Dolores Mantez
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Dolores Mantez born c.1938 is a retired British television actress of the 1960s and early 1970s best known for her appearances in the UFO television series. She was born in Liverpool to a Ghanaian father and an Irish mother.
Although she initially followed a career as a seamstress in a dress shop, Dolores was drawn to semi-professional work as a singer, work that became a full-time job when she joined a group and began to appear in cabaret.
However in 1959, whilst Mantez was visiting her agent she by chance happened to meet an actor's agent who believed her exotic physical appearance was exactly what he was looking for in a film called 'Sapphire'. Despite no acting experience Dolores landed the part of a student in 'Sapphire' and this led to a succession of parts in popular television episodes in Shadow Squad and The Avengers.
Then in 1962 Dolores' acting career blossomed with a role as a nurse in the Patrick McGoohan film Life For Ruth (1962), which in turn led to her appearing in two episodes of Danger Man, first as an agent working with John Drake in Africa in "Loyalty Always Pays", and then as a West Indian girl in "The Man on the Beach". She also appeared as artist Rita Bell in "The Twenty-Four Hour Man", an episode of the ABC series The Human Jungle.
Then, in 1969 she landed the role of Happy Lee, the girl suspected of Marty Hopkirk's murder in the pilot episode of ITC's Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), "My Late Lamented Friend and Partner".
However Mantez is best known for her portrayal of the character of the purple haired Lieutenant Nina Barry in the sci-fi series UFO in which she starred in 23 episodes between 1970 and 1973.
After UFO, Dolores guested as Miss Indigo Jones, a half-caste lady of means in "Fetch and Carry", an episode of the BBC's The Onedin Line.
[edit] Stage work
Throughout the Sixties, Dolores also appeared in a number of stage musicals, including the Mermaid Theatre's tribute to Noel Coward Cowardy Custard, Monty Norman's The Perils of Scobie Prilt with Nyree Dawn Porter and Nigel Davenport, and the West End production of Every Other Evening with Margaret Lockwood. She also extensively toured Europe, even playing in Porgy And Bess in East Berlin.
[edit] Personal life
In the mid 1970s she met businessman Robert Harding in a pub during a power cut and they were married soon afterwards. Dolores left showbusiness soon afterwards with the birth of their son, also called Robert.
