1. Patricia Alice Laffan was an English stage, film, television and radio actress, and, after her retirement from acting, an international fashion impresario.
23 Facts About Patricia Laffan
1. 2.
Patricia Laffan was five feet, six inches tall, with dark reddish-brown hair and green eyes.
3.
Patricia Laffan is best known for her film roles as the Empress Poppaea in Quo Vadis and the alien Nyah in Devil Girl from Mars.
4.
Patricia Laffan was the daughter of Irish-born Arthur Charles Laffan and London-born Elvira Alice Vitali.
5.
Patricia Laffan described her father as 'a successful rubber planter in Malaya'.
6.
Patricia Laffan's parents returned to the British Isles shortly before the birth of their daughter in London.
7.
On seeing the MGM film The Broadway Melody at the age of ten, Patricia decided she wanted to act.
8.
Patricia Laffan was educated at schools in Folkestone, Kent, and at the Institut Francais in London.
9.
Patricia Laffan studied dancing at the De Vos Ballet School.
10.
Patricia Laffan joined the Oxford Playhouse Repertory Company, and her first stage appearance was as Jenny Diver in The Beggar's Opera at the Oxford Playhouse.
11.
Patricia Laffan toured military bases throughout England during World War II, appearing in Hay Fever and Twelfth Night.
12.
Patricia Laffan starred as the ruthless, PVC-clad alien Nyah in the science fiction movie Devil Girl from Mars, which is a cult classic.
13.
Patricia Laffan had a sizeable supporting role as Miss Alice MacDonald in 20th Century Fox's CinemaScope mystery thriller 23 Paces to Baker Street.
14.
The 10 July 1954 issue of Picture Show magazine featured "The Life Story of Patricia Laffan", which included these facts:.
15.
Patricia Laffan is quick-witted and says that had she not become an actress she would probably have been a writer.
16.
Patricia Laffan was "wined and dined on the right bank and on the left" and broadcast over Radiodiffusion Francaise.
17.
The Pittston Gazette on 20 January 1955 had an item discussing Patricia Laffan's first visit to the United States for a combination of work and vacation.
18.
Patricia Laffan was scouting out panel and quiz shows to compare notes on American methods.
19.
Patricia Laffan was interviewed in London on 21 March 1998 by Lisa Cohen, for her book All We Know, an account of the lives of three women: New York intellectual Esther Murphy Strachey, writer-feminist Mercedes de Acosta, and British Vogue fashion editor Madge Garland.
20.
Patricia Laffan had a tangential connection to Garland, who was romantically involved with divorce lawyer Frances Blacket Gill, one of the first women solicitors in England.
21.
Patricia Laffan is referred to as Gill's "last girlfriend", and she briefly discusses Gill and her relationship with Garland.
22.
In 2008, Patricia Laffan was interviewed by Matthew Sweet for the BBC Four documentary Truly, Madly, Cheaply: British B Movies.
23.
Patricia Laffan died at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on 10 March 2014, just nine days short of her 95th birthday.