Nancy Allen (actress)

Nancy 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.

Her first major role was as Chris Hargensen in Brian De Palma's film Carrie (1976). She was subsequently cast as the co-lead in the Robert Zemeckis-directed comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), followed by a supporting part in Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979). Her subsequent portrayal of a prostitute who witnesses a murder in De Palma's 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 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 RoboCop 2 (1990) and RoboCop 3 (1993). Other credits include Poltergeist III (1988), Limit Up (1990), Les patriotes (1994), and Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (1998).

Allen stepped back from acting in 2008, and became involved in cancer support. In 2010, she was named executive director of the weSPARK Cancer Support Center in Los Angeles.

Allen was born on June 24, 1950 in the Bronx borough of New York City, the youngest of three children of Florence (née Breuer) and Eugene Allen, a police lieutenant. Allen was raised on 196th Street in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx.

Allen was a very shy child, so her mother enrolled her in dance classes when she was four. She attended the Academy of Mount St. Ursula in the Bronx, before the family relocated to Yonkers. Interested in modern dance, she attended the High School of Performing Arts for one year, where she trained for a dancing career. She stated that her experience studying dance "ruined it" for her as it "became all about grades...  I discovered that, while I loved to dance, it wasn't my life." She subsequently enrolled at Jose Quintano's School for Young Professionals.^{[citation needed]}

Allen's first major film role was as Nancy, Jack Nicholson's nervous date, in The Last Detail (1973), directed by Hal Ashby. This inspired her to move to Los Angeles to continue her acting career. Initially, Allen struggled to find acting jobs and was told by an agent that, being 25 years old, it "was over for her." However, in November 1975, she auditioned for the role of the spoiled and popular mean girl Christine Hargensen in director Brian De Palma's horror film Carrie (1976), as the title character's chief nemesis. After a protracted casting process (in which Allen was nearly re-cast at the instruction of the producers), she was officially given the role.

Allen next appeared in the role of Pam Mitchell in Steven Spielberg's production of I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), which was director Robert Zemeckis's first feature film. She then played Donna Stratton in the Spielberg-directed comedy 1941 (1979).