Belinda Lee, a renowned actress and model, was born on June 15, 1935, in Devon, England, to Stella Mary Graham, a florist, and Robert Esmond Lee, a hotel owner. She was nicknamed "Billie" and was an extraordinary beauty, even as a teenager attending Rookesbury Park Prep School in Hampshire and St. Margaret's boarding school in Devon.
Belinda's interest in acting led her to focus on dramatics at the Tudor Arts Academy at Surrey in 1947, and she later gained entry to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) through a scholarship. She made her stage debut in "Point of Departure" at RADA.
Noted by Rank Studio director Val Guest while performing at the Nottingham Playhouse, Belinda was artificially groomed in starlet parts, beginning with "The Runaway Bus" in 1954. Guest helped her secure a movie contract with Rank and introduced her to one of Rank's prime still photographers, Cornel Lucas. The couple married in 1954, with Lucas promoting her as a sex goddess through thousands of glamorous photographs.
Belinda's early roles were promoted as docile and beautiful, but she grew frustrated with being stereotyped as a buxom, peroxide blonde. She worked intensively in films, playing a sensuous foil to Benny Hill in "Who Done It?" (1956) and appearing opposite John Gregson in "Miracle in Soho" (1957) and Louis Jourdan in "Dangerous Exile" (1957).
After becoming estranged from Lucas, Belinda moved to Italy, seeking a change of pace and atmosphere. However, she found herself in more of the same temptress roles she had tried to avoid, including "Aphrodite," "Messalina," and "Lucrezia Borgia" in low-budget spectacles. She also became preoccupied with married men, including Prince Filippo Orsini, whose position with the Vatican led to a major scandal.
This tumultuous romance and a deteriorating relationship with the Rank Studio, culminating in the production of "Elephant Gun" (1958) with Michael Craig, triggered a near-fatal suicide attempt in January 1958. Belinda later divorced Lucas and continued her affair with Prince Orsini, as well as others.
Tragically, Belinda's life was cut short when she decided to join her current love, Italian playboy and journalist Gualtiero Jacopetti, on a trip to Las Vegas. While traveling with Jacopetti and co-producer Paolo Cavara, their driver lost control of their speeding car, and Belinda was thrown from the vehicle, suffering a fractured skull and broken neck. She died at the age of 25, and her ashes were eventually returned to Rome and interred in the Campo Cestio Cemetery.
