Martine Beswick
Beswick in The Kiss (1974)
Born (1941-09-26) 26 September 1941
Port Antonio, Jamaica
Other namesMartine Beswicke
Occupation(s)Actress, model
Years active1962–1995; 2019
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1967; div. 1973)​
[1][2][3]

Martine Beswick (born 26 September 1941) is a Jamaican-born British actress and model perhaps best known for her roles in two James Bond films, From Russia with Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965), who went on to appear in several other notable films in the 1960s. In 2019, she was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame.[4]

Early years

Beswick was born on 26 September 1941 in Port Antonio, Jamaica,[5] to Ronald Stuart Davis Beswick, a British father and Myrtle May (née Penso, 1912-2017) a Portuguese-Jamaican mother.[6] Beswick, her sister Laurellie (1943–2002) and her mother moved to London in 1954 following the separation of her parents. In 1955, she left high school to work to help support her family.[5]

Film career

Beswick is best known for her two appearances in the James Bond film series. Although she auditioned for the first Bond film Dr. No (1962), she was cast in the second film From Russia with Love (1963) as the fiery gypsy girl, Zora. She engaged in a "catfight" scene with her rival Vida (played by former Miss Israel Aliza Gur). Beswick later stated that there was as much bad feeling with Gur offscreen as on, with the film's director, Terence Young, encouraging Beswick to get rough with Gur.[7][8]

"I was a very nice girl but Aliza was a cow. We had terrible clashes and I was disgusted with her. I had a lot of anger inside of me so that [fight] scene was a perfect way to work it out. We rehearsed the fight for three weeks but when we shot it, Aliza was really fighting. Everyone encouraged me to fight back, so I did. We got into a real scrapping match." — Martine Beswick[9]

She was incorrectly billed as "Martin Beswick" in the title sequence.[10] Beswick then appeared as the ill-fated Paula Caplan in Thunderball (1965).[11] She had been away from the Caribbean so long that she was required to sunbathe constantly for two weeks before filming, to look like a local.

Beswick with Franco Franchi in Ultimo tango a Zagarol (1973)

Beswick went on to appear in One Million Years B.C. (1966) opposite Raquel Welch, with whom she also engaged in a catfight. She played Adelita in the well-regarded Spaghetti Western, A Bullet for the General (1966) opposite Klaus Kinski and Gian Maria Volonté and played a villainous role in the exploitation thriller The Penthouse (1967). She then appeared in various Hammer Studio low-budget films, most notably Prehistoric Women (1967) (aka Slave Girls of the White Rhinoceros) and the gender-bending horror Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971), in which she played the titular villainess. She had a supporting role in the Italian sex comedy The Last Italian Tango (1973). She then starred as the Queen of Evil in Oliver Stone's 1974 directorial debut Seizure, or Queen of Evil. In the 1970s, Beswick moved to Hollywood and regularly appeared on both the big and small screens. She made numerous guest appearances on television series, including Sledge Hammer!, Fantasy Island, The Fall Guy, Mannix, The Six Million Dollar Man and Falcon Crest. In 1980, she played the lead role in the comedy film The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood.

Beswick's career was active into the 1990s. Since then, she has mainly participated in film documentaries, providing commentary and relating her experiences on the many films in which she has appeared. She owned a removals business in London, but is now semiretired except for her guest appearances at international Bond conventions. In April 2013, she was one of 12 Bond Girl celebrity guests in an episode of the BBC's Masterchef. Beginning with Melvin and Howard (1980), she changed the spelling of her last name to "Beswicke", but reverted to her original surname in the mid-1990s; her last credit with the longer spelling is Wide Sargasso Sea (1993). After a 24 year absence from the screen, Beswick came out of retirement in 2018 to appear in House of the Gorgon opposite fellow Hammer film actors Caroline Munro, Veronica Carlson, and Christopher Neame.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1963From Russia with Love Zora
1964Saturday Night Out Barmaid
1965Thunderball Paula Caplan
1966One Million Years B.C. Nupondi
1967John the Bastard Dona Antonia
Prehistoric Women Queen Kari
The Penthouse Harry
A Bullet for the General Adelita
1971Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde Sister Hyde
1973The Last Italian Tango Giovanna
1974Seizure Queen of Evil
The Kiss Nara Kotosky
1975Strange New WorldTana
1978Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell Red Haired Lady
1980The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood Xaviera Hollander
Melvin and Howard Realty Agent
1983 Balboa Narrator
1987Cyclone Waters
From a Whisper to a Scream Katherine White
1990Miami Blues Noira
Evil Spirits Vanya
1991 Trancers II Nurse Trotter
1992Life on the Edge Linda James
Critters 4 Angela Voice
1993Wide Sargasso Sea Aunt Cora
1995Night of the Scarecrow Barbara
Magic Island Lady Face Voice
2016Sinbad and the Pirate Princess Queen Badra Voice
2019 House of the Gorgon Euryale
2021 Cowgirls vs Pterodactyls Narrator
2022 Saturnalia The Voice

Television

Year Title Role
1965Danger ManGirl
1967The SolarnautsKandia
1969It Takes a ThiefChristine Leland
1970MannixEve Brady
1971LongstreetNikki Bell
1971Night GallerySusan Davis
1975SwitchVeronique
1976City of AngelsHannah Bach
1976The Six Million Dollar ManShali Giba
1977BarettaBelly Dancer
1977AspenJoan Carolinian
1980Hart to HartRuby Braff
1981Quincy, M.E.Hanna Weiss
1982The Fall GuyCountess Vitt
1983The Powers of Matthew StarKatya
1984Fantasy IslandGiselle Corday
1984Days of Our LivesAbigail Abernathy
1985Cover UpMelissa
1985Falcon CrestPamela Lynch
1987Sledge Hammer!Lana

References

  1. ↑ "John Richardson nach Infektion mit COVID-19 gestorben". Prisma. 8 January 2021.
  2. ↑ "Er wäre beinahe "007" geworden: Trauer um John Richardson | Blick - Kino". www.blick.de. Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  3. ↑ "Er wäre beinahe James Bond geworden: Trauer um John Richardson". de.nachrichten.yahoo.com. 8 January 2021.
  4. ↑ Colton, David (19 February 2019). "Winners of the (Gasp!) 17th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards". RondoAward.com.
  5. 1 2 Lisanti, Tom; Paul, Louis (2002). Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962–1973. McFarland. pp. 60+61. ISBN 9780786411948. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
  6. ↑ Cotter, Robert Michael Bobb (2013). The Women of Hammer Horror: A Biographical Dictionary and Filmography. McFarland. pp. 23–25. ISBN 9781476602011. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
  7. ↑ Field, Matthew (2105) Some Kind of Hero : 007 : The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films, Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, page 138
  8. ↑ "Movie Mayhem", The Salem News, Salem, Ohio, p. 12, 15 October 1963
  9. ↑ Lisanti, Tom (2002). Film Fatales Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962–1973. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Publishing. p. 61. ISBN 0-7864-1194-5. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  10. ↑ Duncan, Paul (2012). The James Bond Archives: Fifty Years of Bond, James Bond (40th ed.). Köln: Taschen. ISBN 978-3836521055.
  11. ↑ CORK, JOHN (1 January 2007). JAMES BOND ENCYCLOPEDIA. DORLING KINDERSLEY. p. 138. ISBN 978-1405334273.
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