Dorothy Alison

Dorothy Alison was a lovely Australian actress who featured in some fine British films in the 1950’s.   She was born in Broken Hill in New South Wales.   Her first film was “Sons of Matthew” in 1949 in her home country.   Her first British film was “Mandy” in 1952. It is one of Alison’s most fondly remembered film performance  as the sympathetic teacher of the hearing-impaired who finally gets a young girl to utter sounds in Alexander Mackendrick’s “Mandy” (1952).    She gave warm and winning performances in “The Maggie”, “The Long Arm. “Reach for the Sky” and she was especially touching  in “The Nun’s Story” in 1959.   She played Meryl Streep’s mother in “A Cry in the Dark” in 1988.   She died in London in 1992 at the age of 66.

Dorothy Alison was born on April 4, 1925 in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia as Dorothy Dickson. She was an actress, known for See No Evil (1971), A Town Like Alice(1981) and The Nun’s Story (1959). She was married to Leslie Linder. She died on January 17, 1992 in London, England.

“Encyclopedia of British Film” by Brian McFarlane:

“Incisive but sympathetic, Alison was one of the most reliable character players in 1950s British cinema.   After two Australian films, “The Sons of Matthew” (1949) and “Eureka Stockade” (1949), she attracted favourable critical notice as the teacher of the deaf in Ealing’s “Mandy” (1952), as ‘Nurse Brace’ in the Douglas Bader biopic “Reach for the Sky” (1956) and as the young housewife who rescues a deranged Richard Attenborough in “The Man Upstairs” (1958) among others.   She returned to ASustralian TV and films in the early 1980s, notable as Meryl Streep’s mother in “”Evil Angels” in 1988″