Elsa Lanchester

Acting

Elsa Lanchester

Born 1902-10-28 · Lewisham, London, England, UK

Elsa Sullivan Lanchester (October 28, 1902 – December 26, 1986) was a British actress with a long career in theatre, film and television and former dancer. 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

Acting credits

Mary Poppins poster
7.5

In turn of the century London, a magical nanny employs music and adventure to help two neglected children become closer to their father.

Mary Poppins

1964

Witness for the Prosecution poster
8.2

An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man being tried for the murder of a socialite.

Witness for the Prosecution

1957

Bride of Frankenstein poster
7.5

Dr. Frankenstein and his monster both turn out to be alive after being attacked by an angry mob. The now-chastened scientist attempts to escape his past, but a former mentor forces him to assist with the creation of a new creature.

Bride of Frankenstein

1935

Murder by Death poster
7.1

Lionel Twain invites the world's five greatest detectives to a 'dinner and murder'. Included are a blind butler, a deaf-mute maid, screams, spinning rooms, secret passages, false identities and more plot turns and twists than are decently allowed.

Murder by Death

1976

The Bishop's Wife poster
7.1

An Episcopal Bishop, Henry Brougham, has been working for months on the plans for an elaborate new cathedral which he hopes will be paid for primarily by a wealthy, stubborn widow. He is losing sight of his family and of why he became a churchman in the first place. Enter Dudley, an angel sent to help him. Dudley does help everyone he meets, but not necessarily in the way they would have preferred. With the exception of Henry, everyone loves him, but Henry begins to believe that Dudley is there to replace him, both at work and in his family's affections, as Christmas approaches.

The Bishop's Wife

1947

That Darn Cat! poster
6.6

A young woman suspects foul play when her cat comes home wearing a wristwatch. Convincing the FBI, though, and catching the bad guys is tougher than she imagined.

That Darn Cat!

1965

Lassie Come Home poster
6.7

Hard times come for the Carraclough family and they are forced to sell their dog, Lassie, to the rich Duke of Rudling. Lassie, however, is unwilling to remain apart from young Carraclough son Joe and sets out on a long and dangerous journey to rejoin him.

Lassie Come Home

1943

The Razor's Edge poster
6.9

An adventurous young man goes off to find himself and loses his socialite fiancée in the process. But when he returns 10 years later, she will stop at nothing to get him back, even though she is already married.

The Razor's Edge

1946

The Big Clock poster
7.3

George Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor, has to postpone a vacation with his wife - again - when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence that he is the killer.

The Big Clock

1948

Bell, Book and Candle poster
6.6

Gillian Holroyd, a modern-day witch, becomes smitten with her handsome upstairs neighbor, Shep Henderson. Using her magical powers, she casts a love spell on him, only to face unexpected complications when genuine feelings emerge, threatening her supernatural abilities.

Bell, Book and Candle

1958

Passport to Destiny poster
5.3

An English charwoman, believing herself protected by a magic eye amulet, travels to Nazi Germany to personally assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Passport to Destiny

1944

Blackbeard's Ghost poster
6.7

The eponymous wraith returns to Earth to aid his descendant, elderly Emily Stowecroft. The villains want to kick Emily and her friends out of their group home so that they can build a crooked casino. Good guy Steve Walker gets caught in the middle of the squabble after evoking Blackbeard's ghost.

Blackbeard's Ghost

1968

Willard poster
6.1

A social misfit, Willard is made fun of by his co-workers, and squeezed out of the company started by his deceased father by his boss. His only friends are a couple of rats he raised at home, Ben and Socrates. However, when one of them is killed at work, he goes on a rampage using his rats to attack those who have been tormenting him.

Willard

1971

Mystery Street poster
6.8

When a young woman's skeletal remains turn up on a Massachusetts beach, Barnstable cop Peter Moralas teams with Boston police and uses forensics, with the help of a Harvard professor, to determine the woman's identity, how she died, and who killed her.

Mystery Street

1950

Naughty Marietta poster
5.5

In order to avoid a prearranged marriage, a rebellious French princess sheds her identity and escapes to colonial New Orleans, where she finds an unlikely true love.

Naughty Marietta

1935

The Secret Garden poster
7.1

When Cholera takes the parents of Mary Lennox, she is shipped from India to England to live with her Uncle Craven. Mary changes the lives of those she encounters at her Uncle's remote estate.

The Secret Garden

1949

Pajama Party poster
4.8

A Martian teenager sent to prepare for an invasion falls in love with an Earth girl.

Pajama Party

1964

David Copperfield poster
6.7

A young man journeys from a difficult childhood to maturity, exploring social injustice, personal development, and the complexities of human relationships.

David Copperfield

1935

Me, Natalie poster
5.6

Since she was a child, Natalie Miller has always thought she was an ugly ducking. Despite her mother's encouragement that she will grow up to be pretty, Natalie has never believed it will happen. She runs away to Greenwich Village to find herself and discovers a vibrant bohemian counterculture.

Me, Natalie

1969

Buccaneer's Girl poster
5.8

A New Orleans performer loves a pirate who robs only from the shipowner who ruined his father.

Buccaneer's Girl

1950

Cavalcade of the Academy Awards poster
6.3

This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel and more, with host Bob Hope.

Cavalcade of the Academy Awards

1940

The Inspector General poster
6.6

An illiterate stooge in a traveling medicine show wanders into a strange town and is picked up on a vagrancy charge. The town's corrupt officials mistake him for the inspector general whom they think is traveling in disguise. Fearing he will discover they've been pocketing tax money, they make several bungled attempts to kill him.

The Inspector General

1949

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood poster
5.9

A deliciously scandalous portrait of unsung Hollywood legend Scotty Bowers, whose bestselling memoir chronicled his decades spent as sexual procurer to the stars.

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood

2018

Androcles and the Lion poster
5.9

George Bernard Shaw’s breezy, delightful dramatization of this classic fable—about a Christian slave who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw and is spared from death in the Colosseum as a result of his kind act—was written as a meditation on modern Christian values. Pascal’s final Shaw production is played broadly, with comic character actor Alan Young as the titular naïf. He’s ably supported by Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Robert Newton, and Elsa Lanchester.

Androcles and the Lion

1952