A highly photogenic blonde starlet of the 1950s, petite, buxom Vera Day was once touted as Britain's 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 hairdresser's model. Modelling then became her full-time 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 self-assurance 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 down-to-earth roles, Vera was happy to be typecast on the screen as glamour girls and dizzy blondes: Mimi in A Kid for Two Farthings (1955), Marilyn's colleague Betty in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) (wearing a brown wig, so as not to upstage her illustrious co-star), 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 low-budget horror offering about a carnivorous tree and (of course) a mad scientist (played by George Coulouris). Little is remembered about this film, except for Vera's tight-fitting sweater and bullet bra. For television, Vera first appeared in an episode of Britain's 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 Ritchie's gangster epic Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998).

Фільмографія

• 2007The Riddle — Sadie Miller
• 1998Карти, гроші, два стволи — Tanya
• 1964Saturday Night Out — Arlene
• 1963A Stitch in Time — Betty
• The Saint — Jane Mayo
• 1962The Trunk — Diane
• 1961Watch It, Sailor! — Shirley Hornett
• 1960And the Same to You — Cynthia Tripp
• 1960Trouble with Eve — Daisy Freeman
• 1959Too Many Crooks — Charmaine
• 1958A Clean Sweep — Daphne Watson
• 1958Grip of the Strangler — Pearl
• 1958I Was Monty's Double — Angela
• 1958The Nice Americans — Ann Addams
• 1958Up the Creek — Lily
• 1958Womaneater — Sally Norton
• 1957Hell Drivers — Blonde at Dance
• 1957Quatermass 2 — Sheila
• 1957The Flesh Is Weak — Edna
• 1957The Prince and the Showgirl — Betty
• 1956Stars in Your Eyes — Maureen Temple
• 1955A Kid for Two Farthings — Mimi
• 1955Fun at St. Fanny's — Maisie
• 1955It's a Great Day — Blondie
• 1954Dance Little Lady — Gladys
• 1954The Crowded Day — Suzy Green

Ток-шоу, премії та інші появи (1)

• 2013Hammer Glamour — Self