Elsa Lanchester
Elsa Lanchester | |
---|---|
Born | Elsa Sullivan Lanchester 28 October 1902 Lewisham, London, England |
Died | 26 December 1986 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 84)
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1925–1983 |
Spouse | |
Parent | Edith Lanchester (mother) |
Relatives | Waldo Lanchester (brother) |
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester (28 October 1902 – 26 December 1986) was a British actress with a long career in theatre, film and television.[1]
Lanchester studied dance as a child and after the
Her role as the title character in
Early life
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was born in Lewisham, London.[2] Her parents, James "Séamus" Sullivan (1872–1945) and Edith "Biddy" Lanchester (1871–1966), were Bohemians, and refused to marry in a religious or legal way as a rebellion against Edwardian era society. Sullivan and Lanchester were both socialists, according to Lanchester's 1970 interview with Dick Cavett. Elsa's older brother, Waldo Sullivan Lanchester, born five years earlier, was a puppeteer, with his own marionette company based in Malvern, Worcestershire, and later in Stratford-upon-Avon.[3] Elsa studied dance in Paris under Isadora Duncan, whom she disliked. When the school was discontinued due to outbreak of World War I, she returned to the UK. At that point (she was about twelve years of age) she began teaching dance in the Duncan style and gave classes to children in her south London district, through which she earned some welcome extra income for her household.[citation needed]
Career
After World War I, Lanchester started the Children's Theatre, and later the Cave of Harmony, a nightclub at which modern plays and cabaret turns were performed. She revived old Victorian songs and ballads, many of which she retained for her performances in another revue entitled Riverside Nights. Her first film performance came in 1924 in the amateur production The Scarlet Woman, which was written by Evelyn Waugh who also appeared in two roles himself.[4][5]
She became sufficiently famous for Columbia to invite her into the recording studio to make 78 rpm discs of four of the numbers she sang in these revues, with piano arrangement and accompaniment by
Lanchester played supporting roles in
Lanchester played the role of Aunt Queenie, a witch in
Personal life
Lanchester married Charles Laughton in 1929.[2] In 1938 she published a book about her relationship with Laughton, Charles Laughton and I. In March 1983, she released an autobiography, titled Elsa Lanchester Herself. In that book, she writes that she and Laughton never had children because he was homosexual.[12] However, Laughton's friend and co-star Maureen O'Hara denied this was the reason for the couple's childlessness. She claimed Laughton had told her that the reason he and his wife never had children was because of a botched abortion Lanchester had early in her career when performing burlesque. Lanchester admitted in her autobiography that she had two abortions in her youth (one being Laughton's), but it is not clear if the second left her incapable of becoming pregnant again.[13] According to biographer Charles Higham, the reason she did not have children was that she did not want any.[14]
Lanchester was an
Death
Lanchester died in
Filmography
Film roles
- The Scarlet Woman: An Ecclesiastical Melodrama (1925 short) as Beatrice de Carolle
- One of the Best (1927) as Kitty
- The Constant Nymph (1928) as Lady
- The Tonic (1928, Short) as Elsa
- Daydreams (1928, Short) as Elsa / Heroine in Dream Sequence
- Blue Bottles (1928, Short) as Elsa
- Mr. Smith Wakes Up (1929, Short)
- Comets (1930) as Herself
- Ashes (1930, Short) as Girl
- The Love Habit (1931) as Mathilde
- The Officers' Mess (1931) as Cora Melville
- The Stronger Sex (1931) as Thompson
- Potiphar's Wife (1931) as Therese
- The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) as Anne of Cleves, the Fourth Wife
- David Copperfield (1935) as Clickett
- Naughty Marietta (1935) as Madame d'Annard
- Bride of Frankenstein (1935) as Mary Shelley/The Monster's Mate
- The Ghost Goes West (1935) as Miss Shepperton
- Rembrandt (1936) as Hendrickje Stoffels
- Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty (1936 unreleased short) as Millicent Bracegirdle
- Vessel of Wrath (1938) as Martha Jones
- Ladies in Retirement (1941) as Emily Creed
- Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942) as Bristol Isabel
- Tales of Manhattan (1942) as Elsa (Mrs Charles) Smith
- Forever and a Day (1943) as Mamie
- Thumbs Up (1943) as Emma Finch
- Lassie Come Home (1943) as Mrs. Carraclough
- Passport to Destiny (1944) as Ella Muggins
- The Spiral Staircase (1945) as Mrs. Oates
- The Razor's Edge (1946) as Miss Keith
- Northwest Outpost (1947) as Princess "Tanya" Tatiana
- The Bishop's Wife (1947) as Matilda
- The Big Clock(1948) as Louise Patterson
- The Secret Garden (1949) as Martha
- Come to the Stable (1949) as Amelia Potts
- Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress
- The Inspector General (1949) as Maria
- Buccaneer's Girl (1949) as Mme. Brizar
- Mystery Street (1950) as Mrs. Smerrling
- The Petty Girl (1950) as Dr. Crutcher
- Frenchie (1950) as Countess
- Dreamboat (1952) as Dr. Mathilda Coffey
- Les Misérables (1952) as Madame Magloire
- Androcles and the Lion (1952) as Megaera
- The Girls of Pleasure Island (1953) as Thelma
- Hell's Half Acre (1954) as Lida O'Reilly
- 3 Ring Circus (1954) as the Bearded Lady
- The Glass Slipper (1955) as Widow Sonder
- Alice in Wonderland (1955 TV movie) as the Red Queen
- Witness for the Prosecution (1957) as Miss Plimsoll
- Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress
- Golden Globe Award winner for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
- Bell, Book and Candle (1958) as Aunt Queenie Holroyd
- The Flood (1962 TV movie) as Noah's Wife (voice)
- Honeymoon Hotel (1964) as Chambermaid
- Mary Poppins (1964) as Katie Nanna
- Pajama Party (1964) as Aunt Wendy
- That Darn Cat!(1965) as Mrs. MacDougall
- Easy Come, Easy Go (1967) as Madame Neherina
- Blackbeard's Ghost (1968) as Emily Stowecroft
- Rascal (1969) as Mrs. Satterfield
- Me, Natalie (1969) as Miss Dennison
- In Name Only (1969, TV Movie) as Gertrude Caruso
- Willard (1971) as Henrietta Stiles
- Terror in the Wax Museum (1973) as Julia Hawthorn
- Arnold (1973) as Hester
- Murder by Death (1976) as Jessica Marbles
- Where's Poppa? (1979, TV Movie) as Momma Hocheiser
- Die Laughing (1980) as Sophie (final film role)
Partial television credits
- I Love Lucy (1956) as Mrs Edna Grundy, episode "Off to Florida"
- Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1964) "The McGregor Affair" as Aggie McGregor
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965) as Dr. Agnes Dabree, episode "The Brain-Killer Affair"
- Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color(1969) as Mrs. Formby, episodes "My Dog, the Thief", parts 1 and 2
- The Bill Cosby Show (1970) as Mrs. Wochuk, episode "The Elevator Doesn't Stop Here Anymore"
- Nanny and the Professor (1971) as Aunt Henrietta (3 episodes)
- Night Gallery (1972) as Lydia Bowen, episode "Green Fingers"
- Here's Lucy (1973) as Mumsie Westcott, episode "Lucy Goes to Prison"
- Mannix (1973) as Portia Penhaven, episode "A Matter of Principle"
References
- ^ Obituary Variety, 31 December 1986.
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57311. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ "The Lanchester Marionettes". The British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild Festival Exhibition. London, mUK: British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild. 1951. p. 43.
- ^ Information about The Scarlet Woman on the Evelyn Waugh website
- ^ Complete film and information at the British Film Institute
- ^ a b c d Maltin 1994, p. 494.
- ^ Jewell and Harbin 1982, p. 193.
- ^ "Theater: Elsa's Gazebo". Time. New York City. 24 May 1948. Archived from the original on 16 May 2010.
- ^ "New Pop Records", time.com, 6 November 1950.
- ^
Elsa Lanchester at AllMusic
- ^ Favell, Jack. "A Fan Tribute to Elsa Lanchester", Turner Classic Movies; retrieved 19 May 2013.
- ^ Houseman, John (17 April 1983). "The Bride of Frankenstein'". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 August 2007.
- ^ Lanchester 1983[page needed].
- ^ Higham 1976, p. 27
- ^ Elsa Lanchester, Charles Laughton and I, (Harcourt, Brace, 1938)
- ^ Motion Picture and Television Magazine, November 1952, page 33, Ideal Publishers
- ^ Weil, Martin (27 December 1986). "Actress Elsa Lanchester Dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
- ^ Mank 1999, p. 315
- ^ Mank 1999, p. 316
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-31224-377-7.
- Higham, Charles (1976). Charles Laughton: An Intimate Biography. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-38509-403-0.
- Jewell, Richard; Harbin, Vernon (1982). The RKO Story. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House. ISBN 978-0-70641-285-7.
- Lanchester, Elsa (1938). Charles Laughton and I. San Diego, California: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 0-15-164019-X.
- —— (1984). Elsa Lanchester Herself. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-31224-377-7.
- Maltin, Leonard (1994). "Elsa Lanchester". Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia. New York: Dutton. ISBN 0-525-93635-1.
- Mank, Gregory William (1999). Women in Horror Films, 1930s. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-78640-553-4.
- Singer, Kurt (1952). The Charles Laughton Story. London: R. Hale.
- —— (1954). The Laughton story; An Intimate Story of Charles Laughton. Philadelphia: Winston.
Further reading
- Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Elsa Lanchester". The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 140–145. ISBN 978-1-7200-3837-5.
External links
- Official website
- Elsa Lanchester at IMDb
- Elsa Lanchester at the TCM Movie Database
- Elsa Lanchester at the Internet Broadway Database
- Elsa Lanchester at the BFI's Screenonline
- Cult Sirens: Elsa Lanchester
- Elsa Lanchester at Virtual History