Margaret Lee

Biography

Margaret Lee (born Margaret Gwendolyn Box in Wolverhampton, 4 August 1943; died London, 24 April 2024) was a British actress who became a popular leading lady in Italian cinema during the 1960s and 1970s. Raised in London, she trained at the Italia Conti Theatre School and moved to Rome soon after graduating, hoping to work in films.

Her first successes came in a run of Italian comedies in the early 1960s, where her blonde look, modelled on Marilyn Monroe, set her apart. She later moved into the European spy genre, usually playing femmes fatales, and switched to a brunette image. She had an uncredited bit part in the big-budget Cleopatra in 1963.

Producer Harry Alan Towers cast her in several all-star productions, among them Circus of Fear (1966), directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, and The Bloody Judge, directed by Jesús Franco. She appeared with Klaus Kinski in twelve films together, a pairing that was especially popular in Italy. Outside Towers's productions she guest starred in the British series The Protectors in 1972. Her last film was the Italian crime comedy Neapolitan Sting (1983), after which she retired and moved to the United States.

Key films

• Cleopatra (1963): an uncredited bit part in a major Hollywood production, an early step in her film career.
• Casanova 70 (1965): one of the titles that established her as a star in Italy.
• Circus of Fear (1966): a Harry Alan Towers all-star thriller directed by John Llewellyn Moxey.
• Five Golden Dragons (1967): an action film with Klaus Kinski, directed by Jeremy Summers.
• Dorian Gray (1970): a version directed by Massimo Dallamano, one of her last films with Towers.