My secret spy operation of collecting autographs from and photo with the so-called ‘Bond girls’ of the James Bond film continued. The rule of thumb is generally that if you find one Bond girls, you’ll probably find at least one more at the same show. At the case of the Chiller Theatre show in Parsippany, New Jersey, on April 28, 2012, this was precisely the case. I have already covered the other Bond girl that I obtained at this show, Maryam d’Abo, as seen in my first Bond Girls installment found here. Now it was time to grab an audience with Luciana Paluzzi.
Luciana had been one of the old school Bond girls from the days of Sean Connery, having starred as SPECTRE Assassin Fiona Volpe in the fourth Bond film Thunderball. Outside of her early career in the Italian cinema, she had a handful of rolls in domestic films, but they’re ones of which I’m not too familiar. She did however appear in such TV shows as Hazel, Hawaii Five-O, and Bonanza.
She and I had a bit of a funny encounter before I laid down my $25 for the autograph that came with a free photo op. There was a dealer directly in front of me in line to meet her. He had at least 20 items for her to sign, and she frequently shot me an apologetic look as she worked through his collection of loot. As she finished up, I said, “now you have to pose for 35 pictures with him!” She laughed, and said, “I’m sorry about that, what can I get for you?” I responded, “oh, I’ll take one.” She was extremely cordial, and I enjoyed adding her to my collection.
Continuing to prove the rule that Bond girls flock together, my next two encounters both came at the next Chiller Theatre show that very Fall – on October 27, 2012, to be precise.
Martine Beswick was one of the very few ladies who had the opportunity to be a Bond Girl twice! And the only one to do it playing two uniquely different characters. In the second Bond installment From Russia with Love, she played a smaller part of Zora, one of the two fighting gypsy girls. In her second Bond role, she starred in Thunderball as Paula Caplan, Bond’s ally in Nassau who gets caught and kills herself.
Her film career outside of James Bond is pretty skimpy, although she did have a small role in Melvin and Howard and played the title role in The Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood. However she did make plenty of TV appearances in such shows as The Six Million Dollar Man, Fantasy Island, Night Gallery, and Sledge Hammer!
She was a nice lady and was only charging a reasonable $20 for her photos, which included a free photo op. I thought the photo I chose was a cool one, although looking at it later I can’t help but wonder if she and Connery were Photoshopped together…
In the same little room as Martine Beswick were other Bond girls, including Caroline Munro. She had starred in a Bond film from the Roger Moore era: The Spy Who Loved Me as Naomi. She was charging the same minimal $20 for the autograph and nothing for the photo op.
One might argue that Caroline Munro was also in two Bond films, as she had a microscopic role in the non-Eon film Casino Royale. She also had starring roles in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Dracula A.D. 1972 with Christopher Lee.
She was the nicest and most down to earth of them all, as she patiently posed for multiple photos with a fan who was quite overbearing and obnoxious. And in this case, I’m not referring to myself. I’m seldom overbearing. She did kindly pose for three photos with me though.
These were all three nice additions to my collection of Bond Girls, and I had no intention of stopping there.
Continue to the next installment of Bond Girls…
This concludes the celebrity encounters from the Spring 2012 Chiller Theatre show. Return to the original posting here…
Celebrity encounters of the Fall 2012 Chiller Theatre show will continue…
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