Dolores Mantez

Biography

Dolores Mantez was born in Liverpool to an African father and an Irish mother. Although her early career led her to become 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. During a visit to her agent (who only handled singers), Dolores bumped into an actor's agent who was visiting the building. He was looking for coloured players to appear in a film called 'Sapphire' (1959) and Dolores seemed ideal although she had no straight acting experience. However, Dolores landed the part of a student in 'Sapphire' and this led to parts in episodes of 'Shadow Squad' and 'The Avengers'. Following her appearance in the latter, she was romantically linked with the series' star Ian Hendry for a time. Dolores' acting career blossomed with a role as a nurse in the Patrick McGoohan film 'Life For Ruth' (1962). McGoohan remembered her from the film and was instrumental in casting her in two episodes of his ITC series '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 ABC's 'The Human Jungle' series, and as Happy Lee, the girl suspected of Marty Hopkirk's murder in the opening episode of ITC's 'Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased)', 'My Late Lamented Friend and Partner'. Throughout the Sixties, Dolores also appeared in a number of stage musicals, including the Mermaid Theatre's 'Cowardy Custard' (a tribute to the words and music of Noël Coward), 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. 'UFO' followed shortly afterwards, with Dolores's dark brown hair hidden beneath a metallic purple wig in all but two of her 23 episodes. Her finest hour came with 'Sub-Smash' during the filming of which she was squeezed into a narrow Skydiver missile tube set. This really was as claustrophobic as it appeared: the designer had not allowed room for the oxygen cylinders which Dolores had to wear on her back in the scene, and the resulting set was more cramped than had been intended. With the absence of Gabrielle Drake from the cast for the series' second production block, Dolores's character was promoted to Moonbase Commander for the final nine episodes. 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'. At around this time, she met businessman Robert Harding in a pub during a power cut and they were married soon afterwards. Dolores left show business with the birth of their son, Robert Jr.