Elsa Lanchester

Biography

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

Filmography

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley / The Monster's Mate
Katie Nanna
Mrs. Helen Carraclough
Aunt Queenie Holroyd
Jessica Marbles
Lida O'Reilly
Henrietta Stiles
Madame d'Annard
Emily Stowecroft
Madame Brizar
Madame Neherina
Hendrickje Stoffels
Louise Patterson
Mrs. Smerrling
Mrs. Satterfield
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Aunt Wendy
Mathilda Coffey
Chambermaid
Amelia Potts
Dr. Crutcher
Princess 'Tanya' Tatiana
Miss Shepperton
Madame Magloire
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley / The Monster's Mate
Hester
Martha Jones
Miss Dennison
Widow Sonder
Countess
Gertrude Caruso
Mary Shelley / The Monster's Mate (archive footage)
Girl
Emily "Emmy" Ffinch
The Bearded Lady
Elsa / Heroine in Dream Sequence
Herself
Mrs. MacDougall
Cora Melville
(archive footage)
Fräulein Rottenmeier