- Home
- Elsa Lanchester
Elsa Lanchester
Known for: ActingElsa 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 39
Witness for the Prosecution
as Miss Plimsoll 
Mary Poppins
as Katie Nanna 
Blackbeard's Ghost
as Emily Stowecroft 
Murder by Death
as Jessica Marbles 
Bride of Frankenstein
as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley / The Monster's Mate 
Bell, Book and Candle
as Aunt Queenie Holroyd 
That Darn Cat!
as Mrs. MacDougall 
Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake
as Bristol Isabel 
The Bishop's Wife
as Matilda 
The Big Clock
as Louise Patterson 
Lassie Come Home
as Mrs. Helen Carraclough 
The Razor's Edge
as Miss Keith 
3 Ring Circus
as The Bearded Lady 
Willard
as Henrietta Stiles 
Hell's Half Acre
as Lida O'Reilly 
Easy Come, Easy Go
as Madame Neherina 
The Glass Slipper
as Widow Sonder 
The Spiral Staircase
as Mrs. Oates 
David Copperfield
as Clickett 
The Secret Garden
as Martha 
Pajama Party
as Aunt Wendy 
The Private Life of Henry VIII
as Anne of Cleves 
The Inspector General
+1
as Maria 
Naughty Marietta
as Madame d'Annard 
Buccaneer's Girl
as Madame Brizar 
Mystery Street
as Mrs. Smerrling 
Come to the Stable
as Amelia Potts 
Rascal
as Mrs. Satterfield 
Die Laughing
as Sophie 
My Dog, the Thief
as Mrs. Formby 
Terror in the Wax Museum
as Julia Hawthorn 
Androcles and the Lion
as Megaera 
Les Miserables
as Madame Magloire 
Arnold
as Hester 
Rembrandt
as Hendrickje Stoffels 
The Girls of Pleasure Island
as Thelma 
The Ghost Goes West
as Miss Shepperton 
Monster Madness: The Golden Age of the Horror Film
as Mary Shelley / The Monster's Mate (archive footage) 
Dreamboat
as Mathilda Coffey