The Crown's Jane Lapotaire has died at the age of 81.

The star - who played Princess Alice of Battenberg in the Netflix royal drama - passed away on March 5 and was announced on Thursday (12.03.26) by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

In a statement, it said: "We are saddened to hear of the death of RSC Honorary Associate Artist, Jane Lapotaire.

"A truly brilliant actress, Jane joined the RSC in 1974 to play Viola in Twelfth Night. A few years later, she took the title role in Pam Gems' Piaf, winning Olivier and TONY Best Actress awards.

"In 1992, she played Gertrude opposite Kenneth Branagh in Adrian Noble's Hamlet. Her final two performances for the Company were in 2013 as the Duchess of Gloucester in Greg Doran's Richard II alongside David Tennant, and, in 2015, as Queen Isobel in Henry V, again directed by Greg.

"Our thoughts are with Jane's family and friends."

Jane is survived by her 53-year-old son, screenwriter-and-director Rowan Joffe, whom she had with her ex-husband, film director Roland Joffe.

Tributes have poured in for Jane - whose career spanned over 60 years on the stage and screen - across social media.

All Creatures Great and Small actress Carol Drinkwater, 77, penned on X: "Oh, no! I am so sad to read this.

"I knew Jane way back when I was an actress in my twenties at the National. I looked up to her for the quality of her work and the feisty woman she was. Rest in Peace, Jane."

A fan typed on Instagram: "Wonderful actor. I remember being captivated by her performance as Lady Macbeth in a BBC Shakespeare film opposite Nicol Williamson, back in the misty moments of the 1980s. Never forgotten that. I pretty much fell in love with theatre on the spot."

And a supporter wrote on Facebook: "Gosh! A phenomenal actor. I saw her in the lead role in Saint Joan at York Theatre Royal back in 1985 when I was only 14. It was one of my first visits to the theatre, but had stuck in my mind. Probably instrumental in a lifelong love of the arts. RIP."

Born in Ipswich, Suffolk, on December 26, 1944, Jane started her entertainment career in 1965 as Ruby Birtle in JB Priestley's When We Are Married, at the Bristol Old Vic, where she stayed for the following two years and went on to be a founding member of The Young Vic Theatre in 1970.

The star's breakout role came in 1977 when she played the titular role of physicist Marie Curie in a 1977 BBC miniseries, and then Edith Piaf in Pam Gems's play Piaf for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Jane stayed with the latter when it was on the West End, where she scooped up the Olivier Award for Best Actress in 1979, and then a Tony Award when the production was on Broadway in 1981.

Following her divorce from Oliver Wood in 1967 after two years of marriage, Jane married film director Roland Joffe in 1974, and they had one son, Rowan, in 1973.

Jane and Roland divorced in 1980, and she then struck up a romance with actor Michael Pennington.

The actress also had impressive TV credits to her name, including portraying Cleopatra in the 1981 BBC production Antony+Cleopatra, Princess Kuragin in the ITV period drama Downton Abbey's 2014 Christmas special, and Princess Alice of Battenberg in Netflix's The Crown.

In January 2000, Jane prepared to teach Shakespeare at Ecole Internationale in Paris, France, but she collapsed with a cerebral haemorrhage.

The star had two major operations and was in intensive care for a month, which Jane wrote about in her 2003 bestselling memoir, Time Out of Mind.

Jane was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2025 and made her final public appearance in February 2026 when she collected it at Windsor Castle.