Ronald John Allen (16 December 1930[1] – 18 June 1991) was an English actor. He is most well known for playing David Hunter in the long-running ITV soap opera Crossroads, a role he played from 1969 to 1985.
Allen was born in Reading, Berkshire. He studied at Leighton Park School in Reading and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, where he won the John Gielgud Scholarship. He worked in repertory theatre and had a season at the Old Vic in London. Allen also appeared in several films, including A Night to Remember (1958) about the sinking of the Titanic,[2] the espionage film A Circle of Deception (1960), the British horror films The Projected Man (1966) and The Fiend (1972), the war film Hell Boats (1970), and the black comedy Eat the Rich (1987).
After roles in the BBC soaps Compact (1963–64) and United! (1966–67)[3] came his best-remembered role, in the long-running soap Crossroads (1969–85). Allen played David Hunter, who was a shareholder of the Crossroads Motel with Meg Mortimer, Tish Hope and Bernard Booth. He also twice appeared as a guest star in the science fiction programme Doctor Who, in the stories The Dominators (1968) and The Ambassadors of Death (1970).
Allen also frequently appeared as a guest in The Comic Strip Presents.[3] In the first episode, Five Go Mad in Dorset (1982), which spoofed Enid Blyton's The Famous Five stories, he makes a surprise appearance as Uncle Quentin; deliberately sending up his staid image, he most memorably told The Famous Five, "Your Aunt Fanny is an unrelenting nymphomaniac – and I am a screaming homosexual". Allen reprised the role in the sequel Five Go Mad on Mescalin (1983), and also appeared in South Atlantic Raiders Part 2 (1990), The Strike (1988) and Oxford (1990), in addition to the feature film The Supergrass (1985). There was much comic mileage to be gained from Allen sending up his conservative image. In a 1987 interview, he said that he was approached by a very intimidating-looking punk who shook his hand and said, "I thought you were really cool in The Supergrass". Then, as he was about to walk away, he turned back and said, almost apologetically, "I loved you in Crossroads too!"
His other screen appearances included roles in television's The Adventures of Robin Hood (1957), Danger Man (1960, 1961), The Avengers (1964), and Bergerac (1990).
Allen's performance as David Hunter was also the inspiration for "Mr Clifford" in Victoria Wood's spoof soap Acorn Antiques in her 1980s comedy sketch series Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV. Duncan Preston played the role, mimicking Allen's appearance, mannerisms and particularly his "absurdly plummy" manner of speech.[4]
In the 2023 ITVX miniseries Nolly, which dramatised the life of his former Crossroads colleague Noele Gordon, Allen was portrayed by Richard Lintern.[5]
Allen was in a relationship with actor Brian Hankins, who also appeared in Crossroads. They lived together for many years, until Hankins' death in 1978.
Allen was also very close friends with his co-star and on-screen wife, Sue Lloyd. The two became a couple and made their relationship public when the British media started to intrude into their private lives. In March 1991, when Allen learned that he had terminal cancer, he and Lloyd got engaged and married in May 1991. He died six weeks later, on 18 June 1991, at the age of 60. Lloyd died of cancer in 2011.
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