Elsa Lanchester

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Elsa Lanchester, 1935

Elsa Lanchester (born October 28, 1902 in Lewisham , London , United Kingdom , † December 26, 1986 in Woodland Hills , California , USA ; actually Elisabeth Sullivan ) was a British-American actress . She gained particular fame in 1935 through her impersonation of an artificially created human being in the horror film Frankenstein's Bride .

biography

Childhood and early career

Elsa Lanchester was born in London to two well-known socialists, James Sullivan and Edith Lanchester . At the age of eleven she attended the Bellevue School Isadora Duncans dance school in Paris, and later a dance school in Chelsea. There she also worked as a dance teacher from 1918. In 1920 Lanchester founded a theater for children in Soho and made her first appearance in a music hall.

Her first film role was in an amateur film called The Scarlet Woman in 1924. At that time, she was opening a theater nightclub in London. In 1927 she met Charles Laughton , with whom she worked at the theater in the late 1920s. In 1929 Lanchester and Laughton married. Their marriage lasted until Laughton's death in 1962, and they starred in twelve films together.

Acting career

In 1931 Elsa Lanchester appeared in a New York theater, a contract with the MGM film studio followed in 1932. Lanchester received her first major film role in 1933 as Anna von Kleve in Alexander Korda's tragic comedy The Private Life of Henry VIII alongside Charles Laughton in the title role . For this appearance in the Oscar-winning biography, she received first attention from critics. In 1933 and 1934 Lanchester played again in London theater.

Elsa Lanchester had her Hollywood breakthrough with her appearance in James Whale's film Frankenstein's Bride . Lanchester played the role of Mary Shelley in the introduction to the film as well as the bride of the monster and not - as the title of the film suggests - the bride of Dr. Frankenstein. Although Lanchester can only be seen as the woman brought to life for about ten minutes in the film , this character went down in film history as an icon of horror films.

More film roles followed at Laughton's side. Lanchester finally moved to the United States in 1939 and was naturalized in 1950. From the 1940s she appeared often in cabarets and revues and was seen less often in films, but worked with many great directors. In 1949 she acted alongside Loretta Young and Celeste Holm in a supporting role in Henry Kosters ... and heaven laughs at that . A year later, Lanchester received her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for her role as Amelia Potts . Eight years later, the 1.64 m great actress to the part ensemble of Billy Wilder's court thriller Witness for the Prosecution . For her role as the strict nurse Miss Plimsoll she received a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in 1958 , but had to admit defeat to the Japanese Miyoshi Umeki (for Sayonara ) at the following Academy Awards .

For ten years, between 1951 and 1961, Lanchester was on tour through the USA with her self-developed program Elsa Lanchester - Herself . In the 1960s she was also seen in several Walt Disney films - including in 1964 as a quit nanny in Mary Poppins - and in addition to her film work also appeared in television series such as solo for ONCEL (The Man from UNCLE) and Night Gallery .

Elsa Lanchester's autobiography was published in 1983 under the title Elsa Lanchester Herself .

Filmography (selection)

Autobiography

Web links

Commons : Elsa Lanchester  - Collection of Images


Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.murnau-stiftung.de
personal data
SURNAME Lanchester, Elsa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sullivan, Elisabeth (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-American actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH London , UK
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 1986
Place of death Woodland Hills , California , United States