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ROSEMARIE FRANKLAND, the Marks and Spencer girl whose meteoric rise to fame as Britain's first Miss World was matched only by the speed at which she returned to anonymity, has been found dead after a drug overdose.

Miss Frankland was a "star-struck" 18-year-old when she was catapulted into the public eye after winning the competition in 1961. Such was the prestige of the contest at the time that overnight she was thrown into the jet-set party world of the rich and famous.

She even won the heart of Bob Hope, the comedian who, despite being married, carried on an affair with her for more than 20 years. But the intensity of those first few months was shortlived and, unable to accept her star was waning, she slipped into a life of drugs, drink and depression.

With her looks and money all gone and two failed marriages behind her, it is believed she took her life at the age of 57. Police found her dead in her shabby Los Angeles flat earlier this month. A bottle of prescription pills was discovered near her body as well as an empty tequila bottle.

Her first husband, Ben Jones, a photographer, said: "Rosemarie was star-struck and I don't think she had the capacity to deal with it. For an 18-year-old behind the counter at Marks and Spencer to be thrown in the deep end of Miss World with no guidance and nobody to help her was too much. In the end it was a bit of a Marilyn Monroe story."

The daughter of a hospital cleaner and a factory foreman, Miss Frankland was raised in North Wales by her grandmother and later moved to Lancashire where she worked behind the counter of her local M&S. It was during this time that she started entering beauty contests. She won the titles of Miss Lancashire, Miss Lake District and Miss Wales - the last qualifying her for the Miss World competition. More than 10 million viewers worldwide watched her win the title at the Lyceum Ballroom in The Strand.

Modelling work flooded in, she was screentested for a number of Hollywood studios and she appeared as a showgirl in the 1964 Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night. At this time she married Mr Jones, 16 years her senior, but the marriage was unable to survive her hectic lifestyle and he filed for divorce six months later on the grounds of adultery.

Her affair with Hope, which had started shortly after she won the Miss World title, began again in earnest. She moved into his Palm Springs home and appeared in his movie, I'll Take Swede. Hope took her on a tour of American forces in the Arctic, joking: "She's so hot, we were in real danger of going through the ice."

But her film career never took off and she was reduced to being his personal assistant. Soon that career came to an end too, as Hope refused to commit himself to her. In 1970, she married again, this time to an American musician. Although this relationship produced a daughter, Jessica, now 24, it foundered after nine years.

In 1998, she told a newspaper: "Beauty queens are dressed up and paraded down the catwalk just so some fellow can get a quick thrill. They should shove it in the archives and forget about it."

A neighbour and friend in the Sixties block where she lived said: "She had been depressed for about a year. She had fallen out with her boyfriend and her daughter. Her looks had faded and her glamorous life was behind her."