Monday, March 30, 2009

Astrid Allwyn (1905-1978)


Astrid Allwyn was a stage and film actress and an accomplished singer. She made her Broadway debut in 1929, the year of the Wall Street crash, in Elmer Rice's Street Scene.

After Broadway Astrid turned to Hollywood and appeared in a lot of Depression era films, often playing the woman the leading character runs away from - for example Cary Crant's fiancée in Love Affair (1939) and James Stewart's in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). In the latter she plays the daughter of Claude Rain's character Senator Joseph Paine.
She also played the role of Mrs. Iris Manning in the Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers film Follow the Fleet (1936).

Astrid Allwyn was married twice. She met her first husband, actor Robert Kent, on the shooting of the Shirley Temple film Dimples (1936). They divorced in 1941. She had two daughters with her second husband Charles O. Fee, and was married to him until her death from cancer in 1978.

Here is the link to the first (of eight) part of Dimples, with Shirley Temple, Frank Morgan, Robert Kent and Astrid Allwyn.





Astrid Allwyn with Herbert Marshall and Sylvia Sidney in Accent on Youth (1935).

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I can't believe I've never heard of Astrid! I hope that movie Accent on Youth is available somewhere-- I'm a huge Herbert Marshall & Sylvia Sidney fan, and now I want to see more Astrid Allwyn too!

Lolita of the Classics said...

Kate Gabrielle:
Oh, I love when I succeed in inspiring people! I got my eyes on Astrid recently, but unfortunately there is very hard to find information about her life. I'm curious about her first name too, since Astrid is Scandinavian (not to mention Swedish). But I really can't find out where she got that name from!
By the way - I need to see more Herbert Marshall films.

Keith said...

I've seen her in some films, but I'll be honest that I never knew her name. I certainly didn't know anything about her. That's a shame. You did a great post where I got a chance to find out some things about her. Thanks.

Lolita of the Classics said...

Keith:
Thanks a lot, Keith! It was not easy to find anything about her! I'll let you all know if I stumble upon some new information.

Bronco46 said...

Wow! It's amazing how much her daughter Melinda O. Fee looks like her. I remember seeing her mother in some of the old films, and then I saw her daughter on Match Game.
Both very beautiful women.