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Vera Day

Vera Day

Acting

Biography

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).

Known For

Fun at St. Fanny's
5.8

Gormless 25 year-old Cardew, wealthy beneficiary of the Robinson Will, should have left St. Fanny's School many years ago. However, seedy headmaster Dr. Jankers (music hall favourite Fred Emney) is in the toils of shady bookmaker Harry the Scar (boxer Freddie Mills) and has so-far kept his golden goose perched firmly at the bottom of the class. Blissfully unaware of nefarious intrigue around him, Cardew continues to flirt coyly with the French mistress and gamble for school dinners on the form room roulette wheel. But canny Scots solicitor McTavish has been sent to investigate... Featuring television's Billy Bunter, Gerald Campion, gorgeous Vera Day, Will Hay cohort Claude Hulbert, muddle-mouthed Stanley Unwin, a young Ronnie Corbett, and enough old jokes to fill a Christmas Cracker factory.

Fun at St. Fanny's

1955Movie