Barbara Shelley, actress who became the Queen of Hammer Horror – obituary
She was a model and dancer before consorting with Dracula - and being decapitated by Christopher Lee
Barbara Shelley in Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
Credit: TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy
Barbara Shelley, who has died aged 88, found herself hailed “Queen of the Ghoulies and Ghosties” in the 1960s when she appeared in several popular horror films, notably opposite Christopher Lee in Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966).
She became Hammer Horror’s leading lady with appearances in The Gorgon (1964) in which she was decapitated by Lee, Rasputin, the Mad Monk (also 1966), and Quatermass and the Pit (1967) among her credits. She had also appeared opposite George Sanders in Village of the Damned (1960).