Elsa Lanchester | |
|---|---|
 Lanchester in 1935 | |
| Born | Elsa Sullivan Lanchester (1902-10-28)28 October 1902 Lewisham, London, England |
| Died | 26 December 1986(1986-12-26) (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1925–1983 |
| Spouse | |
| Parent | Edith Lanchester (mother) |
| Relatives | Waldo Lanchester (brother) |
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester (28 October 1902 – 26 December 1986) was a British actress with a long career in theatre, film and television.[1]
Lanchester studied dance as a child and after theFirst World War began performing in theatre and cabaret, where she established her career over the following decade. She met the actorCharles Laughton in 1927, and they were married two years later. She began playing small roles in British films, including the role ofAnne of Cleves with Laughton inThe Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). Her success in American films resulted in the couple moving to Hollywood, where Lanchester played small film roles.
Her role as thetitle character inBride of Frankenstein (1935) brought her recognition. She played the lead inPassport to Destiny (1944) and supporting roles through the 1940s and 1950s. She was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress forCome to the Stable (1949) andWitness for the Prosecution (1957), the latter of which was the last of twelve films in which she appeared with Laughton. Following Laughton's death in 1962, Lanchester resumed her career with appearances in suchDisney films asMary Poppins (1964),Pajama Party (1964),That Darn Cat! (1965) andBlackbeard's Ghost (1968). The horror filmWillard (1971) was highly successful, and one of her last roles was inMurder by Death (1976).
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was born inLewisham, London.[2] Her parents, James "Séamus" Sullivan (1872–1945) andEdith "Biddy" Lanchester (1871–1966), wereBohemians, and refused to marry in a religious or legal way as a rebellion againstEdwardian era society. Sullivan and Lanchester were bothsocialists, according to Lanchester's 1970 interview withDick Cavett. Elsa's older brother,Waldo Sullivan Lanchester, born five years earlier, was apuppeteer, with his ownmarionette company based inMalvern,Worcestershire, and later inStratford-upon-Avon.[3] Elsa studied dance inParis underIsadora Duncan, whom she disliked. When the school was discontinued due to outbreak ofWorld War I, she returned to theUK. At that point (she was about twelve years of age) she began teaching dance in the Duncan style and gave classes to children in hersouth London district, through which she earned some welcome extra income for her household.[citation needed]
After 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. She revived old Victorian songs and ballads, many of which she retained for her performances in another revue entitledRiverside Nights. Her first film performance came in 1924 in the amateur productionThe Scarlet Woman, which was written byEvelyn Waugh who also appeared in two roles himself.[4][5]
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, with piano arrangement and accompaniment byKay Henderson: "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).[6] Her cabaret and nightclub appearances led to more serious stage work and it was in a play byArnold Bennett calledMr Prohack (1927) that Lanchester first met another member of the cast,Charles Laughton. They were married two years later and continued to act together from time to time, both on stage and screen. She played his daughter in the stage playPayment Deferred (1931) though not in the subsequent Hollywood film version. Lanchester and Laughton appeared in theOld Vic season of 1933–34, playing Shakespeare, Chekhov and Wilde, and in 1936 she wasPeter Pan to Laughton's Captain Hook inJ. M. Barrie's play at theLondon Palladium. Their last stage appearance together was inJane Arden'sThe Party (1958) at theNew Theatre, London.[6]
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Lanchester made her film debut inThe Scarlet Woman (1925) and in 1928 appeared in three silent shorts written for her byH. G. Wells and directed byIvor Montagu:Blue Bottles,Daydreams andThe Tonic. Laughton made brief appearances in all of them. They also appeared together in a 1930film revue entitledComets, featuring British stage, musical and variety acts, in which they sang in duet "The Ballad of Frankie and Johnnie". Lanchester appeared in several other early British talkies, includingPotiphar's Wife (1931), a film starringLaurence Olivier. She appeared opposite Laughton again asAnne of Cleves inThe Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), with Laughton inthe title role. Laughton was by now making films in Hollywood, so Lanchester joined him there, making minor appearances inDavid Copperfield (1935) andNaughty Marietta (1935). These and her appearances in British films helped her gain thetitle role inBride of Frankenstein (1935), arguably the role with which she remains most identified. She and Laughton returned to Britain to appear together again inRembrandt (1936) and later inVessel of Wrath (US:The Beachcomber. 1938).[6] They both returned to Hollywood, where he madeThe Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) although Lanchester didn't appear in another film untilLadies in Retirement (1941). She and Laughton played husband and wife (their characters were named Charles and Elsa Smith) inTales of Manhattan (1942) and they both appeared again in the all-star, mostly British cast ofForever and a Day (1943). She received top billing inPassport to Destiny (1944) for the only time in her Hollywood career.[7]
Lanchester played supporting roles inThe Spiral Staircase andThe Razor's Edge (both 1946). She appeared as the housekeeper inThe Bishop's Wife (1947) withDavid Niven playing the bishop,Loretta Young his wife, andCary Grant an angel. Lanchester played a comical role as an artist in the thriller,The Big Clock (1948), in which Laughton starred as amegalomaniacal press tycoon. She had a part as a painter specialising in nativity scenes inCome to the Stable (1949), for which she was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress (1949).[6] During the late 1940s and 1950s she appeared in small but highly varied supporting roles in a number of films while simultaneously appearing on stage at theTurnabout Theatre in Hollywood.[8] Here she performed her solo vaudeville act in conjunction with a marionette show, singing somewhat off-colour songs which she later recorded for a couple of LPs.[9][10] Onscreen, she appeared alongsideDanny Kaye inThe Inspector General (1949), played a blackmailing landlady inMystery Street (1950), and wasShelley Winters's travelling companion inFrenchie (1950). More supporting roles followed in the early 1950s, including a 2-minute cameo as the Bearded Lady in3 Ring Circus (1954), about to be shaved byJerry Lewis. She had another substantial and memorable part when she appeared again with her husband inWitness for the Prosecution (1957) a screen version ofAgatha Christie's1953 play for which both receivedAcademy Award nominations – she for the second time as Best Supporting Actress, and Laughton for the third time for Best Actor. Neither won. However she did win theGolden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for the film.
Lanchester played the role of Aunt Queenie, a witch inBell, Book and Candle (1958), and appeared in such films asMary Poppins (1964), in which her husband's goddaughterKaren Dotrice also starred,That Darn Cat! (1965), andBlackbeard's Ghost (1968). She appeared on 9 April 1959, onNBC'sThe Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. She performed in two episodes of NBC'sThe Wonderful World of Disney. Additionally, she had memorable guest roles in an episode ofI Love Lucy in 1956 and in episodes of NBC'sThe Eleventh Hour (1964) andThe Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1965).[11] Lanchester continued to make occasional film appearances, singing a duet withElvis Presley inEasy Come, Easy Go (1967), and playing the mother in the original version ofWillard (1971), alongsideBruce Davison andErnest Borgnine, which scored well at the box office. She was Jessica Marbles, a sleuth based onAgatha Christie'sJane Marple, in the 1976 murder mystery spoofMurder by Death, and she made her last film in 1980 as Sophie inDie Laughing. She released three LP albums in the 1950s. Two (referred to above) were entitledSongs for a Shuttered Parlour andSongs for a Smoke-Filled Room, and were vaguely lewd and danced around their true purpose, such as the song about her husband's "clock" not working. Laughton provided the spoken introductions to each number and even joined Lanchester in the singing of "She Was Poor but She Was Honest". Her third LP was entitledCockney London, a selection of old London songs for which Laughton wrote the sleeve-notes.[12]
Lanchester marriedCharles Laughton in 1929.[2] In 1938 she published a book about her relationship with Laughton,Charles Laughton and I. In March 1983, she released an autobiography, titledElsa Lanchester Herself. In that book, she writes that she and Laughton never had children because he was homosexual.[13] However, Laughton's friend and co-starMaureen O'Hara denied this was the reason for the couple's childlessness. She claimed Laughton had told her that the reason he and his wife never had children was because of a botched abortion Lanchester had early in her career when performing burlesque. Lanchester admitted in her autobiography that she had two abortions in her youth (one being Laughton's), but it is not clear if the second left her incapable of becoming pregnant again.[14] According to biographerCharles Higham, the reason she did not have children was that she did not want any.[15]
In 1984, Lanchester's health deteriorated.[17] Within 30 months, she had suffered two strokes, becoming totally incapacitated. She required constant care and was confined to bedrest. In March 1986, theMotion Picture and Television Fund filed to become conservator of Lanchester and her estate, which was valued at $900,000.[18]
Lanchester died inWoodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, on 26 December 1986, aged 84, at theMotion Picture Hospital frombronchial pneumonia.[19][20] Her body was cremated on 5 January 1987, at the Chapel of the Pines inLos Angeles and for decades it was believed that her ashes were scattered over thePacific Ocean.[21] In 2025, however, it was discovered that her cremated remains were instead interred by Herschel Green, her agent, atValhalla Memorial Park under her married name, Elsa Lanchester Laughton. Scott Michaels ofDearly Departed Tours arranged a fundraiser and ceremony for the unveiling ceremony of a formal wall marker that was held on 28 October 2025, her 123rd birthday.[22]
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| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1925 | The Scarlet Woman: An Ecclesiastical Melodrama | Beatrice de Carolle | |
| 1928 | The Tonic | Elsa | |
| Daydreams | Elsa / Heroine in Dream Sequence | ||
| Blue Bottles | Elsa | ||
| 1929 | Mr. Smith Wakes Up | ||
| 1930 | Comets | Herself | |
| Ashes | Girl | ||
| 1936 | Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty | Millicent Bracegirdle | Unreleased |
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Alice in Wonderland | The Red Queen |
| 1962 | The Flood | Noah's Wife (voice) |
| 1969 | In Name Only | Gertrude Caruso |
| 1979 | Where's Poppa? | Momma Hocheiser |
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