Carole Lesley

Carole Lesley

Born: May 27, 1935
Died: February 28, 1974
in Chelmsford, Essex, England
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.

Movies for Carole Lesley...

The Pot Carriers
Title: The Pot Carriers
Character: Wendy
Released: March 10, 1962
Type: Movie
New inmate Rainbow has just been imprisoned for a year for his part in a fight over his girlfriend Wendy. After being assigned to kitchen duty, he becomes involved in a food-trading racket. When the scheme is betrayed to the prison's governor, its prime mover is threatened with an extended sentence - unless Rainbow can come up with a way to save him.
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What a Whopper
Title: What a Whopper
Character: Charlotte 'Charlie' Pinner
Released: October 17, 1961
Type: Movie
A writer attempts to raise some cash by writing a book about the Loch Ness Monster. No publisher will take it because they all think there isn't really a monster. The writer and some of his friends make a fake monster and take photographs and then travel to Scotland to see if they can convince the locals.
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Three on a Spree
Title: Three on a Spree
Character: Susan
Released: June 28, 1961
Type: Movie
A young man will inherit a huge fortune--8 million pounds--but to qualify, he must spend a million pounds in just two months. Easy to do? That's what you think!
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Doctor in Love
Title: Doctor in Love
Character: Kitten Strudwick
Released: July 12, 1960
Type: Movie
Doctors Burke and Hare leave the confines of St Swithins for the world of general practice, stopping off on the way as patients at the Foulness Anti-cold Unit. Hare then takes up a position as junior in a well-healed G.P.'s surgery while Burke continues to sow his doctorial wild oats.
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Operation Bullshine
Title: Operation Bullshine
Character: Pvt. Marge White
Released: June 30, 1959
Type: Movie
During World War II, a Royal Artillery officer is assigned to an anti-aircraft battery that is filled with female soldiers of the Auxiliary Territorial Service. His wife who has enlisted is mistakenly posted to the battery in violation of regulations of husbands and wives serving together in the same formation. She becomes jealous of what she perceives as him paying too much attention to the other Auxiliary Territorial Service women.
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No Trees in the Street
Title: No Trees in the Street
Character: Lova
Released: March 3, 1959
Type: Movie
Based on the play by Ted Willis, the film is set in the years just before World War II, when England hadn't completely dug itself out of the worldwide depression. Melvyn Hayes is featured as an aimless teenager, who tries to escape his squalid surroundings by entering a life of crime. He falls in with local hoodlum Herbert Lom, who holds the rest of the slum citizens in the grip of fear including Hayes' own family. No Trees in the Street chronicles Hayes' sordid progress from nickel-and-dime thefts to murder.
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Woman in a Dressing Gown
Title: Woman in a Dressing Gown
Character: Hilda Harper
Released: July 3, 1957
Type: Movie
A married, middle-aged woman is shocked to discover that her husband, who she thought was content in their marriage, has become infatuated with a beautiful younger woman and is planning to leave his family for her.
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These Dangerous Years
Title: These Dangerous Years
Character: Dinah Brown
Released: July 3, 1957
Type: Movie
A Liverpool gang member wins a singing contest is then called up for National Service where he clashes with another soldier.
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The Good Companions
Title: The Good Companions
Character: Film Star (as Leslie Carroll)
Released: April 22, 1957
Type: Movie
The story revolves around the Dinky Doos, a provincial musical troupe living from hand to mouth.
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The Embezzler
Title: The Embezzler
Character: Tea Shop Waitress
Released: July 1, 1954
Type: Movie
Bank robber's plans for a wealthy lifestyle gradually turn to more noble aims.
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Trottie True
Title: Trottie True
Character: Clare as a child
Released: September 29, 1949
Type: Movie
Tottie True is a gay-90s British music-hall performer who has her sights set on moving from rags to riches, who loses her heart to the pure-and-true blue balloonist, Sid Skinner, but continues her upward search on improving her social status. She finally settles for Lord Landon Digby who has lots of assets and a very-stiff upper lip. She gets a lot of the latter and very little of the former, and decides Sid might have been a better choice.
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The Silver Darlings
Title: The Silver Darlings
Character: Una (child)
Released: September 3, 1947
Type: Movie
A harsh if ultimately optimistic depiction of life in the unforgiving Hebrides, that includes documentary footage to add to the sense of realism. A woman weathers the conscription of her husband, destructive storms, a son who yearns to leave the family home and an outbreak of cholera before winning the man she truly loves.