Elizabeth Allan | |
|---|---|
 Elizabeth Allan in the trailer for Camille (1936) | |
| Born | 9 April 1910 [1] |
| Died | 27 July 1990 (aged 80) Hove, East Sussex, England |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1927–1967 |
| Spouse | Wilfrid J. O'Bryen (m. 1932;died 1977) |
Elizabeth Allan (9 April 1910 – 27 July 1990) was an English stage and film actress who worked in both Britain and Hollywood, where she appeared in 50 films.
Allan was born in Skegness, Lincolnshire in 1910 and educated in Darlington, County Durham. At age 17, she made her stage debut at the Old Vic. She made her film debut four years later in Alibi . [1]
She appeared in a number of films for Julius Hagen's Twickenham Studios, but was also featured in Gainsborough's Michael and Mary and Korda's Service for Ladies . [1] In 1932 she married agent Wilfrid J. O'Bryen, to whom she was introduced by actor Herbert Marshall; they were together until his death in 1977.
Her first US/UK co-production and first US production came in 1933, and she worked in the United States under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 1935 was her most memorable year in Hollywood, when she not only distinguished herself in two memorable Dickens' adaptations as David's unfortunate young mother in George Cukor's David Copperfield and as Lucie Manette in Jack Conway's A Tale of Two Cities , but was also featured in Tod Browning's Mark of the Vampire .
Allan did not think highly of the latter film, to which she had been assigned, and considered it "slumming". [ citation needed ] MGM announced her for a leading part in King Vidor's The Citadel , but she was subsequently replaced by Rosalind Russell. When she was replaced again by Greer Garson in Goodbye, Mr Chips , Elizabeth successfully sued the studio. [2] The studio retaliated by refusing to let her work, and, frustrated, she returned to the UK in 1938. The same year she appeared onstage in the West End farce The Innocent Party alongside Basil Radford and Cecil Parker.
By the 1950s, Allan had made the transition to character parts. Particularly memorable is her appearance as Trevor Howard's brittle and dissatisfied wife in the film adaptation of Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter (1953). In 1958, she appeared as Boris Karloff's wife in The Haunted Strangler . Late in her career, she was a frequent panellist on television game shows, including the British version of What's My Line? . She was named Great Britain's Top Female TV Personality of 1952.
She died at Hove, on the Sussex coast, at age 80. She was cremated at Woodvale Crematorium in Brighton and the ashes were taken by the family. [3]
Her name is on Brighton & Hove's Scania OmniDekka bus 655.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | Alibi | Ursula Browne | |
| 1931 | Rodney Steps In | Masked Lady | Short |
| 1931 | The Rosary | Vera Mannering | |
| 1931 | Black Coffee | Barbara Amory | |
| 1931 | Chin Chin Chinaman | Olga Dureska | |
| 1931 | Michael and Mary | Romo | |
| 1931 | Many Waters | Freda Barcaldine | |
| 1932 | Service for Ladies | Sylvia Robertson | |
| 1932 | The Chinese Puzzle | Naomi Melsham | |
| 1932 | Nine till Six | Gracie Abbott | |
| 1932 | Down Our Street | Maisie Collins | |
| 1932 | Insult | Pola Dubois | |
| 1932 | The Lodger | Daisy Bunting | |
| 1933 | The Shadow | Sonia Bryant | |
| 1933 | Looking Forward | Caroline Service | |
| 1933 | The Lost Chord | Joan Elton | |
| 1933 | No Marriage Ties | Peggy Wilson | |
| 1933 | The Solitaire Man | Helen Heming | |
| 1933 | Ace of Aces | Nancy Adams | |
| 1934 | The Mystery of Mr. X | Jane Frensham | |
| 1934 | Men in White | Barbara | |
| 1934 | Java Head | Nettie Vollar | |
| 1934 | Outcast Lady | Venice Harpenden | |
| 1935 | David Copperfield | Clara Copperfield | |
| 1935 | Mark of the Vampire | Irena Borotyn | |
| 1935 | A Tale of Two Cities | Lucie Manette | |
| 1936 | A Woman Rebels | Flora Anne Thistlewaite | |
| 1936 | Camille | Nichette | |
| 1937 | The Soldier and the Lady | Nadia | |
| 1937 | Slave Ship | Nancy Marlowe | |
| 1938 | Dangerous Medicine | Victoria Ainswell | |
| 1938 | It Might Be You | Betty | Short |
| 1939 | Inquest | Margaret Hamilton | |
| 1940 | The Girl Who Forgot | Leonora Barradine | |
| 1940 | Saloon Bar | Queenie King | |
| 1942 | Went the Day Well? | Peggy Pryde | |
| 1942 | The Great Mr. Handel | Mrs. Cibber | |
| 1945 | He Snoops to Conquer | Jane Strawbridge | |
| 1948 | Virtuoso | Judith Wainwright | |
| 1949 | If This Be Sin | Sybil | |
| 1951 | No Highway in the Sky | Shirley Scott | |
| 1952 | Folly to Be Wise | Angela Prout | |
| 1953 | Twice Upon a Time | Carol-Anne Bailey | |
| 1953 | The Heart of the Matter | Louise Scobie | |
| 1954 | Front Page Story | Susan Grant | |
| 1955 | The Brain Machine | Philippa Roberts | |
| 1958 | The Haunted Strangler | Barbara Rankin |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | The Concert | Frances Hein | TV film |
| 1955–56 | The Adventures of Annabel | Annabel | TV series |
| 1956 | The Chalet | Cyra Carter | TV film |
| 1956 | The Adventures of Aggie | Toni | Episode: "Top Secret" |
| 1961 | Call Oxbridge 2000 | Peggy Graham | TV series |
Dame Flora McKenzie Robson was an English actress and star of the theatrical stage and cinema, particularly renowned for her performances in plays demanding dramatic and emotional intensity. Her range extended from queens to murderesses.
Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller, was an English film and stage actress who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly 60 years. Writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation Rating the Movie Stars, described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took command of the screen whenever she appeared on film". Despite many notable film performances, Hiller chose to remain primarily a stage actress.
Babette Louisa Valerie Hobson was a British actress whose film career spanned the 1930s to the early 1950s. Her second husband was John Profumo, a British government minister who became the subject of the Profumo affair in 1963.
Edith Madeleine Carroll was an English actress, popular both in Britain and America in the 1930s and 1940s. At the peak of her success in 1938, she was the world's highest-paid actress.
Elizabeth Lee McGovern is an American actress and musician. She has received many awards, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, three Golden Globe Award nominations, and one Academy Award nomination.
Claire Trevor was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Key Largo (1948), and received nominations for her roles in The High and the Mighty (1954) and Dead End (1937). Trevor received top billing, ahead of John Wayne, for Stagecoach (1939).
Dame Frances Margaret Anderson,, known professionally as Judith Anderson, was an Australian actress who had a successful career in stage, film and television. A pre-eminent stage actress in her era, she won two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award. She is considered one of the 20th century's greatest classical stage actors.
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke was an American actress who was famous on Broadway and radio, and in silent and sound films. She is best known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie musical The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Jennifer Anne Ehle is an American actress. She gained fame for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice, for which she received the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress. She is also known for her performances on Broadway, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for The Real Thing in 2000, and Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for The Coast of Utopia in 2007.
Edna Clara Best was a British actress.
Coral Edith Browne was an Australian-American stage and screen actress. Her extensive theatre credits included Broadway productions of Macbeth (1956), The Rehearsal (1963) and The Right Honourable Gentleman (1965). She won the 1984 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the BBC TV film An Englishman Abroad (1983). Her film appearances included Auntie Mame (1958), The Killing of Sister George (1968), The Ruling Class (1972) and Dreamchild (1985). She was also actor Vincent Price's third wife.
Rosemary Murphy was a German-American actress of stage, film, and television. She was nominated for three Tony Awards for her stage work, as well as two Emmy Awards for television work, winning once, for her performance in Eleanor and Franklin (1976).
Lucile Watson was a Canadian actress, long based in the United States. She was "famous for her roles of formidable dowagers."
Rosalie Sylvia Crutchley was a British actress. Trained at the Royal Academy of Music, Crutchley was perhaps best known for her television performances, but had a long and successful career in theatre and films, making her stage debut as early as 1932, and her screen debut in 1947.
Pert L. Kelton was an American stage, movie, radio, and television actress. She was the first actress who played Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason and earlier, during the 1930s, was a prominent comedic supporting and leading actress in Hollywood films such as Gregory La Cava's Bed of Roses with Constance Bennett and Raoul Walsh's The Bowery with Wallace Beery and George Raft. She performed in a dozen Broadway productions between 1925 and 1968. However, her career was interrupted in the 1950s as a result of blacklisting, leading to her departure from The Honeymooners.
Sir John Selby Clements, CBE was a British actor and producer who worked in theatre, television and film.
Mary Boland was an American stage and film actress.
Hayley Elizabeth Atwell is a British and American actress. Born and raised in London, Atwell studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and made her stage debut in a 2005 production of James Kerr's translation of the Ancient Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound.
Patricia Roc was an English film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945), though she only made one film in Hollywood, Canyon Passage (1946). She also appeared in Millions Like Us (1943), Jassy (1945), The Brothers (1947) and When the Bough Breaks (1947).
Cynthia Erivo is an English actress, singer, and songwriter. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Grammy Award and a Tony Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Biographical dictionaries | |
| Other | |
