Sheila Allen (actress, 1932)

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Sheila Allen (born October 22, 1932 in Chard , Somerset , England , † October 13, 2011 in London , England) was a British actress .

Life

Education and theater

Sheila Allen was born to William Allen and his wife Dorothy Essex (née Potter). She attended Howell's School in Denbigh , Clwyd .

After graduating from high school, Allen trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1949 to 1951 . She made her first theater appearances at repertory theaters in Yeovil and Pitlochry . When Pitlochry Festival 1953 she played Lucy in the comedy The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan . From 1954 to 1956 she was a member of the Arena Theater Company in Birmingham . There she appeared as Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew , as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing and as Alcmene in Amphitryon 38 by Jean Giraudoux . In 1957/1958 she played with the Bristol Old Vic Company at the Theater Royal in Bristol . There she appeared as Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night's Dream (with guest appearances in London ), as Mrs. Pearce in Pygmalion and as Marfa Zlototochienko in the comedy Romanoff and Juliet by Peter Ustinov .

In 1962 she played the role of Drusilla in the play On a Clear Day You Can See Canterbury by Charles Colby at the Theater Royal in Stratford East in London , for which she received very good reviews. In 1962 she played the role of Portia in the tragic comedy The Merchant of Venice at the Old Vic Theater in London . In 1962 she also appeared for the first time with the Royal Shakespeare Company . She took on the role of daughter-in-law Kerstin in the one-act play Mit dem Feuer by August Strindberg . From 1966 to 1978 she was a permanent member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Allen's Shakespeare roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company included: Lady Percy in Henry IV (Stratford, 1966), Lady Macduff in Macbeth (Stratford and London, 1967/1968), Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet (Stratford, 1967) , Goneril in King Lear (Stratford and London, 1968 and 1974), Helena in Troilus and Cressida (Stratford, 1968), Constanze in King John (Stratford and London, 1974/1975) and the Queen in Cymbeline (Stratford, 1974).

Allen's other theater roles include: Helen Rawston in Belcher's Luck by David Mercer (Royal Shakespeare Company, Aldwych Theater, London, 1966; directed by David Jones ), Polly Carter in Under the Milky Forest by Dylan Thomas (Royal Shakespeare Company, Aldwych Theater, London, 1968), Lady Macbeth and First Witch in Macbeth (Shaw Theater, London, 1973), the title role in Queen Christina by Pam Gems (The Other Place Theater, Stratford, 1977/1978), Paulina in A Winter's Tale (Brooklyn Academy of Music, 1980; directed by David Jones), Volumnia in Coriolan (Shakespeare Theater, Washington, DC , 2000) and La Madrecita de la Perdidos in Camino Real by Tennessee Williams (Shakespeare Theater, Washington, DC, 2000).

Movie and TV

In the course of her career, Allen also sporadically took on roles in movies . However, the focus of her work as an actress was the theater stage.

In the science fiction film The Children of the Damned (1964), a sequel to the horror classic The Village of the Damned , she took on the role of Diana Looran; in it she played a mother who hates her son and pretends to have never had sexual contact with a man. Allen's other film roles were: Lady Diane Clarke in the crime film The Murders of Mr ABC (1965), Mrs. Merchant in the drama The Forgotten Island (1988), Jamie's mother in Love Actually (2003) and a witch (Ministry Witch) in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).

Allen also frequently worked for television . In the British television series number 6 , she played in 1967, at the side of Patrick McGoohan , in the episode A., B. & C. a scientist who is subjected to various experiments with mental will control. Allen achieved particular fame on television through her role as Cassie Manson in the British television series Bouquet of Barbed Wire (1976) and its sequel Another Bouquet (1977). Allen embodied a married woman from the British middle class who embarks on a romantic love affair with her American son-in-law during one summer; Allen's partners were James Aubrey and Frank Finlay . In the British television series Shroud for a Nightingale , a literary film adaptation by PD James , she played the role of housemother and head nurse Mary Taylor in 1985. In the British crime series Agatha Christie's Poirot , she was seen in 1989 in the episode A door slams in the role of the murder victim Mrs. Adeline Clapperton.

She also took on episode roles in various other television series, including The Four Righteous (1964), Z Cars (1970-1973), Crown Court (1975-1982), Police Doctor Dangerfield (1995) and Doctors (2003).

Allen also worked as an acting teacher. She has taught at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute in New York City and at the Guildford School of Acting in Guildford , Surrey , among others .

Private

Allen married the theater and television director David Jones († 2008) in 1964 , under whose direction she also appeared several times. The marriage was later divorced. The marriage resulted in two sons. She had a sister, Joan, who died before her.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1955: Confession
  • 1959: The Flying Doctor (TV series, episode)
  • 1960: The Four Just Men (TV series, two episodes)
  • 1964: Children of the Damned
  • 1965: The Alphabet Murders
  • 1967: Number 6 (The Prisoner) (TV series, episode)
  • 1969: 2 goes through 3 are not (Three Into Two Will not Go)
  • 1970–1973: Z Cars (TV series, three episodes)
  • 1971: At 9 o'clock the earth goes under ( City Beneath the Sea ; TV movie)
  • 1975–1982: Crown Court (TV series, six episodes)
  • 1976: Bouquet of Barbed Wire (TV series)
  • 1977: Another Bouquet (TV series)
  • 1984: Shroud for a Nightingale (TV series)
  • 1984: The Glory Boys (TV series)
  • 1988: The Forgotten Island (Pascali's Island)
  • 1989: Agatha Christie's Poirot (TV series, an episode)
  • 1991: Casualty (TV series, an episode)
  • 1992: Like a Light in a Dark Night (Shining Through)
  • 1995: Police Doctor Dangerfield (Dangerfield) (TV series, an episode)
  • 2003: Doctors (TV series, an episode)
  • 2003: Actually ... love (Love Actually)
  • 2005: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Allen, Sheila
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Chard , Somerset, England, UK
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 2011
Place of death London , England, UK