Carole Lesley

Lesley was born Maureen Carol Lesley Rippingale in Chelmsford, Essex, the second of three children of Rupert and his wife Winifred Rippingale (nee Appleton).^[1] Neighbours would see a young Lesley dancing under the street lamps outside her home in Manor Road, Chelmsford with dreams of becoming a star,^[1] and her early jobs included working at a fruit farm in the nearby village of Galleywood and as an usherette in a local cinema.^[1]

Lesley made her film debut aged 12 in The Silver Darlings (1947), and followed this with a role in Trottie True (1949) when she was 14.^[1] Aged 16, Lesley ran away from home "aiming to become a star"^[2] first to London where she worked in several cabaret clubs as a dancer.^[1] She then went on to Paris where she worked as a pin-up model under the name Leslie Carol.^[1] Whilst in France, Lesley would attend film premieres and other similar events alongside Jayne Mansfield and Richard Todd.^[3]

Lesley then returned to England and had a small role in the film The Embezzler (1954). Following this, she secured a seven-year contract with Associated British Pictures and began using the name Carole Lesley.^[1] Lesley would go on to star in several films in the late 1950s and early 1960s,^[4] including the 1957 film Woman in a Dressing Gown, which won the 1958 Golden Globe Award for Best English-Language Foreign Film.^[5] Lesley would attend a large number of premieres, social events and parties, and appeared on many magazine covers.^[1]

She also appeared in No Trees in the Street, These Dangerous Years, Doctor in Love, Operation Bullshine and What a Whopper, and played Helen of Troy in a television play.^[6][3]

Associated British Pictures decided to end her contract, which devastated Lesley and she disappeared from the public eye. She subsequently lived in a semi-detached house overlooking New Barnet station in north London, but by 1973 was described as "a deeply depressed, once beautiful woman, still haunted by a glamorous past".^[3]

She was found dead by her husband Michael Dalling in their New Barnet home on 28 February 1974.^[7] At her inquest it was determined that she had died of a drug overdose and that she had "killed herself".^[8]