Carole Lesley

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 EnglishLanguage 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 semidetached house overlooking New Barnet 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