Elizabeth Allan

For other persons of this or a similar name, see Elizabeth Allen (disambiguation).

Elizabeth Allan
File:Elizabeth Allan in Camille.jpg Elizabeth Allan in the trailer for Camille (1936)
Born	(1910-04-09)9 April 1910 Skegness, Lincolnshire, England, UK
Died	Hove, East Sussex, England, UK
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1931–1967
Spouse(s)	Wilfrid J. O'Bryen (m. 1932–77) (his death)

Elizabeth Allan (9 April 1910 – 27 July 1990) was an English actress who worked in both Britain and Hollywood, making about 50 films over more than a quarter century.

Life and career

She was born at Skegness, Lincolnshire in 1910. After four years onstage with the Old Vic, she made her film debut in 1931, first appearing in Alibi.

She began her career appearing in a number of films for Julius Hagen's Twickenham Studios but also featured in Gainsborough's Michael and Mary and Korda's Service for Ladies. In 1932, she joined Wilfrid J. O'Bryen — to whom she had been introduced by actor Herbert Marshall — in a marriage that lasted 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". 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. The studio retaliated by refusing to let her work, and, frustrated, she returned to the UK in 1938.

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 panelist 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.

Death

She died at Hove, East Sussex, aged 80.

Legacy

Her name is on Brighton & Hove's Scania OmniDekka bus 655.

Partial filmography

• The Rosary (1931)
• Michael and Mary (1931)
• Many Waters (1931)
• Alibi (1931)
• Black Coffee (1931)
• Nine till Six (1932)
• Service for Ladies (1932)
• The Chinese Puzzle (1932)
• Down Our Street (1932)
• The Lodger (1932)
• The Shadow (1933)
• Looking Forward (1933)
• The Lost Chord (1933)
• No Marriage Ties (1933)
• The Solitaire Man (1933)
• Ace of Aces (1933)
• Java Head (1934)
• Outcast Lady (1934)
• The Mystery of Mr. X (1934)
• Men in White (1934)
• David Copperfield (1935)
• Mark of the Vampire (1935)
• A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
• A Woman Rebels (1936)
• Camille (1936)
• The Soldier and the Lady (1937)
• Slave Ship (1937)
• Dangerous Medicine (1938)
• Inquest (1939)
• Saloon Bar (1940)
• The Girl Who Forgot (1940)
• Went the Day Well? (1942)
• The Great Mr. Handel (1942)
• He Snoops to Conquer (1944)
• That Dangerous Age (1949)
• No Highway in the Sky (1951)
• Folly to Be Wise (1953)
• Twice Upon a Time (1953)
• The Heart of the Matter (1953)
• Front Page Story (1954)
• The Brain Machine (1955)
• Grip of the Strangler (1958)

External links

• Elizabeth Allan at the Internet Movie Database
• [1]
• Photographs and literature on Elizabeth Allan