Nancy Allen
Acting • Born 1950-06-24
Biography
Nancy Anne Allen (born June 24, 1950) is an American actress. She came to prominence for her performances in several films directed by Brian De Palma in the 1970s and early 1980s. Her accolades include a Golden Globe Award nomination and three Saturn Award nominations. The daughter of a New York City police lieutenant, Allen was raised in the Bronx, and attended the High School of Performing Arts, aspiring to have a career as a dancer. In her early twenties, she shifted her focus to acting and relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career there. Her first major role was as Chris Hargensen in Brian De Palma's film adaptation of Carrie (1976). Allen was subsequently cast as the lead in the Robert Zemeckis-directed comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), followed by a supporting part in Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979). Allen married De Palma in 1979, and her subsequent portrayal of a prostitute who witnesses a murder in his feature Dressed to Kill (1980) earned her a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year. She then appeared in De Palma's neo-noir film Blow Out (1981), playing a woman implicated in an assassination. Allen and DePalma divorced in 1984. She appeared in the science fiction films Strange Invaders (1983) and The Philadelphia Experiment (1984), and Abel Ferrara's television film The Gladiator (1986). Allen garnered mainstream fame playing Anne Lewis in Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (1987), a role she reprised for the two sequels that followed. Other credits include Poltergeist III (1988), Limit Up (1990), and Les patriotes (1994). Allen stepped back from acting in 2008, and became involved in cancer support after her friend, Wendie Jo Sperber, died of breast cancer. In 2010, she was named executive director of the weSPARK Cancer Support Center in Los Angeles, which was founded by Sperber.
Filmography
56 credits
Out of Sight
Movie • 1998
Midge
The Philadelphia Experiment
Movie • 1984
Allison Hayes
Poltergeist III
Movie • 1988
Patricia Wilson-Gardner
Slashing 'Dressed to Kill'
Movie • 2001
Self
Dressed to Kill
Movie • 1980
Liz Blake
RoboCop 2
Movie • 1990
Officer Anne Lewis
RoboCop
Movie • 1987
Officer Anne Lewis
RoboCop 3
Movie • 1993
Anne Lewis
1941
Movie • 1979
Donna Stratton
Acting on Impulse
Movie • 1993
Cathy Thomas
Dusting Cliff 7
Movie • 1997
Anna Bishop
Carrie
Movie • 1976
Chris Hargenson
Home Movies
Movie • 1980
Kristina
Blow Out
Movie • 1981
Sally Badina
Acting 'Carrie'
Movie • 2001
Self
Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return
Movie • 1999
Rachel Colby
The Last Detail
Movie • 1973
Nancy
The Buddy System
Movie • 1984
Carrie
Secret of the Andes
Movie • 1999
Brenda Willings
Terror in the Aisles
Movie • 1984
Self - Host
Strange Invaders
Movie • 1983
Betty Walker
Kiss Toledo Goodbye
Movie • 1999
Madge
Against the Law
Movie • 1997
Maggie Hewitt
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
Movie • 1978
Pam Mitchell
Not for Publication
Movie • 1984
Lois
The Man Who Wouldn't Die
Movie • 1994
Jessie Gallardo
Sweet Revenge
Movie • 1987
Jillian Grey
The Pass
Movie • 1998
Shirley Duprey
John Travolta: The Inside Story
Movie • 2004
Self
Limit Up
Movie • 1989
Casey Falls
Forced Entry
Movie • 1975
Hitch Hiker
Bound by Flesh
Movie • 2012
Voiceover
Rag Doll Memories: Nancy Allen on 'Blow Out'
Movie • 2012
herself
My Apocalypse
Movie • 2008
Linda Savage
The Gladiator
Movie • 1986
Susan Neville
The Curse of Poltergeist
Movie • 2002
Close Encounters with Vilmos Zsigmond
Movie • 2016
Self
Corporate Wars: The Making of 'RoboCop 2'
Movie • 2017
Self
The Princess and the Pea
Movie • 1984
Princess Elizabeth
The Making of 'Dressed to Kill'
Movie • 2001
Self
Circuit
Movie • 2001
Louise
Memories of Murder
Movie • 1990
Alice
The Patriots
Movie • 1994
Catherine Pelman
In Search of Tomorrow
Movie • 2022
Self - Interviewee
In Search of Darkness: Part II
Movie • 2020
Self
Valerie 23
Movie • 1995
Rachel Rose
More Acting 'Carrie'
Movie • 2016
Self
The Division
TV • 2001
Christine Ogden
Touched by an Angel
TV • 1994
Megan
E! True Hollywood Story
TV • 1996
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
TV • 1999
Carin Healy
The Commish
TV • 1991
Faerie Tale Theatre
TV • 1982
Princess Elizabeth
The Outer Limits
TV • 1995
Rachel Rose
The Movies That Made Us
TV • 2019
Self
RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop
TV • 2023
Self