Margaret Lee (English actress)

For other people named Margaret Lee, see Margaret Lee (disambiguation).
Margaret Lee
Lee in I due pericoli pubblici (1964)
Born
Margaret Gwendolyn Box

(1943-08-04)4 August 1943
Wolverhampton, England
Died24 April 2024(2024-04-24) (aged 80)
Alma materItalia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts
OccupationActress
Years active1962–1982

Margaret Gwendolyn Box (4 August 1943 – 24 April 2024), known professionally as Margaret Lee, was a British actress who was a popular leading lady in Italian films in the 1960s and 1970s.

Early career

Born in Wolverhampton, England, but raised in London where she attended The John Roan School in Greenwich,[1] she was educated at the Italia Conti Theatre School in London, graduating in 1960.[2]

"I wanted to act in the Theatre (never thought of films) and was willing to take any path that might lead me there. I read in The Stage of auditions for showgirls at the famous Moulin Rouge in Paris. I was 17. I wanted to get away from home, and so I auditioned and was taken on."[1] - Margaret Lee

She moved to Rome shortly afterwards to pursue a career in films. Her film debut came in the sword and sandal adventure Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules (1962), where she played the female lead alongside Reg Lewis, but it was a string of popular comedies that initially made Lee a star in Italy. With a blonde, fluffy look modelled after Marilyn Monroe, Lee spent the first half of the 1960s appearing in numerous Italian comedies and parodies – several of which starred the popular comedic duo Franco and Ciccio. Few of these films received much, if any, distribution in English-speaking territories but they were highly successful in Italy, and made Lee a well-known film actress.

Eurospy films

Though she failed to win the role of Tatiana Romanova in From Russia with Love,[3] Lee moved away from comedies and started appearing in a long line of Eurospy films, where she was frequently cast as sexy femme fatales. Her appearance also changed as she dropped the blonde Marilyn Monroe-inspired look and became a brunette instead. Some of the most famous Eurospy films Lee starred in were Our Agent Tiger (1965) by Claude Chabrol, Agent 077: From the Orient with Fury (1965) by Sergio Grieco, Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (1966) by Henry Levin and Dick Smart 2.007 (1967) by Franco Prosperi.

International career

Lee's beauty and talent also caught the eye of international film producer Harry Alan Towers, who gave Lee wider international recognition by casting her in prominent roles in several of his all-star cast productions; starting with the British thriller Circus of Fear (1966), directed by John Llewellyn Moxey. Towers also cast Lee in the spy-comedy Our Man in Marrakesh (1966), directed by Don Sharp; the action film Five Golden Dragons (1967), directed by Jeremy Summers; the thrillers Venus in Furs (1969) and The Bloody Judge (1970), both directed by Jesús Franco; and finally in Dorian Gray (1970), directed by Massimo Dallamano.

Lee's co-star in Circus of Fear, Five Golden Dragons, Coplan Saves His Skin and Venus in Furs was the renowned German actor Klaus Kinski (who was also a regular in Harry Alan Towers productions). The pairing of Lee and Kinski would prove to be very popular among cinema-goers – especially in Italy – so they would continue to act together until the early 1970s; appearing in a total of 12 films together.

Outside of her work for Towers, Lee didn't appear in any further international films but in 1972 she guest starred in the British television series The Protectors, in the episode "The Numbers Game".

Television

Lee alongside Raffaele Pisu and the puppet Provolino in an Italian TV-show (1970)

Margaret Lee was also popular on Italian television in the 1960s; appearing as a showgirl alongside the famous singer Johnny Dorelli. Lee also starred with Dorelli in his film debut Arriva Dorellik, also known as How to Kill 400 Duponts (1967).

Later career

By the early 1970s, Lee's movie career had descended further and further into exploitation; culminating in Fernando Di Leo's extremely sleazy and violent thriller Slaughter Hotel (1971). She would eventually disappear from the Italian movie scene in 1974, and return to England. Lee returned to Italy in 1981, however, and made a minor movie comeback in Dino Risi's comedy Sesso e volentieri (1982), which reunited her with her old co-star Johnny Dorelli. But Lee's comeback was to be a short one as she only appeared in one further film, the very obscure crime-comedy Neapolitan Sting (1983), before retiring from movies altogether and moving to the United States.[1]

Personal life and death

Lee married three times: to Gino Malerba, Patrick Anderson and Walter Creighton.[4] Lee was the mother of production manager Roberto Malerba, a producer on Sense8 and production manager/producer Damian Anderson.[4]

Margaret Lee died on 24 April 2024, at the age of 80.[5][6][4][7][8]

Filmography

References

  1. ^ a b c tinynoggin (20 July 2012). "Interview with Margaret Lee". Du dumme Sau - a Kinski Blog. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
  2. ^ "LEE, Margaret". BFI Film & TV Database. Archived from the original on 18 January 2009. Retrieved 28 January 2009.
  3. ^ Callan, Michael Feeney Sean Connery Virgin Books; Revised, Updated edition 4 September 2003
  4. ^ a b c "Margaret Lee, Wolverhampton-born actress who became a huge star in Italian Eurospy movies – obituary". The Telegraph. 3 May 2024. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  5. ^ "Il Necrologio Dei Giusti - Se Ne Va Margaret Lee, 80 Anni". Dagospia. 24 April 2024. Retrieved 28 April 2024.
  6. ^ "Margaret Lee". Unifrance. Retrieved 28 April 2024.
  7. ^ "Morta Margaret Lee, grande star dei film italiani degli anni '60". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 4 May 2024. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  8. ^ Damiata, Roberta (30 April 2024). "Addio a Margaret Lee, l'attrice "sosia" di Marilyn Monroe al fianco di Franco e Ciccio". Il Giornale. Retrieved 18 September 2025.

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