Suzy Mandel

Suzy Mandel is a former actress and model best known for her roles in 1970s British sex comedies like Confessions of a Driving Instructor (1976) and Come Play with Me (1977), as well as her appearances on The Benny Hill Show (1969). Born Jacqueline Ann Elaine Jefcoate on March 6, 1953, in London, England, she grew up on the Isle of Sheppey and later in Epping, Essex, and then Woodford, Essex and Buckhurst Hill, Essex. A 1968 graduate of The London Modelling Academy, she began her career as a coat model then worked in modeling lingerie, winning such prestigious awards as Miss Benson and Hedges, Miss Teenage London and Miss TV Times (the latter broadcast on UK television in 1974). Her modeling career also included appearances as a Page 3 girl in "The Sun" as well as one of the earliest "Mirror Girls" in the "Daily Mirror". Her acting career in British sex comedies began in 1976, with her first film Intimate Games (1976). Comedian Benny Hill saw her in it, and cast her in his TV series "The Benny Hill Show". Aside from the Hill shows, Suzy also featured in numerous television productions of this period, as well as comedy sketches in shows by Dick Emery (playing the girlfriend of Emery's biker character), Marty Feldman, Eric Idle and Basil Brush. In films Suzy quickly became a favorite of British sex film directors and audiences alike and was soon receiving equal billing to Mary Millington, the UK's biggest sex symbol of the 1970s. As well as appearing with Millington in two films, Suzy was present when the infamous topless picture of Mary was taken at 10 Downing Street in which Mary, while posing for a picture with a policeman outside Number Ten, unzipped her top, much to the surprise of Suzy, photographer George Richardson and the policeman in question. Mary and Suzy's film "Come Play with Me" still stands as one of the longest-running films in British movie history, having played continuously at the Moulin Cinema in London's West End from 1977-81. In a publicity stunt for the second-year anniversary of the film's opening, both Suzy and Mary posed in lingerie on the Moulin cinema's marquee. Sadly, only a few months later Millington committed suicide, aged just 33. During her career in British sex comedies Suzy also had her own cartoon strip, "The Adventures of Suzy Mandel", that appeared in the pages of "Whitehouse magazine". And as if that weren't enough, she also had a racehorse named after her. In Los Angeles in 1981 Suzy married wealthy British film financier Stan Margolis, who had ties with Tigon British Film Productions--the company that released some of her best known films--and who would later co-produce the 1993 film True Romance (1993). Suzy had already been living in Los Angeles for some time--in 1979 she attended the world-famous Lee Strasberg Institute there for one year, studying acting and voice, as well as studying with well-known voice and dialect coach Robert Easton. Suzy also continued working, appearing in such films as The Private Eyes (1980) and Mistress of the Apes (1979), as well as having a walk-on in TV's The Love Boat (1977). Suzy's stateside career continued into the 1980s with national TV commercials for Kawasaki, Toyota and Nissan. She performed her own stunts for the Toyota commercial as well as in one for Red Mountain Coffee, which was filmed in Sedona, Arizon,a by a British crew, many of whom had previously worked on the film Chariots of Fire (1981). Suzy also appeared in several American pilots for TV series, including "All Nonsense Network News" starring Garry Owens, "We're Making It" starring Peter Lawford and Larry Storch and "Sunset Strip" starring Murray Langston (aka "The Unknown Comic"). However, Suzy eventually moved behind the scenes, working on the horror comedy Dead Men Don't Die (1990) starring Elliott Gould, and co-producing Love Bites (1993), starring Adam Ant. She and Margolis divorced the following year. In 1996 Suzy revealed in the British newspaper "The People", in an article entitled "Ex-Hill's Angel Suzy is a Real Angel of Mercy", that she had quit show business to work as a nurse caring for people dying from AIDS after several of her friends had died due to the disease. Suzy was awarded a full scholarship to become a LVN and study at the world-renowned Cedars-Sinai Hospital in L.A. In 2006 she returned to producing, working with adult-video director Jennifer James on a series entitled "Inside Erotica". Happy to reminisce about her career, Suzy was interviewed by writer and film historian Simon Sheridan for the liner notes of the UK DVD release of "Intimate Games". She resides in Arizona, USA.