Yvonne Furneaux (born Elisabeth Yvonne Scatcherd; 11 May 1926 – 5 July 2024) was a French-British actress. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she worked with notable filmmakers like Peter Brook, Federico Fellini, Roman Polanski, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Claude Chabrol, as well as in several genre productions.
Early life
Furneaux was born Elisabeth Yvonne Scatcherd to English parents living in Roubaix, France on 11 May 1926.[2] Her Yorkshireman father, Joseph Scatcherd, was a director at a local branch of Lloyds Bank. Her mother, Amy Furneaux, was from Devon. She had a sister, Jeanne.
The family moved to England prior to the outbreak of World War II, and Yvonne enrolled in St Hilda's College, Oxford in 1946 to study Modern Languages, where she was known as "Tessa Scatcherd". While studying at Oxford she became involved in university theatre groups, and after graduating enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art,[2] which she graduated from in 1951.[3]