Carole Lesley

from Chelmsford, Essex, England

Artwork for The Pot CarriersImage of Carole Lesley

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 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.

Timeline

1962Aged 27

  • Poster for The Pot Carriers

    Wendy

1961Aged 26

  • Poster for Three on a Spree

    Susan

  • Poster for What a Whopper

    Charlotte 'Charlie' Pinner

1960Aged 25

  • Poster for Doctor in Love

    Miss Kitten Strudwick

1959Aged 24

  • Poster for No Trees in the Street

    Lova

  • Poster for Operation Bullshine

    Pvt. Marge White

1957Aged 22

  • Poster for The Good Companions

    Film Star (as Leslie Carroll)

  • Poster for These Dangerous Years

    Dinah Brown

  • Poster for Woman in a Dressing Gown

    Hilda Harper

1954Aged 19

  • Poster for The Embezzler

    Tea Shop Waitress

1949Aged 14

  • Poster for Trottie True

    Clare as a child

1947Aged 12

  • Poster for The Silver Darlings

    Una (child)