Harry Allen (actor)


Harry Allen was an Australian-born American character actor of the silent and sound film eras. He was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Allen's World War One registration card gives his date of birth as 10 July, 1876 and confirms his place of birth as Melbourne, although at least one obituary gives the later birth year of 1883.

Career

Allen began his acting career on stage with the J. C. Williamson organisation, performing around Australia. In 1912 he left Australia for North America. In the United States, Allen was a member of a touring theater company, known for their popular rendition of The Better 'Ole. He appeared on Broadway in the early 1920s.
Allen's first film role was in the 1923 silent film, The Last Moment, in a supporting role. In his career Allen appeared in over 100 films, mostly in supporting and smaller roles. Some of the more notable films he appeared in include: Of Human Bondage, starring Bette Davis and Leslie Howard; the Marx Brothers' classic, A Night at the Opera; the original Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable; William Wyler's 1942 Academy Award-winning film, Mrs. Miniver, starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, and Teresa Wright; Jane Eyre, starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine; the Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor version of National Velvet ; and The Picture of Dorian Gray, starring George Sanders. His final appearance on film was in the 1949 film, Challenge to Lassie, starring Edmund Gwenn.

Personal life

In 1910, Allen married fellow actor Marjorie Josephine née Condon in Brisbane. The union was not a success and he went to North America without her, in 1912, with an Australian court granting her a divorce for abandonment in 1915. He and his second wife, Gertrude Dorothea, had two children, Harry Jr. and Paula.

Filmography