In 1978 she was labelled "One of the 10 Women to Watch" in that year by Cosmopolitan magazine, and appeared in the rarely seen comedy film Son of Hitler, opposite Bud Cort and Peter Cushing.
Dean played the role of Dawn Meadows in Joseph Losey's 1985 feature film Steaming opposite Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles and Diana Dors.
[2] In 2011 Dean played the role of Jacqui in The Wedding Video directed by Nigel Cole opposite Harriet Walter, Rufus Hound and Robert Webb.
[citation needed] While Jack Knoll of Newsweek said "The cast are excellent, notably Felicity Dean as the nubile student who becomes Halders mistress" Other stage work includes An Honourable Trade directed by Mike Bradwell for the Royal Court Theatre, Olivia in Twelfth Night for Nancy Meckler, for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew directed by Jonathan Miller, Julietta in Hyde Park, and Caroline in The Churchill Play, both for Barry Kyle.
Dean played Fanny Wilton in the Richard Eyre production of John Gabriel Borkman at The National Theatre in 1996 opposite Paul Scofield, Eileen Atkins and Vanessa Redgrave.
To see this poised woman reduced to untrammelled desperation when her lover leaves is deeply upsetting..."[6] Jeremy Kingston The Times also wrote, "Felicity Dean's fierce Masha subtly shows desire clambering out of boredom into hysterical grief at the departure of Charles Dance's quietly charismatic Vershinin".
She brings a great blast of sexuality to the stage,presenting a woman who is clearly turned on by evil.The effect is both thrilling and profoundly discomforting"[7][8] In 2007 she played the role of Dona Elvira in Don Juan, directed by Neil Bartlett at the Lyric Hammersmith.
[13] In 1977, she played a significant guest role as Sara Seaford in the second episode of the first season of the hard-hitting police drama The Professionals, entitled 'The Female Factor' (by Brian Clemens) starring opposite Gordon Jackson, Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins.
English novelist Rebecca West, perhaps best known for her reports on the Nuremberg Trials, personally picked Dean to play Laura Bowen, the heroine of her novel The Birds Fall Down in a five-part BBC adaptation produced by Jonathan Powell in 1978.
[14] Critically acclaimed, this led to Dean going on to play many parts on television including Guinevere in The Legend of King Arthur for the BBC in 1978, Belinda Harlowe in The Far Pavilions opposite Ben Cross and Rupert Everett in 1984, and the Lynda La Plante series Trial & Retribution in 1999.
Critic Neil Norman of The Daily Express wrote "Dean dominates the comfortably detailed stage.. she nails the essence of a woman who was racy, glamorous and far too intelligent to play second fiddle to her sister.