Adrianne Allen

Adrianne Allen (7 February 1907 – 14 September 1993) was an English stage actress born in Manchester to John and Margaret Allen. After receiving her education in France and Germany, she trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Her 1926 graduation performance drew the notice of director Basil Dean, who cast her as Nina Vansittart in Noël Coward's Easy Virtue when the production transferred to London from Broadway.

Allen's early career brought her into repeated collaboration with Coward. Raymond Massey cast her in Coward's The Rat Trap, and the two married in 1929. The following year, in July 1930, she made her West End debut playing Sibyl Chase in the original London production of Private Lives. The marriage produced two children, Daniel and Anna Massey, both of whom went on to acting careers. Allen and Massey divorced in 1939, after which she married William Dwight Whitney, the lawyer who had managed the divorce proceedings.

Her Broadway career spanned 1931 to 1956. Among her New York credits, she appeared in Cynara as Doris Lea in 1931 and played Judy Linden in The Shining Hour in 1934. In 1935 she took on the role of Elizabeth Bennet in the Broadway production of Pride and Prejudice. During this period she also worked in film, with credits including Merrily We Go to Hell (1932) and several other productions.

In London in 1942, Allen originated the role of Doris, Countess Skriczevinsky, in Terence Rattigan's Flare Path. Her subsequent stage work included Love for Love in 1947, Edward, My Son in 1948, and Someone Waiting in 1953. She returned to Broadway in 1956 to star as Sheila Broadbent in The Reluctant Debutante, appearing alongside her daughter Anna. Her acting career concluded in 1958.

Allen died of cancer on 14 September 1993 in Montreux, Switzerland.