Marla Landi

Marla Landi is an Italian-born British actress who worked in film and television as a performer and presenter. Born in Turin in 1933, she took major roles in a number of films. They included the Hammer productions The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), in which she played Cecile Stapleton, and The Pirates of Blood River (1962), along with First Man into Space (1959), The Murder Game (1965), Dublin Nightmare (1958) and Across the Bridge (1957). From 1964 to 1970 she was a presenter of the children's program Play School, and Joy Whitby, who created it and was its first producer, recalled that children adored her. She also presented Parliamo Italiano and appeared in a 1959 episode of the television Hancock's Half Hour called The Italian Maid. She had worked as a photographic model with magazine covers including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Tatler, later became fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar and set up her own wig business.