Elsa Lanchester
Birthday: 1902-10-28 | Place of Birth: Lewisham, London, England, UKElsa Sullivan Lanchester (28 October 1902 – 26 December 1986) was an English-American character actress with a long career in theatre, film and television. Lanchester studied dance as a child and after the First World War began performing in theatre and cabaret, where she established her career over the following decade. She met the actor Charles Laughton in 1927, and they were married two years later. She began playing small roles in British films, including the role of Anne of Cleves with Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). Laughton's success in American films resulted in the couple moving to Hollywood, where Lanchester played small film roles. Her role as the bride in Bride of Frankenstein (1935), brought her recognition, and came to be one of the roles most closely associated with her throughout her life. Lanchester played supporting roles through the 1940s and 1950s. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Come to the Stable (1949) and Witness for the Prosecution (1957), the last of twelve films in which she appeared with Laughton. Following Laughton's death in 1962, Lanchester resumed her career with appearances in such Disney films as Mary Poppins (1964), That Darn Cat! (1965) and Blackbeard's Ghost (1968). The horror film, Willard, (1971) was highly successful and one of her last roles was in Murder By Death (1976). Description above from the Wikipedia article Elsa Lanchester, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
Known For
Acting
Role
as Self (archive footage)
as Jessica Marbles
as Hester
as Julia Hawthorn
as Henrietta Stiles
as Gertrude Caruso
as Mrs. Formby
as Emily Stowecroft
as Katie Nanna
as Margaret Culver
as Mrs. MacDougall
as Aunt Wendy
as Miss Plimsoll
as Widow Sonder
as Lida O'Reilly
as The Bearded Lady
as Thelma
as Madame Magloire
as Megaera
as Madame Brizar
as Mrs. Smerrling
as Maria
as Martha
as Louise Patterson
as Matilda
as Miss Keith
as Mrs. Oates
as Ella Muggins
as Mrs. Helen Carraclough
