Margaret Lee

Short Biography

Born Margaret Box on August 4, 1943, in Wolverhampton, England, actress Margaret Lee was educated at the Italia Conti Theatre School in London, becoming fluent in Italian. Shortly after graduation, she headed to Italy to attempt to break into films. By the age of 19, Lee was acting in Italian comedies with the then-popular Italian team of Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia and appeared in a few sword and sandal films, including Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules (1962; with Reg Lewis) and Samson and the Sea Beast (1963; with Kirk Morris). Later in the decade, Lee became a regular fixture in European spy thrillers, including Agent 077 Fury in the Orient (1965; with Ken Clark) and Secret Agent Super Dragon (1966; with Ray Danton and Marisa Mell). With the death of the spy genre in the late 1960s, Margaret Lee was then often cast in popular Euro horror flicks such as Night of the Blood Monster (1970; with Christopher Lee) and Slaughter Hotel (1971; with Klaus Kinski).In 1963, Lee married choreographer Gino Malerba, and while the union was short, it produced a son. With her film career hitting the skids in the early 1970s, as many film roles offered to her had descended into exploitation, Lee called a halt to her acting career and returned to England in 1972, marrying again and having another son.After the birth of her second son, film production coordinator Damian Anderson, in 1973, Margaret Lee took several years off. She returned to Italy in the early 1980s and resumed her acting career in a couple of films, including Neapolitan Sting (1983; with Treat Williams) before walking away from her career again. Lee is now retired from show business.