Tania Mallet was born in the seaside resort of Blackpool, England. She took a course at Lucy Clayton's School Of Modelling, and started working as a model at just 16 years old.
In 1963 she was considered for the role of the lead Bond girl in Bons baisers de Russie (1963) , but she didn't get it. However, the following year she was cast in the next Bond film, Goldfinger (1964) , playing the ill-fated, Tilly Masterson. She agreed to appear in "Goldfinger" as an experiment. She was earning £2,000 a week as a model, and after much bargaining managed to secure only £150 a week as her fee for the film. She claimed that she could not afford to continue working as an actress, because she was earning more as a model.
Tania had mixed feelings about her time on "Goldfinger". Filming was fun, but in her personal life her long-time boyfriend had died at the same time. She took a couple of other tiny roles in smaller films, including Michael Winner's Dans les mailles du filet (1964) but had no desire to pursue a career as an actress. She is married to her second husband. She continues to attend Bond events and autographs her photographs at these events.
