Golden Globe-Nominated Actress Dies at 78
Sian Barbara Allen, who starred as the title character opposite Bette Davis in 1973’s Scream, Pretty Peggy, has died at the age of 78.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Allen passed away on Monday, March 31 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. The Reading, Pennsylvania native began her career right out of high school, when she accepted a scholarship to study at California’s Pasadena Playhouse. Roles on some of the most popular TV shows of the 1970s soon followed.
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Allen played memorable parts in episodes of Gunsmoke, Columbo, Kojak, Ironside, The Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-O, The Incredible Hulk, and The Waltons, where she was a love interest for John-Boy (Richard Thomas). In 1978, Allen became the first woman to write a script that was produced for Baretta (she also appeared in an episode shortly after her “Just for Laughs” story ran).
Allen made a massive impact with her very first movie role. She earned a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising New Actress for 1972’s You’ll Like My Mother, in which she played a mentally challenged, nonverbal young woman opposite Patty Duke. The following year, she partnered with Bette Davis for the made-for-TV horror film Scream, Pretty Peggy.
Allen’s final acting role came in 1990, in an episode of L.A. Law. From there, she traded Hollywood for politics.
“After her withdrawal from public life in 1990, Sian maintained an intense focus on politics,” wrote Allen’s family of her passing. “Along with then-husband, Peter, and daughter, Emily, they volunteered for Jackie Goldberg's 1993 city council campaign in Los Angeles. Sian was a staunch supporter of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers and never crossed a picket line in her entire life. Sian was also a remarkable poet and leaves behind boxes of writing that her family will be able to read for a very long time.”
They continued: “Sian's favorite things in the world were her family, mystery books, C-SPAN, poetry, all things Ireland, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon's Graceland album, mac and cheese, root beer floats and bacon cheeseburgers (no lettuce or tomato). She lived her final year of life in North Carolina, surrounded by all of her favorite things, new friends, and more time with Emily than she'd had in 35 years.”
In lieu of flowers, the family asked that those wishing to honor the actress do something in her honor, which could mean donating to a “local, grassroots organization working to combat systems of oppression,” reading your favorite book in bed, listening to Paul Simon’s Graceland album in its entirety or any Bob Dylan music, or eating a plate of mac and cheese.