Rupert Allan; Hollywood Publicist

Rupert Allan, whose multifaceted career included stints as Marilyn Monroe’s press agent and as consul general for the principality of Monaco, has died.

A spokeswoman for the public relations firm of Stone/Hallinan Associates, where he was a director, said Allan was 78 when he died in his sleep at his Beverly Hills home of the complications of age.

One of this city’s best-known publicists, Allan had been a naval intelligence officer, journalist, magazine editor and Rhodes Scholar.

He was a student at Washington University in St. Louis when his Rhodes Scholarship took him to Oxford. He returned to review books and write for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before wartime service with the State Department as a political affairs officer.

He came to California as assistant director of public relations for Universal-International studios, went to Paris as a representative of the Motion Picture Assn. of America and then accepted a job as West Coast editor for Look magazine.

One of his first interviews was with Miss Monroe, who asked him to represent her.

Over the years his clients included Bette Davis, Steve McQueen, Marlene Dietrich, Catherine Deneuve and Grace Kelly, both before and after her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco. In 1989 Rainier made him a Chevalier of the Order of Grimaldi in honor of his service.

Survivors include a brother.