Sarah Lawson (actress)

Early life

Lawson is the youngest of three children born to Edith (née Monteith) and Noel John Charles Lawson (1887–1964), a naval officer of Irish heritage.

She trained at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, then worked in Perth, Ipswich, Felixstowe and London's West End.

Film

Lawson's films have included The Browning Version (1951), The World Ten Times Over and The Devil Rides Out. Her radio work included The Hostage, Inspector West and Kind Sir.

Among her most memorable film appearances was as Marie Eaton in Hammer's The Devil Rides Out (1968), in which her husband Patrick Allen provided the dubbing for Australian actor Leon Greene. She and Allen also starred together in the science fiction thriller Night of the Big Heat (1966).

Television

Lawson's work on television included Time and the Conways, An Ideal Husband, Rupert of Hentzau, Corridors of Power, The White Guard, The Odd Man, The Trollenberg Terror, Bergerac, and Zero One. She made guest appearances in such series as The Avengers, The Saint, Gideon's Way, The Professionals and Danger Man.

Her most significant TV work was in the Granada TV series The Odd Man, starring Moultrie Kelsall and Edwin Richfield, and written by Scottish TV writer Edward Boyd. She also appeared as Russian spy Flo Mayhew in two episodes of the series Callan, starring Edward Woodward. In 1978 Lawson played the prison governor in the final season of Within These Walls, the third and last actress to take on the part.

Family

In 1960 she married actor Patrick Allen: the couple had two sons, Stephen and Stuart. Allen and Lawson remained married until his death in July 2006.