Lanchester and Laughton appeared in the Old Vic season of 1933–34, playing Shakespeare, Chekhov and Wilde, and in 1936 she was Peter Pan to Laughton's Captain Hook in J. She played his daughter in the stage play Payment Deferred (1931) though not in the subsequent Hollywood film version. They were married two years later and continued to act together from time to time, both on stage and screen. Her cabaret and nightclub appearances led to more serious stage work and it was in a play by Arnold Bennett called Mr Prohack (1927) that Lanchester first met another member of the cast, Charles Laughton. 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: "Please Sell No More Drink to My Father" and "He Didn't Oughter" were on one disc (recorded in 1926) and "Don't Tell My Mother I'm Living in Sin" and "The Ladies Bar" were on the other (recorded 1930). 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. She revived old Victorian songs and ballads, many of which she retained for her performances in another revue entitled Riverside Nights. Career Īfter 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. 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. When the school was discontinued due to outbreak of World War I, she returned to the UK. Elsa studied dance in Paris under Isadora Duncan, whom she disliked. 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. Sullivan and Lanchester were both socialists, according to Lanchester's 1970 interview with Dick Cavett. 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. The horror film Willard (1971) was highly successful, and one of her last roles was in Murder by Death (1976).Įlsa Sullivan Lanchester was born in Lewisham, London. 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). 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. She played supporting roles through the 1940s and 1950s. Her role as the title character in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) brought her recognition. Her success in American films resulted in the couple moving to Hollywood, where Lanchester played small film roles. 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). She met the actor Charles Laughton in 1927, and they were married two years later. 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. Elsa Sullivan Lanchester (28 October 1902 – 26 December 1986) was a British-American actress with a long career in theatre, film and television.
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