Elsa Sullivan Lanchester (28 October 1902 – 26 December 1986) was a British actress with a long career in theatre, film and television.
Lanchester studied dance as a child and after the See more

Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was born in Lewisham, London. Her parents, James "Séamus" Sullivan (1872–1945) and Edith "Biddy" Lanchester (1871–1966), were Bohemians, … See more

Lanchester died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California on 26 December 1986, aged 84, at the Motion Picture Hospital from bronchial pneumonia. Her body was cremated on 5 January 1987, at the Chapel of the Pines in Los Angeles and her ashes scattered … See more

• Callow, Simon (1987). Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor. Mt Prospect, Illinois: Fromm International. ISBN 978-0-31224-377-7 See more

After World War I, Lanchester started the Children's Theatre, and later the Cave of Harmony, a nightclub at which modern plays and cabaret … See more

Lanchester married Charles Laughton in 1929. In 1938 she published a book about her relationship with Laughton, Charles Laughton and I. In March 1983, she released an … See more

Film roles
• The Scarlet Woman: An Ecclesiastical Melodrama (1925 short) as Beatrice de Carolle
• One of the Best (1927) as Kitty
• The Constant Nymph (1928) as Lady See more