Carole Lesley

With a shapely, peroxide blonde look, Carole Lesley was a British glamour model and actress who briefly rivaled Diana Dors as England's answer to Marilyn Monroe in the late 1950s. She was born on May 27, 1935, in Chelmsford, Essex, and made her film debut at age 12 in The Silver Darlings (1947). As a teenager, she ran away from home, worked as a chorine at London's Cabaret Club, and later found notoriety as a nude glamour and pin-up model in Paris under the name Leslie Carol(e).

Returning to England, she signed a seven-year contract with Associated British Pictures and, from 1957, appeared in films like Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), Dangerous Youth (1957), No Trees in the Street (1959), and Operation Bullshine (1959). She also played Helen of Troy on TV and had roles in the Doctor series comedy Doctor in Love (1960), plus Three on a Spree (1961), What a Whopper (1961), and The Pot Carriers (1962). Despite her efforts, she never achieved the stardom she craved, and Associated released her from her contract.

Retreating from the public eye, she married Michael Dalling in August 1964 and had two sons. On February 28, 1974, she died by her own hand from an acute overdose of pills at age 38 in New Barnet, England. Her early pin-up photography later inspired British artist Paul Harvey. She was 38 years old.