Editing Mandy Rice-Davies

{{Short description|Welsh model (1944–2014)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Mandy Rice-Davies
| image              = Mandy Rice-Davies (1964).jpg
| image_size         =
| alt                = Mandy Rice-Davies (1964)
| caption            = Rice-Davies in 1964
| birth_name         = Marilyn Rice-Davies
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1944|10|21|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Llanelli]], Carmarthenshire, Wales
| death_date         = {{death date and age|2014|12|18|1944|10|2|df=y}}
| death_place        = London, England
| spouse             = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Rafael Shauli|1966|1971|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Charles LeFevre|1978|1978|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Ken Foreman|1988|2014|end=}}
}}
| children           = 1
| known_for          = [[Profumo affair]]
}}

'''Marilyn Foreman''' (21 October 1944 – 18 December 2014), better known as '''Mandy Rice-Davies''', was a Welsh model and [[showgirl]] best known for her association with [[Christine Keeler]] and her role in the [[Profumo affair]], which discredited the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] government of [[British Prime Minister]] [[Harold Macmillan]] in 1963.

==Early life==
Rice-Davies was born near [[Llanelli]], Wales, and, during her childhood, moved to [[Solihull, Warwickshire]].<ref name="nOZI9">{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11303169/Mandy-Rice-Davies-obituary.html|title=Mandy Rice-Davies Obituary |date=19 December 2014 |publisher=The Telegraph| access-date=29 December 2017}}</ref><ref name="8FKji">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/19/mandy-rice-davies/|title=Mandy Rice-Davies Obituary |work=The Guardian|date=19 December 2014 | access-date=29 December 2017}}</ref> Her father was a policeman before becoming a technologist for [[Dunlop Rubber]], and her mother was a former actress. She attended Sharmans Cross Secondary Modern School.<ref name="Birmingham Mail 2013">{{cite web|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/shirley-shopgirl-mandy-rice-davies-who-1863132|title=Mandy Rice-Davies: "My life has been one long descent into respectability"|first=Mike|last=Lockley|date=22 March 2013|website=Birminghammail.co.uk|access-date=3 August 2017}}</ref> As a teenager she worked at Woods Farm in [[Shirley, West Midlands|Shirley]] assisting with the horse yard there. She appeared older than her age and at 15 she got a Saturday job as a clothes model at the [[Marshall & Snelgrove]] department store in [[Birmingham]]. At 16 she went to [[London]] as Miss [[Austin Motor Company|Austin]] at the [[British International Motor Show|Earls Court Motor Show]].<ref name="Ap4uX">Shirley Green (1979) ''Rachman''. London, Michael Joseph: 157</ref>

==Profumo scandal==
At [[Murray's Cabaret Club]] she met [[Christine Keeler]], who introduced her to her friend, the well-connected [[osteopath]] [[Stephen Ward]], and to an ex-lover, the slum landlord [[Peter Rachman]].<ref name="JX1NI">Shirley Green (1979) ''Rachman''. London, Michael Joseph: 159</ref> Rice-Davies became Rachman's mistress and was set up in the house in which he had previously kept Keeler, 1 Bryanston Mews West, [[Marylebone]]. Rice-Davies often visited Keeler at the house she shared with Ward at [[Wimpole Mews]], Marylebone, and, after Keeler had moved elsewhere, lived there herself, between September and December 1962. On 14 December 1962, while Keeler was visiting Rice-Davies at Wimpole Mews, one of Keeler's boyfriends, [[Johnny Edgecombe|John Edgecombe]], attempted to enter and fired a gun several times at the door.<ref name="8E2WB">Ludovic Kennedy (1964) ''The Trial of Stephen Ward'': 10</ref> His trial brought attention to the girls' involvement with Ward's social set, and intimacy with many powerful people, including [[William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor|Viscount Astor]] at whose home of [[Cliveden]] Keeler met the War Minister [[John Profumo]]. Profumo's brief relationship with Keeler was the centre of the affair that caused him to resign from the government in June 1963, though Rice-Davies herself never met him.<ref name="sfHhN">David Profumo (2006) ''Bringing the House Down''</ref>

{{anchor|MRDA}}
==="Well he would, wouldn't he?"===
{{main|Well he would, wouldn't he?}}
Stephen Ward was found guilty of [[Prostitution in the United Kingdom|living on the earnings of prostitution]], from money obtained from Rice-Davies and Keeler among others, at a trial instigated after the embarrassment caused to the government.

While being cross-examined at Ward's trial, when [[James Burge]], the defence counsel, pointed out that [[William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor|Lord Astor]] denied an affair or even having met her, she dispatched this swiftly with pert humour, "Well he would, wouldn't he?"<ref name="9ehFV">{{citation | last=Robertson | first=Geoffrey |author-link=Geoffrey Robertson| title=Mandy Rice-Davies: fabled player in a very British scandal | website=The Guardian | date=19 December 2014 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/19/mandy-rice-davies-fabled-player-british-scandal-profumo | access-date=14 July 2015}}</ref> Often misquoted in other contexts as: "Well he would say that, wouldn't he?",<ref name="w31vX"> which became a popular phrase among politicians in Britain, used to indicate scepticism of a claim due to the obvious bias of the person making the claim. Examples of this phrase:
* [http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-comm-01/cent01-003.htm Scottish Parliament committee news release] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051109025515/http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-comm-01/cent01-003.htm |date=9 November 2005}} 22 February 2001 "So perhaps there is a slight Mandy Rice Davies feel to this backing with a hint of 'well he would, wouldn't he?'."
* [https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200102/ldhansrd/vo020206/text/20206-05.htm Lords Hansard text for 6 Feb 2002] "I pause to anticipate the interjection—'He would say that, wouldn't he?'" spoken by [[Lord McIntosh of Haringey]].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060113041118/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1979651,00.html Well he would say that, wouldn't he?] by [[Bronwen Maddox]] in ''[[The Times]]'' 11 January 2006.</ref> by 1979, this phrase had entered the third edition of the ''[[Oxford Dictionary of Quotations]]'', and is occasionally referred to with the abbreviation MRDA ("Mandy Rice-Davies applies").<ref name="wWE4e">{{Citation| last=Worstall | first=Tim | title=Unilever Boss Says You'll Just Have To Suffer Price Rises Post-Brexit – Well, He Would, Wouldn't He? |magazine=Forbes |date=28 January 2017 |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2017/01/28/unilever-boss-says-youll-just-have-to-suffer-price-rises-post-brexit-well-he-would-wouldnt-he/ |access-date=4 July 2020}}; Also {{Citation |last=Phillips |first=Tim |year=2011 |title=Fit to Bust: How Great Companies Fail|publisher=Kogan Page Publishers |isbn=978-0-7494-6014-3|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Cb9j_dgkhOsC&pg=PA108 108]}}</ref>

==Later life==
A ''[[Private Eye (magazine)|Private Eye]]'' cover at the time of Profumo had a photograph of "the lovely" Rice-Davies with the caption (without any headline or other identification), "Do you mind? If it wasn't for me – you couldn't have cared less about Rachman".<ref name="9wAta">''Private Eye'', 26 July 1963; ''The Life and Times of Private Eye'' (ed. Richard Ingrams, 1971), page 85.</ref> Rice-Davies released a 45 [[Extended Play|EP]] on the [[Ember Records (UK label)|Ember label]] (EMB EP 4537) in May 1964 entitled ''Introducing Mandy'', which included cover versions of songs such as "[[All I Do Is Dream of You]]" and "[[You Got What It Takes]]".

Rice-Davies traded on the notoriety the trial brought her, comparing herself to [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Nelson]]'s mistress, [[Lady Hamilton]].<ref name="FgmGp">''The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations'' (J. M. & M. J. Cohen, 1971) 190:69</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/19/mandy-rice-davies|title=Mandy Rice-Davies obituary|first=Peter|last=Stanford|newspaper=The Guardian|date=19 December 2014|accessdate=7 December 2023}}</ref> In 1965 she was an associate of pre-fame [[David Bowie]], attending his rehearsals and live performances.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lancaster |first1=Phil |title=At The Birth of Bowie |date=2019 |pages=107–108}}</ref> In 1966 she married an Israeli businessman, Rafi Shauli and moved to Israel. The couple had one daughter together and Rice-Davies [[conversion to Judaism|converted]] to Judaism.<ref name="Sunday Times 2008">{{cite news|last=Rice-Davies|first=Mandy | title = Relative Values: Mandy Rice-Davies and her daughter, Dana|newspaper=[[The Sunday Times]]|date=13 July 2008|url=http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article4301482.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615175856/http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article4301482.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 June 2011| access-date = 13 July 2008}}</ref> She also opened nightclubs and restaurants in [[Tel Aviv]]. They were called Mandy's, Mandy's Candies and Mandy's Singing Bamboo.
In 1980, with Shirley Flack, Rice-Davies wrote her autobiography, ''Mandy''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rice-Davies |first1=Mandy |last2=Flack |first2=Shirley |author1-link=Mandy Rice-Davies |title=Mandy |date=1980 |publisher=Michael Joseph |location=London |isbn=0718119746 |url=https://archive.org/details/mandy0000rice |quote=|via=[[archive.org]]}}</ref> A year later she appeared in the [[Tom Stoppard]] play, ''[[Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land]]''. In 1989, she wrote a novel entitled ''The Scarlet Thread''. The Ottoman Empire provided the backdrop and the novel was described as a stirring wartime saga in the spirit of ''[[Gone with the Wind (novel)|Gone with the Wind]]''.<ref name="NEWtn">[[Jani Allan|Allan, Jani]]. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20141223133522/http://janiallan.com/2014/12/23/rip-mandy-rice-davies-high-life-scandal-low-profile-success/ Mandy Rice-Davies – High-life scandal to low-profile success]}} ''Sunday Times'' (South Africa). 10 September 1989</ref> Subsequently, journalist [[Libby Purves]], who had met Rice-Davies when ''Mandy'' was published, invited her to join a female re-creation on the [[River Thames]] of [[Jerome K. Jerome]]'s comic novel ''[[Three Men in a Boat]]''. This expedition was commissioned by [[Alan Coren]] for the magazine ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'', the other members of the party being cartoonist Merrily Harpur and a toy [[German Shepherd Dog|Alsatian]] to represent Montmorency, the dog in the original story. Purves recounted how she "immediately spotted that this Rice-Davies was a woman to go up the Amazon with" and, among other things, that "only Mandy's foxy charm saved us from being evicted from a [[Lock (water transport)|lock]] for being drunk on pink [[Champagne (wine)|Champagne]]."<ref name="HJ3il">Libby Purves in ''Country Life'', 17 November 2010</ref>

Rice-Davies appeared in a number of television and film productions,<ref name="imdb">{{IMDb name|0723578}}</ref> including ''[[Absolutely Fabulous]]'' and episode 6 of the first series of ''[[Chance in a Million]]''. Her film career included roles in ''[[Nana, the True Key of Pleasure]]'' (1982), ''[[Black Venus (1983 film)|Black Venus]]'' (1983), and ''[[Absolute Beginners (film)|Absolute Beginners]]'' (1986) as the mother of Colin{{snd}} whose father was played by [[Ray Davies]] from [[The Kinks]]. In the 1989 film ''[[Scandal (1989 film)|Scandal]]'', about the Profumo affair, [[Bridget Fonda]] portrayed Rice-Davies alongside [[Joanne Whalley]] as Keeler.

She was closely involved in the development of [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]]'s musical ''[[Stephen Ward (musical)|Stephen Ward]]'' about Ward's involvement in the Profumo affair, in which she was portrayed by Charlotte Blackledge. The musical opened on 19 December 2013 at the [[Aldwych Theatre]]. On [[BBC Radio 4|Radio 4]]'s ''[[Midweek (BBC Radio 4)|Midweek]]'' on 5 February 2014, Rice-Davies said of Stephen Ward, "I didn't fall for him, but I did have an affair with him."<ref name="cgsWA">{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03szrzr|title=BBC Radio 4 – Midweek, John Wardley, Mandy Rice-Davies, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Marc Lucero|work=BBC}}</ref> She once described her life as "one slow descent into respectability".<ref name="caLeW">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10347441/Mandy-Rice-Daviess-wise-words-for-those-caught-in-flagrante.html|title=Mandy Rice-Davies' wise words for those caught in flagrante|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=1 October 2013|access-date=19 December 2014|author=Pelling, Rowan}}</ref>

==Illness and death==
Rice-Davies died from lung cancer, aged 70, on 18 December 2014 in London.<ref name="WhZTq">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30547066|title=BBC News – Profumo affair's Mandy Rice-Davies dies at the age of 70|work=BBC News|date=19 December 2014 }}</ref><ref name="hsEqt">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11303060/Profumo-affair-Mandy-Rice-Davies-dies-aged-70.html|title=Profumo affair's Mandy Rice-Davies dies aged 70|date=19 December 2014|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]}}</ref><ref name="nmXcj">{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11303169/Mandy-Rice-Davies-obituary.html|title=Mandy Rice-Davies – obituary|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=19 December 2014 |access-date=3 August 2017}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
Rice-Davies is played by [[Bridget Fonda]] in ''[[Scandal (1989 film)|Scandal]]'', a 1989 film about the Profumo affair.

She is portrayed by [[Ellie Bamber]] in ''[[The Trial of Christine Keeler]]'', a 2019–2020 six-part [[BBC One]] television series.<ref name="0reFA">{{cite web |last1=Leaper |first1=Caroline |title=The real story of the Profumo Affair: Ellie Bamber on playing the 'heroine' behind the 1960s sex scandal |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/untold-story-profumo-affair-christine-keeler-ellie-bamber-playing-heroine-behind/ |website=The Telegraph |access-date=11 January 2020 |date=30 December 2019}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/collections1/parliament-and-the-1960s/lord-dennings-report---profumo-scandal/ 1963 Denning Report – Parliament & the 1960s – UK Parliament Living Heritage]
* {{IMDb name|0723578}}
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qspvq BBC Radio 4 play about the Profumo affair, narrated by Mandy Rice-Davies]

{{Profumo Affair}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rice-Davies, Mandy}}
[[Category:1944 births]]
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[[Category:British female erotic dancers]]
[[Category:English expatriates in Israel]]
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[[Category:Jewish English actresses]]
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