- Born
- Died
- Birth nameBarbara Teresa Kowin
- Nickname
- The First Leading Lady of British Horror
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- The sexy Barbara Shelley was born Barbara Kowin on February 13, 1932 in London, England. With her beautiful looks and stature, she worked as a model during her salad days. Her film career began in Italy in the mid-1950s in such tempting fare as Luna nova (1955) and Nero's Mistress (1956), but when this seemed like she was going to remain in the minor ranks, she returned to England to attempt to better her career. After appearing in the minor sex farce The Little Hut (1957) with Stewart Granger, David Niven and Ava Gardner, Barbara caught notoriety in the title role of Cat Girl (1957), a low budget production in which she played a woman possessed by a family curse who develops psychic links with a leopard.
This paid off and she quickly evolved into a popular Gothic glamour woman at Hammer Studios. Starting things off with The Camp on Blood Island (1958) and Blood of the Vampire (1958), the lovely actress proceeded to stake out her own lucrative territory in the horror genres. Through the 1960s, she co-starred in the classic Village of the Damned (1960), along with The Shadow of the Cat (1961), The Gorgon (1964), The Secret of Blood Island (1965), Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966) and Quatermass and the Pit (1967). However, Barbara's film career had fallen aside by the late 1960s and she turned to television.
In her retirement, she pursued interior decorating. Whether playing female monsters or their intended victims, Barbara played them straight and handled them all with requisite style and grace. For this, she was occasionally seen by motion picture fans at conventions as an integral figure of camp horror history.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- RelativesJosephine(Sibling)Catherine(Sibling)
- Recovered after suffering a stroke in 2007, though she says it left her "unabled" rather than disabled.
- Her character was seduced and corrupted by Christopher Lee in both Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) and Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966).
- Following the death of Philip Latham in June 2020, she became the last surviving cast member of Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), one of her best known films.
- Prior to acting, she worked as a dentist's nurse, a governess, school teacher and shop assistant before becoming a top model.
- Made what was billed as her "final signing appearance" at London Comic Con in July 2019.
- The main thing about Hammer [films] was that if you went to see a film in the cinema, the gasps were interspersed with giggles because people were giggling at themselves for being frightened, they were frightening themselves; and this is what made Hammer very special.
- When I first started doing Hammer, all the so-called classic actors looked down on the horror film. There is a great thrill for me in having done Hammer and being known. All the other things I did, nobody remembers those. But the horror films, I'm very grateful to them because they built me a fan base, and I'm very touched that people will come and ask for my autograph.
- Hammer knew that it wasn't what you saw that was important, it was what you didn't see. There is nothing more frightening than your hidden fears.
- In England they decided that, because I had been a fashion model, there was no way I'd be able to act. in Italy, however, they decided otherwise, and that is how I began my career as an actress.
- Hammer was like a family, a very talented family, and there was a wonderful canteen down there! To work with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee . . . I've been more than lucky, I've been honoured. They were so wonderful to work with, both so generous as actors with a wonderful atmosphere on the set and a wonderful sense of humour.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content