Born as Pamela J. Cowan, and originally from Leeds, before turning to an acting career she worked as a secretary on the News Chronicle and at one time also worked as a public relations officer in the fashion industry and managed theatrical artists for a period.[2]
As an active member of the actors' union Equity, she was a member of the International Committee for Artists' Freedom that campaigned in late 1987 when 77 of Chile's leading actors were threatened with death if they refused to leave their country. As an activist in the Soviet Jewry Campaign she was also involved in the campaign to allow the ballet dancer Valery Panov and his wife Galina to leave Russia in 1974.[4] Manson was also a committee member of the National Campaign for the Reform of the Obscene Publications Acts (NCROPA) and had been the Chairman of the Redcliffe Ward Chelsea Labour Party.[1]
With her friend, the actress Diane Hart, she set up a ladies' underwear business in west London. In 1961 the two went to the Soviet Union where they thought their products would be in demand. Manson explained "We thought it was about time someone made the Russian women figure-conscious. If they wear corsets at all, which we doubt, they're probably ones which came out of the Ark. So we're taking our top-selling line, Beatnix, and lots of older models which were in fashion here some years ago. Frankly, we think they will be a better sell with the Russians than modern, snazzy, sexy little garments."
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Personal life and death
In 1949, she married Louis Manson,[6] later the Chairman of Cope Allman International, in Kensington; they had two sons and two daughters. The marriage was later dissolved.[7]
Manson lived in Kensington and died in London aged 59, following a sudden illness and heart surgery. She was survived by her four children.
