Suzy Mandel is an English model and comedy actress best known for starring in a series of British sex comedies in the 1970s. She was born March 6, 1953 in London, England, although she grew up on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent and later in the cities of Epping, Woodford and Buckhurst Hill Essex. She was partly raised by her grandparents who owned bars and clubs and holidays camps through England. She attended London Academy of Modeling in London at the age of 13, beginning her career as a model and later becoming a contestant on Miss TV Times on June 14, 1974.
Mandel's first starring role was in the sex comedy, "Intimate Games," which brought her to the attention of Benny Hill. He cast Mandel on his show for the 1977 season, giving her appearances in the sketches, "Nor Iron Bars A Cage...!" on January 26, 1977 and the "Girls, Girls, Girls" sketch on March 23, 1977. She later went on to play an uncredited extra on "Monty Python's Flying Circus," making her one of a handful of performers to have appeared on both "Benny Hill" and "Monty Python."
Mandel married wealthy British film financier Stanley Margolis, the owner of Tigon British Film Productions, on August 14, 1981. They divorced in 1994.
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On the big screen, Mandel starred in sex comedies, such as "Confessions of a Driving Instructor," "Come Play with Me," "The Playbirds" and "Adventures of a Plumber's Mate," becoming a sex symbol on par with Mary Millington, the United Kingdom’s biggest sex symbol of the 1970s. She moved to Los Angeles, California afterward, studying acting at the famed Lee Strasberg Institute for about a year in 1976 as well as studying acting and voice with noted voice and dialect coach Robert Easton. She continued acting, appearing in "The Mistress of the Apes" and in the 1980 film, "The Private Eyes," with Tim Conway and Don Knotts. She also guest starred on television shows like "The Love Boat" and did commercials for Toyota, Nissan and Kawasaki. In New York City, she appeared in the hardcore film, "Blonde Ambition," in 1977, afterward moving to work behind the scenes. She helped to co-produce the horror comedy, "Dead Men Don't Die" in 1991 with Elliott Gould and "Love Bites" with Adam Ant in 1993.
By 1996, Mandel had dropped entirely out of show business, working as a nurse with AIDS patients after several of her friends had died from the disease. She also briefly ran an art gallery in Beverly Hills, California before returned to to work as a nurse. She semi-retired in 2001 after an accident nearly proved fatal for her, but she returned to producing in 2006, working with adult video director Jennifer James on "Inside Erotica."
In 2014, Mandel appeared in the tongue-in-cheek British television documentary, "The Golden Rules of Porn," a documentary where she discussed her roles in the soft-core British comedies of the Seventies.
