Laura Fraser

A native of Glasgow, Scottish actress Laura Fraser first came to the attention of international audiences with her work in Gillies MacKinnon's 1995 Small Faces. A coming-of-age drama set in a rough Glasgow neighborhood in the 1960s, it featured Fraser as the girlfriend of a local gangster, and the acclaim the film received contained praise for Fraser's tough, vivacious performance. She went on to do starring work in a series of British films, most of which failed to do justice to her talent. In 1999 Fraser was chosen as part of a high-profile cast to star as Lavinia in Titus, Julie Taymor's iconoclastic screen adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. The film received mixed reviews on both sides of the ocean, but a number of reviewers did note that Fraser more than held her own alongside such established stars as Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. After a brief turn in the British post-Beavis and Butthead brain cell ripper Kevin & Perry Go Large, Fraser traveled back in time for the popular joustfest A Knight's Tale.

~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide