
Nancy Allen
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.
56 acting credits
Acting · 56

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999

Touched by an Angel
1994

The Outer Limits
1995

The Division
2001

The Commish
1991

Faerie Tale Theatre
1982

The Movies That Made Us
2019

RoboCop
1987

Carrie
1976

RoboCop 2
1990

RoboCop 3
1993

1941
1979

RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop
2023

Dressed to Kill
1980

Out of Sight
1998

Blow Out
1981

E! True Hollywood Story
1996

The Philadelphia Experiment
1984

The Last Detail
1973

In Search of Darkness: Part II
2020

Forced Entry
1975

In Search of Tomorrow
2022

Poltergeist III
1988

Circuit
2001

Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return
1999

I Wanna Hold Your Hand
1978

The Patriots
1994

John Travolta: The Inside Story
2004

Strange Invaders
1983

Against the Law
1997

Acting on Impulse
1993

The Man Who Wouldn't Die
1994

Close Encounters with Vilmos Zsigmond
2016

The Pass
1998

Home Movies
1980

The Gladiator
1986

The Princess and the Pea
1984

Memories of Murder
1990

Acting 'Carrie'
2001

The Buddy System
1984

Dusting Cliff 7
1997

Corporate Wars: The Making of 'RoboCop 2'
2017

Sweet Revenge
1987

Kiss Toledo Goodbye
1999

The Making of 'Dressed to Kill'
2001

My Apocalypse
2008

Terror in the Aisles
1984

Secret of the Andes
1999

Limit Up
1989

Bound by Flesh
2012

More Acting 'Carrie'
2016

Not for Publication
1984

Slashing 'Dressed to Kill'
2001

The Curse of Poltergeist
2002

Valerie 23
1995
Rag Doll Memories: Nancy Allen on 'Blow Out'
2012