Film Career
Allen's first major film role was very small, playing Nancy, Jack Nicholson's nervous date, in The Last Detail (1973). This inspired her to move to Los Angeles, and try for larger parts. She scored the role of Chris Hargensen in director Brian De Palma's horror film Carrie (1976) opposite Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving and John Travolta, as the title character's chief nemesis.
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 another Steven Spielberg film, the high profile comedy 1941 (1979) opposite Tim Matheson, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and John Candy.
She and Brian De Palma were married on January 12, 1979, and for the next couple of years Allen appeared in his films. She starred as Kristina in Home Movies (1980) with Kirk Douglas, as Liz Blake in Dressed to Kill (1980) with Michael Caine, and as Sally Bedina in Blow Out (1981) opposite John Travolta. In filming the latter, she had to overcome a lifelong fear of being trapped in a submerged car that is filling with water.
For her role as Liz Blake, a prosperous call girl who dabbles in the stock market, in the murder/horror film Dressed to Kill, Allen was nominated for a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture – Female.
Known for taking risky roles in the 1970s and 1980s, she played prostitutes several times, participating in racy sex scenes or appearing nude.
In 1983, Allen starred as supermarket tabloid reporter Betty Walker in Strange Invaders, written by Bill Condon and co-starring Paul LeMat and Michael Lerner.
She and De Palma divorced in 1984 due in part to stress that DePalma placed on their marriage while filming Scarface. That same year, two of Allen's films were released, The Buddy System opposite Richard Dreyfuss and Susan Sarandon and The Philadelphia Experiment opposite Michael Paré. For her role in the latter, Allen was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actress. She also hosted the documentary Terror in the Aisles (1984), which presents clips from various horror features, including Dressed to Kill and Carrie. Paul Bartel's Not for Publication and Sweet Revenge, an action caper about white slavery with Gina Gershon and Martin Landau, followed thereafter.
Read more about this topic: Nancy Allen (actress)
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