When the tour in Britain was cancelled after some weeks, Valerie contacted Central Casting and started to work as an extra in movies - her first film was That Riviera Touch (1966) starring Morecambe and Wise, for which she was hired as a girl in bikini.

Around the same time, she appeared with Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London's West End.

The Hammer horror film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971) gave Leon a dual starring role, as a reincarnated Egyptian queen.

"[1] Leon's TV credits include The Saint, Randall and Hopkirk, Up Pompeii!, The Avengers, Space: 1999, The Persuaders, Last of the Summer Wine[2] and the 1968 version of Johnny Speight's provocative comedy-drama If There Weren't Any Blacks You'd Have To Invent Them as a nurse.

From 1969 to 1976, Leon played the woman driven wild by a man wearing Hai Karate aftershave in a highly successful series of British commercials for the product.