Carole Lesley
Actor
Biography
Maureen Rippingale (27 May 1935, in Chelmsford – 28 February 1974, in New Barnet), known professionally as Carole Lesley, was a British actress who had a short but significant career as a "blonde bombshell". Lesley ran away from home at the age of 16, "aiming to become a star". She starred in several films in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the 1957 film Woman in a Dressing Gown, which won the 1958 Golden Globe Award for Best English-Language Foreign Film. She also appeared in Doctor in Love, Operation Bullshine and What a Whopper, and played Helen of Troy in a television play. However Associated decided to end her contract, which devastated her and she disappeared from the public eye. She subsequently lived in a semi-detached house overlooking New Barnet Railway Station, but by 1973 was felt by some to be "a deeply depressed, once beautiful woman, still haunted by a glamorous past". She died of a drug overdose.
Filmography
Doctor in Love
as Miss Kitten Strudwick 1960
What a Whopper
as Charlotte 'Charlie' Pinner 1961
No Trees in the Street
as Lova 1959
The Silver Darlings
as Una (child) 1947
Operation Bullshine
as Pvt. Marge White 1959
The Pot Carriers
as Wendy 1962
Three on a Spree
as Susan 1961
These Dangerous Years
as Dinah Brown 1957
The Embezzler
as Tea Shop Waitress 1954
Trottie True
as Clare as a child 1949