ELSA LANCHESTER BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
 
Elsa Lanchester was born on October 28th, 1902 in Lewisham London in the united Kingdom with the birth name Elizabeth Lanchester Sullivan to parents, James Sullivan and Edith Manchester.  From a young age Elsa had goals of pursuing a career as a professional dancer, therefore at the age of ten her mother enrolled her it the Isadora Duncan's Bellevue School in Paris.
 
Soon she was sent to a co-educational boarding school in Kings Langley in England where in exchange for education and boarding she taught dance classes and then in 1918 she followed with being hired as a professional dance instructor at the Margaret Morris's School. 
 
Along with her dancing Elsa also started the Children's Theater in Soho, London and taught classes.  In 1922 she made her stage debut in a production of, "Thirty Minutes in a Street".  She was quite the business woman and also opened a night club in London called, the Cave of Harmony.  Here along with her partner, Harold Scott, the duo would perform plays and cabaret acts.
 
Soon she began to break into the film industry and with her unique beauty and physical appearance she took to the film world with ease.  Her first film was an amateur film called, "The Scarlet Woman: An Ecclesiastical Melodrama" (1925) followed by her first professional film debut in, "One of the Best" (1927).  She remained performing as a stage actress but also appeared in such films as, "Potiphar's Wife", "The Stronger Sex", "Love Habit" and "Officer's Mess" all released in 1931.
 
In 1932, she was offered a film contract with MGM and soon was appearing in more prevalent film roles such as, "The Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933) and "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), which was one of her most well known roles throughout her career.  This film was also considered by critics to be one of the best horror films of the golden age.
 
Other film credits she added to her resume were in such features as, "Rembrandt" (1936), "The Beachcomer" (1938), "Ladies in Retirement" (1941), "Tales of Manhattan" (1942), "The Spiral Staircase" (1945), "The Big Clock" (1948), "Come to the Stable" (1949) for which she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, "The Petty Girl" (1950), "Dreamboat" (1952, "The Girls of Pleasure Island" (1953) and "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957) for which she earned her second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
 
As her career progressed she began to turn her focus to working as a television actress in the later part of her career appearing on such series as, "Nanny and the Professor", "The Bill Cosby Show", "Then Came Bronson", "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color", "Off to See the Wizard", "The John Forsythe Show", "Slattery's People" (1965) and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E".
 
Along with her film work and previous stage work she had a love for live performing and returned to stage work simultaneously with film roles.  She worked at the Turnabout Theater in Hollywood for ten years and also had an act at a club called, The Bar of Music.  She also toured her nightclub act with pianist, J. Raymond Henderson.  Elsa also published two autobiographies, "Charles Laughton and I" (1938) and Elsa Lanchester Herself" (1983).  
 
She married only once to Charles Laughton in 1929, another actor whom she worked with on a number of films and stage productions.  She actually found out two years after they were married that he was in fact homosexual, however she did not leave him and instead they remained legally married until he passed away in 1962.
 
Some of her final appearances were in such films as, "Arnold" (1973), "Murder by Death" (1976) and her final role in 1980 in, "Die Laughing".  Elsa did not re-marry nor did she have any children of her own, although she has admitted to having two abortions in her past.  On December 26th, 1986 she passed away in Woodland Hills, California after suffering from bronchial pneumonia.  Her remains were cremated and scattered throughout the Pacific Ocean.     

 
Filmography

1980 Die Laughing 
1979 Where's Poppa? 
1976 Murder by Death 
1973 Arnold 
1973 Terror in the Wax Museum 
1973 Here's Lucy 
1972-1973 Mannix 
1972 Rod Serling's Night Gallery
1971 Nanny and the Professor 
1971 Willard 
1970-1971 The Bill Cosby Show
1969 It Takes a Thief 
1969 In Name Only
1969 Then Came Bronson 
1969 Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
1969 Me, Natalie 
1969 Rascal 
1968 Blackbeard's Ghost
1968 Off to See the Wizard 
1967 Easy Come, Easy Go 
1965-1966 The John Forsythe Show 
1965 That Darn Cat! 
1965 Slattery's People
1965 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 
1965 Ben Casey 
1964 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour 
1964 Pajama Party 
1963-1964 Burke's Law
1964 Mary Poppins 
1964 Honeymoon Hotel
1964 The Eleventh Hour
1962 The Flood 
1962 Follow the Sun 
1961 The Dick Powell Theatre
1961 G.E. True Theater
1960 Adventures in Paradise 
1958 Shirley Temple Theatre 
1958 Bell Book and Candle
1957 Witness for the Prosecution 
1956 Robert Montgomery Presents 
1956 I Love Lucy
1956 The 20th Century-Fox Hour
1954-1956 Lux Video Theatre
1956 Shower of Stars
1955 Alice in Wonderland 
1955 The Best of Broadway 
1955 The Ford Television Theatre
1955 The Glass Slipper 
1954 3 Ring Circus
1954 Hell's Half Acre
1953 Schlitz Playhouse
1953 Studio One in Hollywood 
1953 The Girls of Pleasure Island 
1952 Androcles and the Lion 
1952 Les Miserables 
1952 Dreamboat 
1950 Frenchie
1950 The Petty Girl
1950 Mystery Street 
1950 Buccaneer's Girl 
1949 The Inspector General
1949 Come to the Stable 
1949 The Secret Garden 
1948 The Big Clock 
1947 The Bishop's Wife
1947 Northwest Outpost 
1946 The Razor's Edge
1945 The Spiral Staircase 
1944 Passport to Destiny 
1943 Lassie Come Home
1943 Thumbs Up 
1943 Forever and a Day 
1942 Tales of Manhattan 
1942 Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake
1941 Ladies in Retirement
1938 The Beachcomber
1936 Rembrandt 
1936 Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty 
1935 The Ghost Goes West 
1935 Bride of Frankenstein 
1935 Naughty Marietta
1935 David Copperfield 
1934 The Private Life of Don Juan 
1933 The Private Life of Henry VIII
1931 The Officer's Mess 
1931 The Love Habit 
1931 The Stronger Sex
1931 Potiphar's Wife
1930 Ashes
1929 Mr. Smith Wakes Up
1928 Blue Bottles
1928 The Tonic 
1928 Daydreams 
1928 The Constant Nymph 
1927 One of the Best 
1925 The Scarlet Woman: An Ecclesiastical Melodrama