Yvonne Buckingham

Yvonne Buckingham (born Elizabeth D V Buckingham on 28 March 1936 in Ripon, Yorkshire, United Kingdom) is a former British actress who later built a life in Brazil. She was the daughter of Edward Buckingham and Mary Buckingham (née Atkinson) and displayed an early fascination with performance, which led her to enroll at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1959, graduating with a diploma in acting in 1960. Her screen debut came in the late 1950s when she appeared as a saloon girl in Jack Lee’s Robbery Under Arms and as Mario’s girlfriend in the comedy Next to No Time. Although she had only a brief, non‑speaking appearance in the 1959 film Sapphire, that role marked her entry into the British film industry and was followed by an uncredited part in Our Man in Havana. The early 1960s saw Buckingham secure more substantial roles, notably in A Question of Suspense and Murder in Eden (both 1961), as well as a minor background role in the neo‑noir The Frightened City (1962). Her most recognized performance came in 1963 when she was cast as Christine Keeler in The Christine Keeler Story, a controversial portrayal that cemented her place in cinema history despite the original subject being denied a role by Actors Equity. After a period of activity in the UK until 1963, Buckingham relocated to São Paulo with her husband, Belgian‑Brazilian businessman Henri Armand Slezynger, whom she married in 1965. While in Brazil she continued acting sporadically, appearing in the late‑1980s film Fogo e Paixão, and later contributed to the cultural community as the social director of the São Paulo branch of the English‑Speaking Union Brazil members committee. Buckingham and her ex‑spouse raised four children before eventually divorcing, and she remains a notable figure for her trans‑continental career and her memorable depiction of a 1960s scandal.