Margaret Lee (English actress)

Margaret Lee (born Margaret Gwendolyn Box on 4 August 1943) is a British actress who was a popular leading lady in Italian films in the 1960s and 1970s. She is the mother of production manager/producer Roberto Malerba (from her marriage to Gino Malerba) and production coordinator Damian Anderson.

Early career

Lee was born in Wolverhampton, England and educated at the Italia Conti Theatre School in London; graduating in 1960. 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 Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia. 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.