Patricia Laffan

Patricia Alice Laffan (19 March 1919 – 10 March 2014) was an English stage, film, television and radio actress, and also, after her retirement from acting, an international fashion impresario. She was five feet, six inches tall, with dark reddish-brown hair and green eyes. She is best known for her film roles as the Empress Poppaea in Quo Vadis (1951) and the alien Nyah in Devil Girl from Mars (1954). Her biography, Devil Girl Remembered, was written by Andrew Ross in 2021. Early life Patricia Laffan was the daughter of Irish-born Arthur Charles Laffan (1870–1948) and London-born Elvira Alice Vitali (1896–1979). She described her father as 'a successful rubber planter in Malaya'. Her parents returned to the British Isles shortly before the birth of their daughter in London. On seeing the MGM film The Broadway Melody (1929) at the age of ten, Patricia decided she wanted to act. She was educated at schools in Folkestone, Kent, and at the Institut Français in London. At the Webber-Douglas Dramatic School she studied acting. She also studied dancing at the De Vos Ballet School. Career Laffan's first film appearance was in One Good Turn (1936). She joined the Oxford Playhouse Repertory Company, and her first stage appearance was as Jenny Diver in The Beggar's Opera (January 1937) at the Oxford Playhouse. Her first London appearance was as the Young Girl in Surprise Item (25 February 1938) at the Ambassadors Theatre. Her first credited film part may have been as a cast member in Cross Beams (1940). She toured military bases throughout England during World War II, appearing in Hay Fever and Twelfth Night. In the period 1946-1947 she appeared in six teleplays for the BBC, in which she had substantial roles and was always credited. From this point onwards her film roles were also more substantial and always credited. In 1947 she was cast with Don Stannard in the short mystery film Death in High Heels as Magda Doon, a fashion model and unintended murder victim. In 1948 she was in another short film, Who Killed Van Loon?, starring Raymond Lovell. In 1950 she appeared in the feature-length crime drama Hangman's Wharf as Rosa Warren, a glamorous film star. In the M-G-M Technicolor film Quo Vadis (1951) she played Poppaea, the second wife of the Roman Emperor Nero (Peter Ustinov). The producer and director of the epic blockbuster selected her for this major role after they watched a screen-test she had made for a smaller part in the film.