Editing Elsa Lanchester (section)

==Personal life==
Lanchester married [[Charles Laughton]] in 1929.<ref name="ODNB"/> In 1938 she published a book about her relationship with Laughton, ''Charles Laughton and I''. In March 1983, she released an autobiography, titled ''Elsa Lanchester Herself''. In that book, she writes that she and Laughton never had children because he was homosexual.<ref>{{cite web |first=John |last=Houseman |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05E3DF1638F934A25757C0A965948260|title=The Bride of Frankenstein'|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=17 April 1983|access-date=12 August 2007}}</ref> However, Laughton's friend and co-star [[Maureen O'Hara]] denied this was the reason for the couple's childlessness. She claimed Laughton had told her that the reason he and his wife never had children was because of a botched abortion Lanchester had early in her career when performing burlesque. Lanchester admitted in her autobiography that she had two abortions in her youth (one being Laughton's), but it is not clear if the second left her incapable of becoming pregnant again.<ref>Lanchester 1983 {{page needed|date=May 2013}}.</ref> According to biographer [[Charles Higham (biographer)|Charles Higham]], the reason she did not have children was that she did not want any.<ref>{{Harvnb|Higham|1976|page=27}}</ref>

Lanchester was an [[atheist]].<ref>Elsa Lanchester, ''Charles Laughton and I'', (Harcourt, Brace, 1938)</ref> She was a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] and she and Laughton were supportive of [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]]'s campaign during the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952 presidential election]].<ref>''Motion Picture and Television Magazine'', November 1952, page 33, Ideal Publishers</ref> In 1984, Lanchester's health took a turn for the worse.<ref>{{cite web |first=Martin |last=Weil |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1986/12/27/actress-elsa-lanchester-dies/587cd3ff-dd6d-43e7-b4a9-3e9ee7d9345d/|title=Actress Elsa Lanchester Dies|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=27 December 1986|access-date=26 January 2024}}</ref> Within 30 months, she had suffered two strokes, becoming totally incapacitated. She required constant care and was confined to bedrest. In March 1986, the [[Motion Picture and Television Fund]] filed to become conservator of Lanchester and her estate, which was valued at $900,000.<ref>{{harvnb|Mank|1999|page=315}}</ref>