Ronald Allen

Ronald John Allen (16 December 1930 – 18 June 1991) was an English actor born in Reading, Berkshire. He attended Leighton Park School in Reading before training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he won the John Gielgud Scholarship. He went on to work in repertory theatre and completed a season at the Old Vic in London.

In 1956, Allen appeared on Broadway in four productions: Troilus and Cressida, King Richard II, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. His stage work preceded a lengthy screen career that spanned film and television across several decades.

Among his film appearances were A Night to Remember (1958), a dramatization of the sinking of the Titanic; the espionage picture A Circle of Deception (1960); the British horror films The Projected Man (1966) and The Fiend (1972); the war film Hell Boats (1970); and the black comedy Eat the Rich (1987). He also appeared in The Supergrass (1985), a Comic Strip feature film.

On television, Allen had roles in the BBC soaps Compact (1963–64) and United! (1966–67) before taking on the part for which he became best known: David Hunter in the ITV soap opera Crossroads, a role he held from 1969 to 1985. Hunter was a shareholder of the Crossroads Motel alongside Meg Mortimer, Tish Hope, and Bernard Booth. Allen's portrayal of Hunter later served as the inspiration for the character Mr. Clifford in Victoria Wood's spoof soap Acorn Antiques, which appeared in her sketch series Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV during the 1980s; Duncan Preston played the role, drawing on Allen's appearance, mannerisms, and manner of speech. In the 2023 ITVX miniseries Nolly, which dramatized the life of his former Crossroads colleague Noele Gordon, Allen was portrayed by Richard Lintern.

Allen appeared twice as a guest in the science fiction series Doctor Who, in the stories The Dominators (1968) and The Ambassadors of Death (1970). His other television credits included The Adventures of Robin Hood (1957), Danger Man (1960 and 1961), The Avengers (1964), and Bergerac (1990).

He was a recurring presence in The Comic Strip Presents, appearing first in Five Go Mad in Dorset (1982), a parody of Enid Blyton's Famous Five stories, in which he played Uncle Quentin. He reprised that role in Five Go Mad on Mescalin (1983) and also appeared in The Strike (1988), South Atlantic Raiders Part 2 (1990), and Oxford (1990).

Allen was close friends with his Crossroads co-star Sue Lloyd, who played his on-screen wife. The two entered into a relationship and made it public after the British press began intruding on their private lives. In March 1991, Allen was diagnosed with terminal cancer; he and Lloyd became engaged and married in May 1991. He died six weeks after the wedding, on 18 June 1991, at the age of 60. Lloyd died of cancer in 2011.