It took me a while before I was ready to start collecting the so-called “Bond Girls” – and by Bond girls, I am referring to those actresses who in some way served as a love interest to the fictional character James Bond in the films of 007. The reason it took so long before I’d entertain buying autographs of them is that I hadn’t really seen any James Bond movies. But over the past couple of years, I’ve at least begun to scratch the surface, and have enjoyed them enough to collect them and plan to watch them all in the future. Naturally, there have already been passed-up encounters that I’ve grown to regret – but no sense dwelling on that. Since reconsidering my position, I’ve already amassed more than a dozen encounters and will present them in groups; this is the first of these postings.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I’ve already met three Bond girls in the past, all of whose work outside of the Bond canon held some interest for me: Lana Wood (Plenty O’Toole in Diamonds are Forever), Tanya Roberts (Stacey Sutton in A View to a Kill), and Priscilla Barnes (Della Churchill Leiter in License to Kill). Click on their names to check out my postings featuring them.
We will kick off the new Bond girl additions to my collection with my encounter with Maud Adams. She has a bit of a unique place in the Bond canon, as she actually portrayed two different Bond girls: Andrea Anders in The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974, and Octavia Charlotte Smythe – better known as titular character in Octopussy in 1983. And then, she was called back to appear as an extra in A View to a Kill in 1985. That’s three Bond films in all, all of them starring Roger Moore, plus leading roles in the films Rollerball and Tattoo, and I’d say that catapults her to a pretty decent sized part in pop culture.
Maud Adams appeared at the Fanboy Expo show that I attended on October 26, 2012. She was charging $20 for the autographed picture and photo op, so there was no pain there. I chose to pick up a nice 8×10 from Octopussy.
Next is another very unique entry into the Bond Girl conglomerate, this one having only starred in the James Bond spoof film Casino Royale in 1967. Barbara Bouchet played the recurring character of Miss Moneypenny, the secretary of M, opposite David Niven’s rendition of the James Bond character. She had had a pretty healthy film career going in Hollywood, starring in such films as In Harm’s Way and Good Neighbor Sam, but then moved to Italy in 1970. She starred in many films there, and returned to Hollywood to appear in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York.
She made an appearance at the Hollywood Show in Burbank on April 21, 2012, and represents my first attempt at a Bond Girl for Bond’s sake. She was charging $20 for autographs. We had to wait until her professional photo op was over before she would pose for a free picture at the table. So we did – and I got it for just $5, instead of the normal $10. And now I have one.
Finally in this installment is Maryam d’Abo, who was the first Bond girl with whom I had been quite familiar already…not from a Bond film, but from the Playboy pictorial The Women of 007 from 1987. I already thought she was the cat’s meow, despite the fact that I’ve still not seen her in her Bond film The Living Daylights, the 1987 entry in which she plays Kara Milovy.
Today she says she’d never do Playboy again, but she most certainly does embrace her role as a Bond girl. In fact, she co-authored a book called Bond Girls Are Forever and hosted a documentary based on the book.
I had previously met her cousin Olivia d’Abo, and she was back along with her for the Chiller Theatre show in Parsippany, New Jersey, on April 28, 2012. Maryam’s prices were a bit more down-to-earth, charging $25 and offering a free photo with her. To date, she has been one of my favorites of the Bond Girls.
The Bond Girls will continue…
Celebrity encounters from the 2012 Fanboy Expo will continue…
Celebrity encounters of the Spring 2012 Hollywood Show will continue…
Celebrity encounters of the Spring 2012 Chiller will continue…
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