Frances featured in numerous Crawford Production series, but first became notable for starring in The Young Doctors (1976–1978), as acidic Sister later Matron Grace Scott.

Subsequently, she appeared in soap opera Sons and Daughters as Barbara Armstrong Hamilton on Network Seven (1982–1986).

Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, Frances was educated at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

This included uncredited bit parts in two films directed by her uncle, Michael Powell: Peeping Tom (1960) and The Queen's Guards (1961).

[2] She also had a small speaking role in Herbert Ross' film adaptation of Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and appeared in various theatre productions, like The Trials of Oscar Wilde.

[7][8] She guest-starred in numerous television shows, before taking another well-remembered role, that of Barbara Armstrong (later Hamilton) in Sons and Daughters, which she played from 1982 until 1986.

[citation needed] Frances married Michael Eastland in 1969; the marriage later ended in divorce.

[17] In January 2018, Frances revealed that she was battling bladder cancer that had spread to her hip, but stated that she was hopeful of reprising her role of Morag in Home and Away for the show's 30th anniversary.

She died on 28 May 2018, aged 77, at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, where the show The Young Doctors was coincidentally filmed.