Nancy Allen

Actresses

Nancy Anne Allen (born June 24, 1950) is an American actress. She made her feature film debut in a minor role in Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail (1973), with Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, Randy Quaid, Clifton James, Michael Moriarty and Carol Kane; followed by another minor role in The Last Victim (1975), with (1976), with Tanya Roberts.

Allen came to prominence for her performances in films directed by Brian De Palma (whom she was married to from 1979-1984), including Carrie (1976), with Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, William Katt, P.J. Soles, Betty Buckley, and John Travolta; Home Movies (1980), with Kirk Douglas, Vincent Gardenia, Keith Gordon, Theresa Saldana, and Gerrit Graham; Dressed to Kill (1980), with Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Gordon, Dennis Franz, and David Margulies; and Blow Out (1981), with Travolta, John Lithgow, and Franz. Her role in Dressed to Kill earned her a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year.

Other early films include Robert Zemeckis’s I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), with Bobby Di Cicco, Marc McClure, Susan Kendall Newman, Theresa Saldana, and Wendie Jo Sperber; Steven Spielberg’s 1941 (1979), with Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Lee, Tim Matheson, Toshiro Mifune, Slim Pickens, Robert Stack, Mickey Rourke, Warren Oates, Treat Williams, Penny Marshall, Lorraine Gary, and Murray Hamilton; Strange Invaders (1983), with Paul Le Mat, Diana Scarwid, Michael Lerner, and Louise Fletcher; The Buddy System (1984), with Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Wil Wheaton, and Jean Stapleton; The Philadelphia Experiment (1984), with Michael Paré, Eric Christmas, and De Cicco; and Paul Bartel’s Not For Publication (1984), with David Naughton, Alan Rosenberg, Alice Ghostley, Cork Hubbert, and Laurence Luckinbill.

Films in the mid to late 1980s include Abel Ferrara’s TV movie The Gladiator (1986), with Ken Wahl, Brian Robbins, Robert Culp, Stan Shaw, and Rick Dees; Sweet Revenge (1987), with Ted Shackelford, Martin Landau, Gina Gershon, Michele Little, and Lotis Key; Poltergeist III (1988), with Tom Skerritt, Lara Flynn Boyle, Heather O’Rourke, and Zelda Rubinstein; and Limit Up (1989), with Rance Howard, Dean Stockwell, Ray Charles, Danitra Vance, and Brad Hall.

Allen is perhaps best known for her role as Officer Anne Lewis in Paul Verhoeven’s science fiction action film RoboCop (1987), with Peter Weller, Daniel O’Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferrer. She would reprise the role in Irvin Kershner’s RoboCop 2 (1990), with Weller, O’Herlihy, Belinda Bauer, Tom Noonan and Gabriel Damon; and Ted Dekker’s RoboCop 3 (1993), with Richard Burke (replacing Weller), Rip Torn, Mako, Jill Hennessy, Bradley Whitford, and CCH Pounder.

Other films in the 1990s include TV movie Acting on Impulse (1993), with Howell and Linda Fiorentino; Bill Condon’s TV movie The Man Who Wouldn’t Die (1994), with Roger Moore, Malcolm McDowell, and Eric McCormack; The Patriots (1994), with Richard Masur, Yvan Attal, and Yossi Banai; Dusting Cliff 7 (1997), with Lance Henriksen; Jim Wynorski’s Against the Law (1997), with Richard Grieco, Nick Mancuso, Jaime Pressly, Gary Sandy, Thomas Mikal Ford, and Heather Thomas; Kurt Voss’s The Pass (1998), with William Forsythe, Michael McKean, James Le Gros, John Doe, and Elizabeth Peña; and Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (1998), with George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Dennis Farina, Steve Zahn, Catherine Keener, and Albert Brooks.

Later films include Secret of the Andes (1999), with Roshan Seth, Camilla Belle, David Keith, John Rhys-Davies, and Jerry Stiller; Kiss Toledo Goodbye (1999), with Michael Rapaport, Christopher Walken, Robert Forster, and Christine Taylor; Children of the Corn 666: Isaac’s Return (1999), with Natalie Ramsey, John Franklin, and Stacy Keach; Circuit (2001), with Jonathan Wade Drahos, Andre Khabbazi, Brian Lane Green, Kiersten Warren, Paul Lekakis, and Katt; My Apocalypse (2008), with Corin Nemec, Bruce Weitz, John de Lancie, Gail Strickland, and Meredith Salenger.

Esch review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

  • The Last Detail (1973) – directed by Hal Ashby
  • Forced Entry (1975) – directed by Jim Sotos
  • Carrie (1976) – directed by Brian De Palma
  • I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) – directed by Robert Zemeckis
  • 1941 (1979) – directed by Steven Spielberg
  • Home Movies (1980) – directed by Brian De Palma
  • Dressed to Kill (1980) – directed by Brian De Palma
  • Blow Out (1981) – directed by Brian De Palma
  • Strange Invaders (1983) – directed by Michael Laughlin
  • The Buddy System (1984) – directed by Glenn Jordan
  • Terror in the Aisles (1984) – Andrew J. Kuehn – herself – documentary/compilation film
  • The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) – directed by Stewart Raffill
  • Not for Publication (1984) – directed by Paul Bartel
  • The Gladiator Susan Neville Abel Ferrara – TV movie
  • Sweet Revenge (1987) – directed by Mark Sobel
  • RoboCop (1987) – directed by Paul Verhoeven
  • Poltergeist III (1988) – directed by Gary Sherman
  • Limit Up (1989) – directed by Richard Martini
  • RoboCop 2 (1990) – directed by Irvin Kershner
  • Memories of Murder (1990) – directed by Robert Lewis – TV movie
  • RoboCop 3 (1993) – directed by Fred Dekker
  • Acting on Impulse (1993) – directed by Sam Irvin – TV movie
  • 1994 The Man Who Wouldn’t Die (1994) – directed Bill Condon – TV movie
  • The Patriots (1994) – directed by Éric Rochant
  • Dusting Cliff 7 (1997) – directed by William H. Molina
  • Against the Law (1997) – directed by Jim Wynorski
  • The Pass (1998) – directed by Kurt Voss
  • Out of Sight (1998) – directed by Steven Soderbergh
  • Secret of the Andes (1999) – directed by Alejandro Azzano
  • 1999 Kiss Toledo Goodbye (1999) – directed by Lyndon Chubbuck
  • Children of the Corn 666: Isaac’s Return (1999) – Kari Skogland – straight to video
  • Circuit (2001) – directed by Dirk Shafer
  • My Apocalypse (2008) – directed by Chris LaMont – filmed in 1997
  • Bound by Flesh (2012) – directed by Leslie Zemeckis – narrator – documentary
  • In Search of Darkness: Part II (2020) – directed by David A. Weiner – herself – documentary
  • In Search of Tomorrow (2021) – directed by David A. Weiner – herself – documentary
  • RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop (202-) – directed by Eastwood Allen & Chris Griffiths – herself – documentary