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 Palmas film adaptation of Carrie 1976 Allen was subsequently cast as the lead in the Robert Zemeckisdirected comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand 1978 followed by a supporting part in Steven Spielbergs 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 Palmas neonoir 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 Ferraras television film The Gladiator 1986 Allen garnered mainstream fame playing Anne Lewis in Paul Verhoevens 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 Description above from the Wikipedia article Nancy Allen actress licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia