Local News in Brief : Actress Leaves $500,000 to Film, TV Industry Retirement Home

The Motion Picture and Television Country House in Woodland Hills will receive at least $500,000 in the wake of the death of actress Elsa Lanchester, her attorney said Monday.

Lanchester, who became famous as the hissing, reluctant “Bride of Frankenstein,” died Dec. 26 at the facility’s hospital.

She bequeathed the retirement home complex $250,000 directly, said Herschel Green, who represented the actress for 15 years. The home also was specified as the recipient of any undistributed funds from her estate, Green said, and therefore will receive at least an additional $250,000, the amount placed in a trust fund for her longtime accompanist, Ray Henderson, who died in 1984.

Lanchester, 84, the widow of actor Charles Laughton, performed in cabarets and on stage and screen for 60 years. The London-born actress, who had been at the hospital since Dec. 17 after suffering a series of strokes, died of bronchial pneumonia.

Green said Lanchester left assets valued at more than $1.1 million.

The Motion Picture and Television Country House, which is open to retired and ailing entertainment industry workers, recently began a large-scale expansion and has received contributions from such prominent performers as Bob Hope and George Burns.

Lanchester was nominated for an Academy Award as best supporting actress for “Come to the Stable” in 1949 and “Witness for the Prosecution” in 1957. But she became best known for her portrayal of the title character in “The Bride of Frankenstein” in 1937.