Zena Moyra Marshall, a striking, dark-haired beauty, was born in Nairobi, Kenya, to a French mother and English/Irish father. After her father's early death, her mother remarried and moved the family to Leicestershire. Marshall received her education at St Mary's Roman Catholic School in Ascot.
Her interest in acting matured during a wartime theatrical tour with the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) while still in her teens. After completing her training at RADA, Marshall's exotic looks led to a contract with the Rank Organisation, where she was groomed as a sultry temptress and second lead in costume films, romantic melodramas, and thrillers.
Marshall made her screen debut in the 1945 film "Caesar and Cleopatra" with a bit-part as a handmaiden. She then appeared in several minor supporting roles in productions by Rank affiliates, including "Sleeping Car to Trieste" (1948),"Snowbound" (1948),and "So Long at the Fair" (1950).
A brief sojourn in Hollywood resulted in the lacklustre musical "Let's Be Happy" (1957),in which she played an amorous redhead. During the 1950s, Marshall managed to rekindle her theatrical career and went on tour through Germany and the Netherlands with "The Late Edwina Black".
Marshall was one of the first actresses to be featured in a British television commercial and had some of her better on-screen moments in three episodes of "Danger Man" (1960),opposite Patrick McGoohan, between 1961 and 1964.
Her main claim to fame rests on her portrayal of the Eurasian double agent, Miss Taro, in the first ever Bond film, "Dr. No" (1962). Her character was the first woman seduced by Bond, prior to his encounter with Ursula Andress in the part of Honey Ryder.
Marshall's last roles of note were as an Italian countess in "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes" (1965) and as a secretary fighting alien enemies in the sci-fi outing "The Terrornauts" (1967). After that, she retired from the screen and settled into domestic life with her third husband, the writer/producer Ivan Foxwell.
