Elizabeth Allen

A beautiful brunette whose sly smile turned heads when she was a fashion model, Broadway actress and screen star Elizabeth Allen is remembered for appearing alongside John Wayne in "Donovan's Reef" and in a number of short-lived television series across her career. She began to model as a teen and was soon cast in television, notably on the first episode of "Twilight Zone," where she played a cryptic saleswoman whose store models come to life. Her beauty and talent won her a number of primetime guest spots, until her first major supporting role came, as the high-society Ameilia Dedham, who attempts to tame the wild John Wayne in 1963's "Donovan's Reef." The following year, Allen played another key supporting part, in John Ford's Native American drama "Cheyenne Autumn." Meanwhile, Allen was working on Broadway, and eventually had two Tony Award-nominated turns, in "The Gay Life" and "Do I Hear a Waltz?." At the end of the '60s she played the part of executive secretary Laura Deane on the Hollywood studio-set "Bracken's World." From the title character's wife on family sitcom "The Paul Lynde Show" to Victoria Bellman in soap spinoff "Texas," Allen always found TV roles while continuing her stellar Broadway career as well.