Vera Day

A highly photogenic blonde starlet of the 1950s petite buxom Vera Day was once touted as Britains answer to Marilyn Monroe Having dropped out of school at the age of 15 she had tried her hand in retail and hospitality before finding steadier employment as a beauty parlour assistant and hairdressers model Modelling then became her fulltime occupation but Vera had loftier ambitions Answering an ad for showgirls in a theatrical publication she went on to audition for bandleader and impresario Jack Hylton Hylton was sufficiently impressed by her looks and selfassurance to cast her in his West End stage production of Wish You Were Here at the London Casino in 1953 This was followed a year later by a small supporting part Valerie in Pal Joey at the Princes Theatre That same year Vera married pugilist and bodybuilder Arthur Mason took on the role of his manager and made her motion picture debut in Dance Little Lady 1954 Resisting offers for grittier more downtoearth roles Vera was happy to be typecast on the screen as glamour girls and dizzy blondes Mimi in A Kid for Two Farthings 1955 Marilyns colleague Betty in The Prince and the Showgirl 1957 wearing a brown wig so as not to upstage her illustrious costar Sheila a local barmaid in Quatermass 2 1957 a hooker in The Flesh Is Weak 1957 and a singer who falls victim to Boris Karloff in Grip of the Strangler 1958 A rare leading role came her way in Womaneater 1958 a rather ludicrous lowbudget horror offering about a carnivorous tree and of course a mad scientist played by George Coulouris Little is remembered about this film except for Veras tightfitting sweater and bullet bra For television Vera first appeared in an episode of Britains first soap opera The Grove Family 1954 Her later guest spots included Dixon of Dock Green 1955 No Hiding Place 1959 The Saint 1962 and The Bill 1984 After a hiatus of 34 years Vera came out of retirement to play the role of Tanya in Guy Ritchies gangster epic Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels 1998