Name
Valerie Leon

Date of Birth
12 November 1943, Islington, London, England, UK

Height
5' 11" (1.80 m)

Valerie's Father was a director of a textile company, and her Mother, who trained at RADA, ended her acting career in order to become a full-time mother. She is the eldest of four privately-educated children. After leaving school, she became a trainee fashion buyer at Harrods, before playing truant one day to go to an audition which led to her becoming a chorus girl, and then going on tour with Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl.

Valerie made her West End debut in Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand at London's Prince of Wales Theatre.

This was followed by many TV appearances which include The Saint and The Persuaders both with Roger Moore, The Baron, Randall And Hopkirk Deceased, The Avengers, Up Pompeii, Nobody Is Norman Wisdom, The Goodies, and The Morecambe And Wise Show.

After various pantomimes and summer seasons, she appeared in six of the now classic comedy Carry On Films, notably as ‘Leda' the leader of an all women tribe desperately seeking men in Carry On Up The Jungle and as a frumpy secretary who turns into a glamour girl in Carry On Girls.

Other film roles include The Man Who Had Power Over Women, All The Way Up with Warren Mitchell, The Rise and Rise Of Michael Rimmer with the late Peter Cook, The Italian Job with Michael Caine, No Sex Please, We're British with Ronnie Corbett, Queen Kong and a dual starring role in a Hammer Horror entitled Blood From The Mummy's Tomb - this has now become a cult movie. She also appeared with Peter Sellers as ‘Tanya The Lotus Eater' in The Revenge Of The Pink Panther and with Roger Moore in The Wild Geese. She also played the minor part of Atropos in the 1969 film Zeta One - to become a cult classic for very different reasons!

Valerie has appeared in two Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me with Roger Moore and as ‘The Lady In The Bahamas' in Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery.

In the Theatre she has appeared in She's Done It Again with Brian Rix, Play It Again Sam, Don't Tell The Wife with the late great Les Dawson, Darling Mr. London with David Jason, Agatha Christie's Black Coffee, On The Twentieth Century at Her Majesty's Theatre and Dracula at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.

Valerie has also made several TV commercials but is best remembered for the famous Hai Karate After Shave commercial which ran every Christmas for about seven years. She recently returned from South Africa where she was filming a commercial for Right Guard to be shown in Germany, Russia, The Ukraine and hopefully the UK.

Valerie was married to BBC's Head Of Comedy, Michael Mills from 1974 until his death in 1986. The marriage produced two children, a boy, Leon, born in 1975 and a girl, Merope, born in 1977. Merope Mills is now a feature editor and writer working for the British newspaper The Guardian.

Recent work includes a singing role as The Madam called ‘Mother Goose' in Stravinsky's opera The Rake's Progress at Spittlefield's Market Opera, a film called Gas based on a unpublished short story by Hitchcock , an episode of Last Of The Summer Wine and a short film called A Neutral Corner, winner of the 2007 Kodak Short Film Award. In addition she has taken part in many chat shows and made personal appearances throughout Europe.

In 2009 she put together an illustrated talk about her life and career which she premiered in Almeria, Spain.

She became a familiar face on British television during the 1970s for her regular appearences in the "Hai Karate" aftershave commercials.

Appeared in a live exhibition by Peter Greenaway when she had to sit along with Jacki Piper in a box. Members of the public came and just looked at the two actresses bizarrely sitting in boxes.

Wrote to "Carry On..." producer Peter Rogers and asked whether he would consider her again for a "Carry On..." movie, following her performance in Carry on Up the Jungle (1970).

Drove a car with the registration plate 'VL 1' from the early 1970s for many years until the car was sold for £15,000.

[In reference to the "Carry On..." films and a break in her "Carry On..." appearances] "I remember writing Peter Rogers a letter and told him that I had broadened my experience and hope that he would consider me again. I got a letter back saying 'Dear Valerie so long as experience is the only thing that has broadened there is every chance of you working with us again'!"

[Speaking about the "Carry On..." films] "Most of the "Carry On..." regulars were seasoned performers, they were so individual it was wonderful. I think I was employed for the glamour which seemed to please people."

"After all these years they still bring so much pleasure to so many people, all over the world, even in America. I don't know how they cope with this type of humour."

"I think artists by nature are very insecure, they often do not show it."

"I get more letters now that when I got in the 1970s. It is extraordinary."