English actress (1932?2011)
Sheila Allen
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Born
| (
1932-10-22
)
22 October 1932
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Died
| 13 October 2011
(2011-10-13)
(aged 78)
London, England, UK
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Occupation
| Actress
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Spouse
| David Jones
(married 1964 ? ?)
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Children
| Jesse and Joe
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Sheila Allen
(22 October 1932 ? 13 October 2011)
[1]
was an English actress, who was best known to the wider public for her role on television as Cassie Manson in
Bouquet Of Barbed Wire
and its sequel
Another Bouquet
(1976?77). From 1966 to 1978, Allen was a member of the
Royal Shakespeare Company
.
[1]
Early life and stage work
[
edit
]
Allen was born in
Chard, Somerset
, to Dorothy Essex (nee Potter) and William Allen.
[2]
She was educated at Howell’s School, Denbigh and trained at the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
(RADA) from 1949 to 1951.
[3]
From the 1950s, Allen appeared in plays by
Shakespeare
. Her first leading role was that of Katherine ("the shrew") in
The Taming of the Shrew
for the Arena Company in
Birmingham
(1954?56). Among many other Shakespearean roles, she played
Hippolyta
in
A Midsummer Night's Dream
with the
Bristol
Old Vic
Company, a production that moved to London (1957?58) and
Portia
(
The Merchant of Venice
, Old Vic, London, 1962).
[4]
She joined the
Royal Shakespeare Company
at
The Aldwych
in 1966.
[3]
Her roles included Lady Percy (
Henry IV
, Parts I and II
) (RSC, Stratford, 1966),
Lady Macduff
(
Macbeth
, RSC, Stratford and London, 1968), Lady Capulet (
Romeo and Juliet
, RSC, Stratford, 1967), and
Helen
(
Troilus and Cressida
, RSC, Stratford, 1968).
[5]
For the RSC, she played Goneril in
King Lear
twice, in 1968 and 1974, for respectively
Trevor Nunn
and
Buzz Goodbody
.
[1]
At the
Shaw Theatre
, London in 1973, she played
Lady Macbeth
, with
Tom Baker
as Macbeth.
[6]
Allen appeared in new plays as well, such as
Pam Gems
Queen Christina
which debuted at the RSC's
Other Place
in 1977.
[7]
In his obituary of Allen in 2011,
Michael Billington
considered it "the role of a lifetime and enabled her to inspire comparisons to [Greta] Garbo in her ability to capture the cross-dressing monarch's sexual ambivalence and inner contest between desire and duty."
[1]
Television and film
[
edit
]
Allen appeared in guest roles with
Patrick McGoohan
in episodes of
Danger Man
("Don't Nail Him Yet", 1964) and
The Prisoner
("
A. B. and C.
", 1967).
[8]
In the episode of
The Prisoner
, Allen was Number 14, a scientist who was one of many who failed in "the Village" to elicit from Number 6 (McGoohan) why he had resigned from a certain organisation. She was pressed by Number 2 (
Colin Gordon
) to use a new wonder drug and archive film to influence her subject's dreams, but he was able to manipulate the process and thereby to cause the downfall of Number 2. When not dressed in her subterranean laboratory in a white coat with her hair tied back, Number 14 was seen with flowing hair, walking around the Village in a cape of many colours.
In
Bouquet of Barbed Wire
(1976), based on a novel by
Andrea Newman
and described by
Philip Purser
as a "kinky saga which was much discussed ... well made and acted",
[9]
Allen's character was the wife of Peter Manson (
Frank Finlay
), who had an unhealthy obsession about his married daughter, Prue (
Susan Penhaligon
).
[10]
Among many sexual entanglements, Cassie had an affair with Gavin Sorenson (
James Aubrey
), her own son-in-law. She also portrayed the Matron Mary Taylor in the television series
Shroud for a Nightingale
(1984), based on the
P.D. James
novel.
[11]
Her many film credits include
The Prince and the Pauper
(1962),
Children of the Damned
(1964),
The Alphabet Murders
(1965),
Three into Two Won't Go
(1969),
Venom
(1971),
The Other Side of the Underneath
(1972),
Pascali's Island
(1988),
Shining Through
(1992),
Love Actually
(2003) and
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
(2005).
[8]
Allen continued to work into the 21st century, and taught at the
Guildford School of Acting
.
[1]
Death
[
edit
]
Allen died in London on 13 October 2011, aged 78.
[6]
Filmography
[
edit
]
Film
[
edit
]
Television
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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International
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National
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Artists
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