Early life and education
After growing up in post-war London with his mother, Warren attended Terry's Juveniles, a stage school based in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Drury Lane Theatre. It was during this period that he attended auditions through which he received several assignments. One such piece of work was as a child presenter in "The Five O'clock Club", which afforded him the opportunity to associate with individuals such as Marc Bolan (then performing as "Toby Tyler"), who would later employ Warren as his first manager.Career
Warren started his photographic career at the age of 20, when he was acting in Alan Bennett's play ''Forty Years On (play), Forty Years On'' with John Gielgud in the West End of London, West End at the Apollo Theatre. Around this time, Warren bought his first second-hand camera and began to take photographs of his fellow actors. His first major assignment was in 1969 when his friend Mickey Deans asked him to cover his wedding to Judy Garland, which marked the beginning of Warren's work as a professional photographer. After this decisive event, Warren embarked on his photography career, throughout which he took portraits of personalities including many actors, writers, musicians, politicians and members of the British royal family.The Confessions of a Society Photographer – Allan Warren (Jupiter, London, 1976) Nobs & Nosh : Eating with the Beautiful People – Allan Warren (Leslie Frewin, London, 1974) In the early 1980s Warren embarked on a quest to photograph all 30 British dukes.''The Spectator'', 3 April 1999 Together with Angus Montagu, 12th Duke of Manchester he set up the Duke's Trust, a charity for children in need. Warren has uploaded many pictures from his archive to Wikimedia Commons. In the early 1990s, Warren embarked on writing plays. One of his works, ''The Lady of Phillimore Walk'', was directed by Frank Dunlop (director), Frank Dunlop and critics went as far as comparing it to Sleuth (play), ''Sleuth'', a thriller written by Anthony Shaffer (writer), Anthony Shaffer. The cast of ''The Lady of Phillimore Walk'' consisted of Zena Walker and Philip Lowrie; and saw productions in the United States. Warren invented the Hankybreathe, a handkerchief which allows the user to inhale air through a carbon filter at the mouth, to filter out the noxious effects of exhaust emissions. The invention, which is meant to be dabbed in eucalyptus oil, harks back to the nosegay and stems from Warren's experience with asthma in heavily polluted London.Gallery
Bibliography
*''Nobs & Nosh – Eating with the Beautiful People'', 1975 *''Confessions of a Society Photographer'', 1976 *''The Dukes of Britain (place name), Britain'', 1986 *''The Lady of Phillimore Walk (play)'', 1991 *''Dukes, Queens and Other Stories'', 1999 *''Strangers in the Buff'', August 2007 *''Carpet Dwellers'', October 2007 *''Nein Camp'', December 2012 *''Stand By To Repel All Boarders'', December 2014 *''The Lady of Phillimore Walk'', 2015 *''The Matching Pair Part 1: No Good Deed'', 2021References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warren, Allan 1948 births Living people English male stage actors English dramatists and playwrights English memoirists British portrait photographers Male actors from London Writers from London Photographers from London People from Wimbledon, London English male dramatists and playwrights English male non-fiction writers