Elizabeth Allan

This article is about the British actress. For the American actress, see Elizabeth Allen.

Elizabeth Allan
from the trailer for the film David Copperfield (1935).
Born	9 April 1908(1908-04-09) Skegness, Lincolnshire, England, UK
Died	27 July 1990 (aged 82) Hove, East Sussex, England, UK
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1931–1967
Spouse(s)	Wilfred J. O Bryen (1932–1977) (his death)

Elizabeth Allan (9 April 1908 – 27 July 1990) was an English actress who worked in both England and Hollywood, making about 50 films over more than a quarter century.

She was born at Skegness in Lincolnshire, England. After four years on stage with The Old Vic, she made her movie debut in 1931, first appearing in The Alibi. In 1932 she joined Wilfred 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 MGM. 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 Frank Lloyd's A Tale of Two Cities, but was also featured as the imperiled young lady in Todd 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 the leading part of Christine Manson in King Vidor's The Citadel, and, when she was subsequently replaced by Rosalind Russell, Elizabeth sued the studio. The studio retaliated by refusing to let her work, and, frustrated, she returned to England 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.

Allan died at Hove in East Sussex.

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

Selected filmography

• Folly to Be Wise (1953)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Elizabeth Allan (actress)

• Elizabeth Allan at the Internet Movie Database
• [1]
• Elizabeth Allan at Find a Grave

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