiction wit and elegance at the service of mans basest drives.From Wikipedia
Edwina
Film 1998
Susannah
Film 1980
Lady Amelia
Film 1990
Film 1976
Claudia Greene
Film 2005
Self
Film 1998
Mrs. Otway
Film 1979
Robot Flight Attendant (uncredited)
Film 1969
Ellie Bloom
Film 1979
Tv 2004
Tv 1972
Mrs. Petrie
Tv 1970
Self
Tv 1982
Tv 1977
Tv 1972
Lady Flamborough
Tv 1994
Tv 1978
Jocelyn Bennington
Tv 1972
Lady Beste
Tv 1971
Madame Leonard
Tv 1970