Born 1910 in Skegness, Lincolnshire, English actress Elizabeth Allan made her stage debut at the Old Vic at age 17, and made her film debut four years later in Alibi (1931). 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.
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). 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 in 1990 at Hove, on the Sussex coast, at age 80. Take a look at these beautiful photos to see portraits of a young Elizabeth Allan in the 1930s.
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