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 From Russia With Love (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 "Girls, Girls, Girls," but had no desire to pursue a career as an actress.