Patricia Laffan

Patricia Laffan was an English performer whose career spanned stage, film, television, radio, and later fashion production. Born in London, she decided to act as a child after seeing The Broadway Melody and trained at the Webber-Douglas Dramatic School and the De Vos Ballet School. Her earliest film role came in One Good Turn (1936), and she made her stage debut as Jenny Diver in The Beggar's Opera with the Oxford Playhouse Repertory Company. During World War II she toured military bases in Hay Fever and Twelfth Night. She gained notice for her role as Poppaea in Quo Vadis (1951), her first color film and most commercially successful picture, and she starred as the alien Nyah in Devil Girl from Mars (1954), which became a cult classic. Laffan also appeared in 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956), then worked mainly in radio and television, before producing and choreographing fashion shows around the world.