Mary Millington

A petite blonde with bright blue eyes and a slim build, she stands just 4'11" and wears her hair in a classic golden style. Mary Millington, as she became known, started life in Kenton, Middlesex, where she trained as a veterinary nurse before a chance meeting with photographer John Lindsay steered her toward modeling. She soon began posing nude for British glamour magazines, and by the mid-1970s she had become one of the most recognizable nude models in the UK.

Her career advanced when she met publisher and film producer David Sullivan in 1974. He promoted her relentlessly through his magazines and cast her in his 1977 film Come Play with Me, which ran for 201 weeks at one London cinema and broke box office records across the country. That film still holds the record for the longest-running movie in British cinema history. She went on to appear in several other films, always as a natural performer, never shy in front of the camera.

Tragically, her success came with personal turmoil. As her fame grew, so did her reliance on drugs, and she became increasingly paranoid about her looks while being hounded by police. She died by suicide on 19 August 1979, at the age of 33, leaving behind a career that lasted nearly a decade. Her work from 1970 to 1979 included solo nudity and girl-on-girl scenes, and she remained married to Robert Maxted until her death.