British Steele

Liking her look of “exotic mystery”, director Roger Corman hired Barbara Steele to play Vincent Price’s wife in The Pit and the Pendulum.

- John Stoker celebrates “the only girl in films whose eyelids can snarl!"

When Barbara Steele was born, on 29 December 1937, her parents could never have foreseen that, in just over 20 years, she would become one of the icons of horror cinema. Growing up, the girl from Birkenhead had only one ambition, to study art. But fate had other plans.

During a college holiday, Barbara agreed to help a theatre company and soon found herself playing a leading role. It was a performance that was seen by a talent scout for the Rank Organisation who signed her up to its programme for breeding future talent. However, after she had been given a number of small parts, Rank didn't seem to know what to do with the new arrival and sold her contract on to 20th Century-Fox.

The first thing Fox decided to do was to dye her hair blonde, which Barbara hated. Still, such a sacrifice did give her a major role opposite Elvis Presley in the western Flaming Star. All seemed fine until filming started and Fox decided she sounded too British. She also clashed with the director and was replaced by Barbara Eden. Her career took another dive. She may have been down, but she certainly wasn't out. Director Mario Bava had seen her picture in a magazine and was captivated by her face. He made an instant decision and offered her a dual role in his movie La Maschera Del Demonio.