R.I.P. Sian Barbara Allen

Thanks Eve Golden, as always, for the intel that actress Sian Barbara Allen (1946-2025) has passed away. Allen was an obscure figure to be sure, but I had actually taken note of her before and made a point of reading about her, mostly because I found her presence in films somewhat inexplicable. She made an impression, not because she was good, but because she was peculiar. Hers was a strange, awkward, fairly unappealing presence, and to be diplomatic, one who was not conventionally beautiful. The photo above is a sort of anomaly — a rare good one of her. Most of them are more like these:

I guess she had the “natural” look that was in vogue 50 years ago? Otherwise I can’t understand why she was cast so often in the early and mid ’70s. I first took note of her in the “Lovely But Lethal” episode of Columbo (1973) with fellow guest stars Vera Miles, Vincent Price, and Martin Sheen, as a chain-smoking personal assistant who turns blackmailer, if I recall correctly. She also starred in a couple of ABC Movies of the Week that I’ve written about: Scream, Pretty Peggy (1973) with Bette Davis and Ted Bessell, and the all-star Smash-up on Interstate 5 (1976).

She played a mentally challenged mute woman in the thriller You’ll Like My Mother (1972) with Patty Duke and Richard Thomas (which is surely why she appeared in a couple of episodes of The Waltons the following year. Also she was dating him). Interestingly, she also worked twice with Pete Duel: in a 1971 episode of Alias Smith and Jones, and in a TV adaptation of Percy Mackaye’s play The Scarecrow (1972), itself based on a Hawthorne story, with a cast that also included Gene Wilder, Will Geer, Blythe Danner, Nina Foch, and Norman Lloyd. It was Duel’s last role before his suicide; I’m sure those two things are unrelated. Allen’s other theatrical film was Billy Two Hats (1974), a buddy western starring that unforgettable team-up Gregory Peck and Desi Arnaz Jr. She also played Anne Morrow Lindbergh in The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976) opposite Cliff deYoung.

The rest of her career was television guest shots on shows like Gunsmoke, The FBI, Love American Style,Bonanza, Kojak,Marcus Welby MD, The Rockford Files, Adam-12,Hawaii Five-O, Baretta, and The Incredible Hulk. She married in 1979, and only took a few parts after that. Her last screen credit was a 1990 episode of L.A. Law –35 years ago.

Originally from Reading, Pennsylvania, she got her training at Pasadena Playhouse.