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Believe it or not, SHIRLEY EATON once
had her own comic strip in TV FUN. She also
appeared with ROGER MOORE in the very first
episode of The SAINT - before she was cast in
GOLDFINGER with SEAN CONNERY.
Sunday, 6 July 2014
18 comments:
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I remember reading a sunday tabloid once which (rather cruelly) showed Shirley Eaton looking old and haggard as if to say hasn't she got ugly - well, it was a sunday tabloid so what can you expect, shame on me for ever reading tabloids which I'd never do now. She'll always be famous for THAT scene in Goldfinger though. I definitely didn't know she had her own comic strip, Kid !
ReplyDeleteSomething else you might not know, Col, is that it wasn't her undulating gold body used in the credits of Goldfinger. That was Margaret Nolan, who played Dink in the movie. (She was also Adam Faith's bit on the side in Budgie.)
ReplyDeleteActually Kid, it didn't occur to me that it was her (or not) in the credits - I was thinking of the scene where Bond finds her naked on the bed all painted in gold. That's an iconic Bond moment - that was her I trust ?!
ReplyDeleteActually, Col, I knew what you were referring to, but I was imparting 'something else' that you might not have known. And yes, that was Shirley on the bed. By the way, Fleming was wrong - you can paint someone head to toe (without leaving a space for the skin to breathe) and they won't suffocate.
ReplyDeleteOops Kid, you did say "something else you might not know" - sorry about that. By the way, your post about meeting Rikki Fulton just popped up as a little window so I read it. So that's him, Alan Moore and Stan Lee you've met - only Salma Hayek still to go ! (I googled Salma and discovered two things - she was born in 1966 like me and her birthday is September 2nd which is the date my father died in 1999 - September 2nd is also the date of JRR Tolkein's death in 1973). I'm way off the subject of Shirley Eaton.....
ReplyDeleteAnd Archie Goodwin, Will Eisner, Brian Bolland and various others - 'friend' to the stars - that's me! (Cough!) And who says I haven't met Salma? She drops in every Friday night and I make her tea for her. (What do you mean, dreams don't count?)
ReplyDeleteI think Fleming made up (or got wrong) a few things in his books like the gold paint issue and homosexual can't whistle (!!??) saying that I heard the latter in QI so that could be wrong - Did you know that despite being known as the ultimate Englishman that Bond was born in Germany to Scots and Swiss parents ,was raised in Scotland and England and considered himself (in the first few books at least) to be Scottish (that could have been QI as well so he was probably raise din Kenya to Welsh parents and considered himself French! )
ReplyDeleteYup, knew all that, McS. Bond was supposed to be educated in Fettes, and his father was Scots and his mother Swiss. (So much for Bond saying "For England" in one movie.) Didn't hear that on QI - read it in Kingsley Amis' (imaginary) biography on Bond.) Didn't know that poofs couldn't whistle 'though.
ReplyDeleteAlas, Fleming only added Bond's Scottish/Swiss background to one of the very last books — either You Only Live Twice or On Her Majesty's Secret Service, can't remember which — mostly as a nod to Connery's influence in the early films, if I remember correctly. The fact that he was able to give him that mixed background probably means Fleming never specifically mentioned he was English in the early stories, but it was meant to be taken for granted, or at least that's how I took it.
ReplyDeleteAs for Shirley Eaton, she seemed to pop up in all the British comedies in those days whenever they needed a blonde bombshell. I remember her from the Simon Sparrow and Carry On films. Strange that her brief appearance should have made her more famous (or instantly recognisable) than Honor Blackman, whose part as Pussy Galore was much bigger.
Sorry, GB - which part of Pussy Galore was bigger than Jill Masterson's? Actually, Roger Moore used to tell a story (probably apocryphal) about when him, Sean Connery and Patrick McGoohan were spotted in a nightclub (or somewhere) together by a reporter. The conversation went something like this: Reporter - "So here we have James Bond, The Saint and Danger Man all in the one place. Do you often hang around together?" "Well, we're all pals, so it's nice to catch up now and again and have a drink together," says one of them. "And what about Pussy Galore?" says the reporter. "Well, we don't go looking for it!" replies the bold Rog.
ReplyDeleteAs you'll know, GB, Fleming died before Goldfinger was released, although he had visited the set while it was being filmed. He had initially been against Connery's casting, but soon warmed to his performance.
Well, of course, Pussy Galore (or Pooshy Galore) itself has become as iconic as the Golden Girl, hasn't it. Being of refined tastes, I didn't want to go there, knowing that you would happily step into the breach, Kid.
ReplyDeletePersonally, it was Tilly Masterson that I liked best as a boy, and her death that upset me most of all. Bloody Oddjob!
Apparently, the producers (Saltzman & Broccoli) were unsure about using the name, and were thinking of changing it to Kitty Galore. (This may have been when the film was still at the editing stage, so would have been redubbed if required.) However, they arranged for Honour Blackman to be photographed with Prince Philip and the caption in the newspaper was 'Pussy and the Prince!" When this garnered no negative public reaction they decided to stay with Pussy.
ReplyDeleteWonder which young actress they'd do a comic strip about these days?
ReplyDeleteBritish actress? (That's if there was a British comic like TV Fun still around.) It would have to be Keira Knightley I think.
ReplyDeleteAFAIR, Bond was simply described as "British" in the earlier novels. OHMSS and You Only Live Twice both revealed details about his background, including that his father was Scottish and his mother was Swiss.
ReplyDeleteFor years, there was a rumor that Shirley Eaton really died after being painted. Her fans who remember her post-Goldfinger appearances (e.g., Around the World Under the Sea) know better, of course.
I don't know if Connery, Moore, and McGoohan hung out together IRL, but they (along with David McCallum, William Hartnell, and Syd James) were all in "Hell Drivers" in the 1950's, before they were stars. In 1966-67, that would have been a drean cast for a spy thriller movie.
I always felt that Sean Connery looked like Stanley Baker, TC, who was also in the movie. He'd have made a good Bond, I think.
ReplyDeleteThe "homosexuals can't whistle" rumor was mentioned in passing in Fleming's last novel, The Man With the Golden Gun, in a dossier on the KGB hit man, Scaramanga. But the MI6 agent who wrote the report admits that it may be just an old wives' tale.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't mentioned in the movie version, AFAIR. And the villain even had a mistress in the movie. Maybe Christopher Lee was willing to play an assassin, but not a "poof."
And now I have a vision of Maud Adams saying, "Ya do know how to whistle, don't you, Chris? Ya just put your lips together and...blow."
I've read the book (years ago, in the '70s), but I don't recall the 'whistle' bit. Maybe it just means that they can't wolf-whistle at women 'cos they don't fancy them. I'm sure Shirley would have made them think again - what a corker!
ReplyDelete