Sheree Winton

Shirley June Winton - who was born on November 4th, 1935, in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England - was an English actress, and the mother of television presenter, Dale Winton.  Born into a poor family, Shirley Patrick (as she was then known) met Jewish furniture salesman Gary Winton at the age of seventeen.  She married Winton (who was then in his forties) in 1954, taking on both his surname and his Jewish religion.  On May 22nd, 1955, at the age of nineteen, she gave birth to her only child: a son, Dale, who was named after the actor Dale Robertson who starred in the television cowboy series Tales of Wells Fargo of which she was a fan.  In 1957, the now-glamorous Sheree was chosen as Queen for a Day at the Oldham Charity Carnival, and the following year was named the Mediterranean Orange Queen of Covent Garden.  Winton won her first film role with a small part in the 1959 British-American horror movie, First Man into Space, followed in that same year by two more uncredited roles in The Devil's Disciple and Follow a Star.  During the next few years, she played a number of minor parts in a variety of British films and television series, appearing alongside the likes of Spike Milligan and Terry-Thomas.  With her blonde hair and good looks, Winton was dubbed the "English Jayne Mansfield".  She had an uncredited part in the 1965 film Thunderball, which starred Sean Connery as James Bond.  Winton and her husband were divorced in 1965, with Gary Winton dying three years later in 1968 on the very day of her son Dale's bar mitzvah ceremony.  Juggling raising her son alone with struggling to find work to make ends meet, Winton began to suffer from depression.  Her last T.V. appearances were on two episodes of Frankie Howerd in 1966.  After an absence of four years from the 'silver screen', Winton appeared in two more movies in 1969: an uncredited part in the Basil Dearden black comedy, The Assassination Bureau; and as 'Lady Pupil Rhubarb' in the Eric Sykes short film, Rhubarb.  These were to be her final film roles.  Over the years, Winton's depression worsened, and she was rushed to hospital on several occasions to have her stomach pumped after overdoses.  In 1972, her son Dale began working as a disc jockey at clubs in Richmond, London.  On May 29th, 1976, Winton shut herself into her bedroom at her home in Hatch End, London, England, and hung a "do not disturb" notice on her door.  Later that day, her son, Dale, entered the room to find his mother's lifeless body lying there.  She had committed suicide by taking an overdose of barbiturates.  Sheree Winton was 40 years old.