Nancy, Come Back!

Craig here, wondering where's Nancy Allen these days?

Here she is, back in the day (Carrie era), when she was more prominent on our screens:


She's been too long in the movie outfield. There hasn't been much eminent work from her since Out of Sight twelve years ago. Out of sight indeed. But never out of (my) mind. Today's her birthday - her 60th. Can you believe?

Along with another AWOL Nancy (Travis), the elusive Ms. Debra Winger, Kelly Lynch, JoBeth Williams, Melanie Griffith and Daryl Hannah and co., Allen has kept her profile low with TV roles, a few small films here and there and other, non-movie-based, projects which have kept her away from cinemas for long enough.

...which begs the question: do more men get late career boosts than women? Tarantino dug up Travolta and Forster -and others besides - for nostalgia-fuelled resurrections (Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown). And Sly, Arnie, Lundgren & co. are back recreating past '80s glories this summer in The Expendables. So, come on, do we need an estrogen-filled collective, alternative comeback for '80s actresses or what? The Indispensables? Let's even out the balance here. Or maybe Kathryn Bigelow should call up Allen's agent to offer a feisty cop role sometime soon. A great match, I'd say.

As a perfect birthday gift, someone needs to award Allen with a plum part in a prominent film. She was great in ex-hubbie De Palma's Dressed to Kill, working streetwalker chic in early '80s NY, and was just as good in his Blow Out, too. She stuck to RoboCop like glue as Peter Weller's* non-Robo cop partner, Officer Anne Lewis (my favourite Allen role), and was of course Carrie's high school-prom nemesis Chris way back in 1976. And there's more in her repertoire than De Palma flicks and future cops.

Come on Nance, you work a movie set, fur collar and '80s perm with killer style. Get your glad rags back on and return to our screens post haste. You have been missed.


A big happy birthday to you today, too. Please give us another screen appearance before your 61st. Pretty please.

* in a stroke of Robo-coincidence, it's also Weller's birthday today, too. Many happy returns, Mr Weller. Now both of you, go and make RoboCop 4.