Biography

Allen's family emigrated to Canada in 1955 when his father took teaching jobs in Edmonton, eventually becoming school head in Lake Cowichan, British Columbia. After attending Victoria College and a drama summer school, Allan returned to Britain to train at RADA, graduating in 1963. The following year, he began acting with repertory companies in Leicester (he took the title role in Richard II) and at the Nottingham Playhouse.

Prolific British character actor who specialised in playing quiet, rural types. He was perhaps best known as the gentle, poetry-loving farmhand Bert Fry in The Archers and on television as the blacksmith Frank Blakey in the early days of Emmerdale Farm.