Attended Queen's Gate school in South Kensington and trained for the stage at Webber Douglas.
Daughter of Eric Gibbs, chairman of Bradbury Wilkinson, engravers and printers, and his wife Olga Postnikoff, a refugee from revolutionary Russia. who worked in Britain for the Red Cross.
Her middle name Matyelok, which she used as her stage name, is the Russian word for "moth". Her mother was a Russian refugee.