Elizabeth Allan

Elizabeth Allan (April 9, 1910 – July 27, 1990)

Allan worked in both Britain and Hollywood, making about 50 films over more than a quarter century. 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. 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 in George Cukor's David Copperfield and Jack Conway's A Tale of Two Cities, but was also featured in Tod Browning's Mark of the Vampire. 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 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 married from 1932 until her husband's death in 1977. Allan died on July 27, 1990 at age 80, and was cremated.