She studied at St. Margaret's, a boarding school in Exeter in Devon, and then at the Tudor Arts Academy in Surrey.

[2] Lee joined the Nottingham Playhouse repertory company for a year, then won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in Bloomsbury in London.

[citation needed] While at RADA, she was seen in a production of Lady Windermere's Fan and recommended to Val Guest, who was looking for a girl to play in support of comedian Frankie Howerd in The Runaway Bus (1954).

[7] She had another small part in Meet Mr. Callaghan (1954), a B-picture crime drama for director Charles Saunders at Eros.

[8][9][10] She had an eye-catching role in The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954), a hugely popular comedy from Frank Launder, at British Lion, where she seduced a jockey (Michael Ripper), in order to get information.

[7] In December 1954, Lee was cast as the second female lead in a thriller Footsteps in the Fog (1955), supporting Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons, directed by Arthur Lubin for Columbia.

[7] Rank cast Lee as a nurse in a medical drama The Feminine Touch (1956), produced through Ealing under the direction of Pat Jackson, shot in mid 1955.

[citation needed] Lee was a nurse again in a thriller with Donald Sinden, Eyewitness (1956), directed by Muriel Box for Rank.

Lee replaced Diana Dors in The Big Money with Ian Carmichael, a film shot in April 1956 but which Sir John Davis of Rank disliked so much they delayed showing it for two years.

"[17] The Telegraph said "I don't suppose there has ever been a more high speed Rosalind in the history of the play... her gaety and vitality are spontaneous and charming.

"[18] The Financial Times called her "brown as a nut, fresh as a daisy and pretty as a buttercup" saying she "made a spirited alfresco Rosalind even if a little too much on the cute side.

[21] Lee was top billed in a crime drama The Secret Place (1957), directed by Clive Donner; she also had the female lead in Miracle in Soho (1957) with John Gregson, filmed in early 1957, and in the period drama Dangerous Exile (1957), opposite Louis Jourdan; during the filming of the latter she was injured when her hair caught fire.

[22] Miracle in Soho was a flop but British exhibitors voted her the 10th-most popular British film star at the box office in 1957 (ranked in front of her were Dirk Bogarde, Kenneth More, Peter Finch, John Gregson, Norman Wisdom, John Mills, Stanley Baker, Ian Carmichael and Jack Hawkins – Lee was the only woman on the list).

"[25] Lee returned to Rank to make Nor the Moon by Night (1957), which was shot in London and on location in the Union of South Africa.

[30] (Questions were asked in the Parliament of South Africa about whether Lee was given special treatment to enter the country, as a customs and immigration officer met her on the plane at Johannesburg airport so she could avoid the press.

A well-publicised adulterous affair can increase an actor's popularity – as Elizabeth Taylor would soon prove when she "stole" Eddie Fisher off Debbie Reynolds.

[33] It was never made but while still under contract to Rank, Lee went to France to play the female lead in This Desired Body (1959), a romantic melodrama.

The Monthly Film Bulletin later said "Lee gives an uninhibited but sympathetic performance in a part she was to make her own, the prostitute reformed.

[40] Lee's first film post-Rank was The Nights of Lucretia Borgia (1959), shot in Italy, playing the title role.

[41] She stayed in Germany to make a local movie, Love Now, Pay Later (1959), playing Rosemarie Nitribitt, a prostitute who was murdered.

[43] Orsini later wrote that when Lee went to Germany to make a movie "she felt would be important to her career" he refused to go, which ended their relationship.

[44] Lee went back to Italy to make Long Night in 1943 (1960), a critically acclaimed war drama, and had a cameo in Love, the Italian Way (1960), a comedy with Walter Chiari, shot in mid 1960.

[45] In May 1960, she said "all they wanted when I was filming in England were dewey-eyed little innocents and sexy big-bosomed blondes and I didn't think I fitted either bill.

"[46] She appeared opposite Cornel Wilde in Constantine and the Cross (1961), playing Fausta, and had leading roles in Blood Feud (1961) and Ghosts of Rome (1961), the latter with Marcello Mastroianni.

Lee was thrown from the car and found lying 63 feet (19 m) away and was pronounced dead at Barstow Community Hospital.

[51] After her death at age 25, the Monthly Film Bulletin called her "an actress who will now always be remembered with affection as a star in the Crawford and Mercouri class.

"[55] The Daily Mail, reviewing Joseph in 1964, said "we come away sadly reflecting that properly handled, which she so rarely was, Belinda Lee might have been groomed into some kind of English Loren.