George Harrison Marks: “One of my first famous models, as well as one of my favourites, was Marie Deveraux. About 1954 vintage! Her real name was Pat Sutcliffe but I changed it. Marie was utterly fabulous in every way. She eventually became a stand-in for Liz Taylor during the making of the film Cleopatra, and went back with the crew to Hollywood when they left Britain. Presumably she’s still there.”
Marie was born in New Malden, Surrey in 1938. She became a pin-up sensation by appearing near nude as a 16 year old in magazines such as Spick and Span. Marie was introduced to Harrison Marks by a mutual friend, a struggling actor by the name of Michael Caine. Harrison Marks was stunned by this fabulous looking girl with the ideal figure for glamour work. She worked for Harrison Marks between 1957 and 1960 and was paid £10.00 per session. It was Pamela Green who persuaded George to take the statuesque Marie to the Scilly Isles for the “On Location” shoot in 1958. As you can imagine the locals were fascinated with the presence of these gorgeous girls. They couldn’t believe their luck.
Marie was eventually spotted and became a movie starlette and, unlike a lot of her rivals had the talent to back up her beauty. She appeared in no less than 70 films during the 50’s and 60’s in a wide variety of roles ranging from a harem beauty to a savage leader of a satanic cult in the Hammer Horror “The Strangers of Bombay”. Other film roles included “Girls at Sea”, “I Only Asked”, “Brides of Dracula”, “Life Is A Circus”, “Carry On Cabby”, “The Monk”, “The Singer and the Song”, “The Rebel”, “Call Me Genius”, “His and Hers”, “A Weekend With Lulu”, “Hot Money Girl” and of course as a stand in for Liz Taylor in “Cleopatra”, a role for which she gained national exposure in America resulting in an appearance in Playboy.As George said “She just disappeared.
Text from a catalogue published by Nostalgia Publications
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