Hetty Baynes


Henrietta Sara Louise Baynes is an English film, television and theatre actress. She began her career as a ballet dancer at the Royal Ballet School and made her professional debut at 12 in Rudolf Nureyev's The Nutcracker and then Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In her mid-teens she moved from dance to acting.
She began her acting career at 17, as an acting ASM in repertory theatre. She was married to film director Ken Russell from 1992 to 1999; they had one son.

Early life and education

Baynes was born in Boscombe Hospital, Bournemouth, the daughter of aeronautical engineer Leslie Baynes, who designed what is believed to be the oldest flying glider in the United Kingdom, and Margot, who was subsequently in a fifty-year relationship with the sculptor Mary Spencer Watson. Baynes attended the Elmhurst Ballet School in Camberley in Surrey, where a contemporary was the actress Laura Hartong. She obtained a BA in Philosophy from Birkbeck College London in 1990, and completed an MA in Creative Writing there in 2015.

Career

Her stage career has involved many leading roles including in 1979, in John Osborne’s Inadmissible Evidence at the Royal Court Theatre, in 1984, a comic performance alongside Maureen Lipman and Lionel Jeffries in the Theatre of Comedy’s See How They Run; in 1991, she appeared with Edward Fox in The Philanthropist at Wyndham's Theatre and in 1997, as Lady Fidget in William Wycherley’s The Country Wife . Her most recent stage performance was in 2004, as Shirley in Revelations by Stephen Lowe at the Hampstead Theatre.
During her career she has received three best actress nominations for her performances; in 1991, as Rita in Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf, in 1992, as Maddy in Michael Wall’s Women Laughing and as Marilyn Monroe in Marilyn Bowering’s Anyone Can See I Love You.
Baynes has also appeared on television including in 1981 with Sir John Gielgud in Agatha Christie’s The Seven Dials Mystery, in 1985, with Pauline Collins and Michael Gambon in The Tropical Moon Over Dorking, in 1990, as the wife of Stephen Fry in Simon Gray’s Old Flames, in 1993, as Hilda in Ken Russell’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and with Glenda Jackson in The Secret Life of Sir Arnold Bax. She appeared as Vera Rowley in the BBC series The Hour in 2011 and was also to be seen in BBC1's The Casual Vacancy in 2015.

Art and paintings

Baynes is an arts graduate of Central Saint Martins and her work is exhibited from time to time. A recent exhibition at the Strand Gallery, London contained 35 of her original paintings and was entitled "Betsy and Blapsy". It was billed as a "humorous yet personal, autobiographical exhibition".

Personal life

She was married to film director Ken Russell from 1992 to 1999; they had one son. In 2008 Baynes lost a high court challenge over the £2.3m estate of the late Mary Spencer Watson, a sculptor who had a 50-year lesbian relationship with her mother.

Selected theatre appearances

This is an incomplete list of television appearances; you can help by expanding it.