Sian Barbara Allen, an actor nominated at the Golden Globe who appeared in dozens of television series, including “The Waltons” from the 1970s to the 90s and was also known for his work in the 1972 film “You't Like My Mother”, died.
Allen died on Monday in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Alzheimer's disease, announced his family in a online ONCROLOGY. Relatives of the actor said that Allen was best known for representing characters who “showed great vulnerability and rare empathy, which earned him a legion of fans around the world.” She was 78 years old.
Throughout his career, Allen collected dozens of credits ranging from the successful series “Columbo”, “Kojack” and “Hawaii Five-O” to the films “Billy Two Hats” and “You will love my mother”. Allen also appeared in several TV movies, including “Scream, Pretty Peggy” and “The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case”, notably sharing the screen with Bette Davis and Anthony Hopkins, among others.
Allen was born in Reading, Penn., July 12, 1946, and was raised by his mother and grandmother. Before her start on the screen in “O'hara, Us Treasury” in 1971, she accepted a scholarship at the Pasadena Playhouse. She studied under Peggy Feury through the companion program at the Mark Taper Forum, according to her Bill.
The first two years of Allen's television career have been defined by minor roles in series, including the Westerns “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza” and the TV movies “The Scarecrow” and “The Family Rico”. In 1972, she tried her in the cinema, depicting a young woman mentally distorted in “You's love my mother” in front of Patty Duke, Rosemary Murphy and Richard Thomas.
For Allen, “you will like my mother” was more than another acting credit to his credit. The film earned him a new star appointment of the year to the Golden Globes of 1973 (Diana Ross won the prize for her main role in “Lady Sings the Blues”) and marked the start of her partnership with Thomas. They had a brief romance before Allen married (and divorced later) Peter Gelblum in 1979.
After their stay on “You will love my mother”, Allen and Thomas met in 1972 for the drama of CBS “The Waltons”. Allen briefly portrayed Jenny Pendleton, the love interest of John-Boy Walton by Thomas. Throughout the 1970s, Allen had a constant flow of minor roles in shows such as “Marcus Welby, MD”, “Ironside”, “Baretta” and “The Incredible Hulk”.
Allen's career on the screen began to decrease in the 1980s and his latest actor was in 1990 for a single episode of “Law”, according to IMDB. Allen, who also appreciated a theatrical career, withdrew from the public eye in 1990 and focused on local policy, in particular by supporting the union movement of the workers of the farmers of Cesar Chavez.
Allen received the key from the city of his hometown and was also a poet, passionate about music and lover of “cheese macaroni, root beer tanks and Bacon cheeseburgers (no lettuce or tomato),” said his family. She is survived by her ex-husband, Peter, their daughter, Emily (whom she named after her character “our city” Emily Webb), the sisters Hannah Davie and Meg Pokrass, the nephew Miles Bond, several cousins and grandson Arlo Fonseca.
