Melissa Stribling

Born in Gourock, Scotland as Melissa Stribling Smith, she started out in 1945 as a member of the Ealing Studios Amateur Dramatic Society,'Ealing Studios Dramatic Society in Four New Plays', Middlesex County Times, 14 July 1945, p.1 turning professional in 1948 and appearing that year with repertory companies at Croydon, Worthing and Windsor.Croydon Times, 3 April 1948, p.2; Worthing Gazette, 21 July 1948, p.2; Wokingham Times, 15 October 1948, p.4 Her screen career began with a small role in the film The First Gentleman, also in 1948.

In the 1960s and 1970s, she guest-starred in the TV series Benny Hill (1963), ITV Play of the Week, The Avengers, The Persuaders!, The Dick Emery Show, Crown Court (TV series) ('Safe as Houses'), and The New Avengers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=16652|title=Melissa Stribling|website=www.aveleyman.com}} Her last appearance was in the film Paris by Night (1988) with Charlotte Rampling.{{cite book|last1=Kinsey|first1=Wayne|title=Hammer films: the Bray Studio years|publisher=Reynolds & Hearn|year=2002|isbn=978-1-903111-44-4}}

Stribling is best known for playing the role of Mina Holmwood in the Hammer Films production Dracula (1958), starring Peter Cushing and, in the title role, Christopher Lee.{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/462320/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Dracula (1958)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}} In the film, her character is the victim of a vampire in what has been seen as an erotically charged performance.{{cite book|last1=J. Hogan|first1=David|title=Dark Romance: Sexuality in the Horror Film | publisher=McFarland|year=1997|page=46|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QzpoSGkslEgC&q=Melissa+Stribling&pg=PA146|access-date=16 June 2010|isbn=978-0-7864-0474-2}} Dracula and Mina showing sexual pleasure in this way has often been described as a first in British cinema.{{cite book|last1=Harper|first1=Sue|last2=Porter|first2=Vincent|title=British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007|page=149|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XRjcQIhlASwC&q=Melissa+Stribling&pg=PA149|access-date=16 June 2010|isbn=978-0-19-815935-3}} The film's director, Terence Fisher, remembered her asking him how to play the scene. He replied by saying that she should imagine that she'd had "one whale of a sexual night" and that it should show on her face.{{cite book|last1=Hutchings|first1=Peter|title=Terence Fisher|publisher=Manchester University Press|year=2001|page=120|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bGsWjydi7_oC&q=Melissa+Stribling&pg=PA120|access-date=16 June 2010|isbn=978-0-7190-5637-6}} Fisher said that she produced a satisfied little facial expression that spoke volumes.Jonathan Rigby complimented her performance in his book English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema, saying that she is "a terrific female lead throughout" the film.{{cite book|last1=Rigby|first1=Jonathan|title=English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema|publisher=Reynolds & Hearn|year=2004|page=67|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DaUqAQAAIAAJ&q=Melissa+Stribling|access-date=16 June 2010|isbn=978-1-903111-79-6}}

She was married to the film director Basil Dearden; their sons are James Dearden, also a director, and Torquil Dearden, a London-based editor at a company specialising in commercials and corporate videos.{{cite book|last1=Quinlan|first1=David|title=The Illustrated Guide to Film Directors|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=1983|page=70|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELC0sUmbpwUC&q=Melissa+Stribling&pg=PA70|access-date=16 June 2010|isbn=978-0-389-20408-4}} After Basil Dearden's death in 1971, she was briefly married to film producer Richard du Vivier.'A crossroads of love for Melissa', Sunday Mirror, 3 August 1975, p.21

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• {{IMDb name|834320|Melissa Stribling}}

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Category:1926 births

Category:1992 deaths

Category:Scottish film actresses

Category:Scottish television actresses

Category:People from Gourock

Category:20th-century Scottish actresses