Elsa Lanchester

Elsa Lanchester (born 28 October 1902 in London, United Kingdom, † December 26, 1986 in Woodland Hills, California, USA; actually Elizabeth Sullivan ) was initially a British actress, 1950, the U.S. citizen took.

Biography

Childhood

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

Her first movie role she played in an amateur film called The Scarlet Woman in 1924. At that time they opened a theater nightclub in London.

In 1927 she met Charles Laughton, with whom she worked the late 1920s in the theater. 1929 married Lanchester and Laughton. Their marriage had lasted until the 1962 death Laughton year.

Acting Career

In 1931, Elsa Lanchester appeared in a New York theater, a contract with the film studio MGM followed in 1932. Her first major film role was Lanchester in 1933 as Anne of Cleves in Alexander Korda's tragicomedy The Private Life of Henry VIII alongside Charles Laughton in the title role. In the years 1933 and 1934 Lanchester played again in London theater.

Elsa Lanchester is best known for her appearance in James Whales movie Bride of Frankenstein. Lanchester played the role of Mary Shelley in the introduction of the film as well as the bride of the monster and not - as the film's title suggests - the bride of Dr. Frankenstein. Although Lanchester is only seen in the film about for ten minutes as the woman brought to life, the figure was so prominent that it is called in a row with the Wolf Man, Dracula and Frankenstein's monster.

There were other film roles Laughton page. In 1939 Lanchester moved permanently to the United States and was naturalized in 1950. From the 1940s they often joined in cabarets and revues, and was rarely seen in films, but has worked with many great directors. In 1949 she acted alongside Loretta Young and Celeste Holm in a supporting role in Henry Koster's ... and the heavens laughs them. For her role as Amelia Potts Lanchester received a year later, her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Eight years later, the 1.64 m great actress was part of the ensemble of Billy Wilder's court thriller Witness for the Prosecution. For her role as nurse Miss Plimsoll stern, she received a 1958 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, but lost at the next Oscar ceremony the Japanese Miyoshi Umeki ( Sayonara for ) admit defeat.

For ten years, 1951-1961, Lanchester was with her self-developed program Elsa Lanchester - Herself on tour in the U.S.. In the 1960s, she was also in several Walt Disney films - including 1964 in Mary Poppins - to see and stepped next to her film work in television series such as Solo for Oncel ( The Man from U.N.C.L.E ) and Night Gallery on.

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

Filmography (selection)

Autobiography

• Elsa Lanchester. Herself. St. Martin's Press, New York 1983, ISBN 0-312-24377-4.