Friday, August 17, 2007

madeline smith: just because.

She was the first girl to snog Roger Moore's Bond, she's romped semi-naked with horror goddess Ingrid Pitt and appeared alongside Peter Wyngarde and the Carry On team, but she's best known as the cult British starlet with the large brown eyes and even larger breasts.
Her name is Madeline Smith and we love her so.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Elfin face, bright eyes,
scary breasts.
Born in Sussex in 1949 and taught by nuns at a Convent school she escaped to London in 1967 to work in Biba's boutique in Kensington where two Italian men offered her (and her breasts) a role in the movie Escalation. Unfortunately years in the television wilderness followed before Madeline was cast as a bosom heaving virgin in the Hammer Lesbo Vamp classic The Vampire Lovers alongside a naked and writhing Ingrid Pitt. Most critics agree that her performance as a good girl tainted by Sapphic evil (whilst wearing a really low cut top) is the high point of the movie.
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Inside the mind of every 14 year
old horror fan in the 80's.


This film also brought Maddie to the attention of cult pop artist J. Edward Oliver who obsessively drew hundreds of comic strips featuring her 'adventures' over many years till she complained to her lawyers. This just gave him more to draw and write about and he continued till his death in early 2007.
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

What Madeline really needed at this point was a substantial role in a major movie, unfortunately (for her) the only film work she was offered were roles that required her to slowly undress.
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Pout.

Madeline decided to compromise, she refused to get totally nude but did offer to wear plunging necklines so her frighteningly large bosoms would always be on show whilst pulling a 'lights are on but no ones home' expression.
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
The lights are on...

Her stage work was much more prestigious tho' and relied less on her chest and more on her actual acting talent, and included Habeas Corpus with Sir Alec (Obi-Wan) Guinness and Shut Your Eyes And Think Of England with Dame Donald Sinden (OK, this last one did involve her chest but to be fair she did flash her arse too).

In 1975 Madeline was hand picked by Lord Roger Moore to be his first Bond girl in the fantastic Live and Let Die in the scene where Bond undoes her dress with his magnet watch whilst quipping 'Sheer magnetism darling' whilst sucking her face.
Madeline's also appeared fully clothed (and in a blonde wig) in The Amazing Mr. Blunden playing Diana Dors' daughter, on stage in Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap where she was throttled eight times a week for two years, and although she appeared in a few of the later Hammer efforts (in low cut tops) and in one off roles in major teevee shows, Madeline's career never really blossomed and she retired from acting in 1984 to raise a family.
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
A (big) girls blouse yesterday.


Luckily for the serious film fan she has started to appear at memorabilia events and most of her early work is now available on DVD with fantastic pause and picture quality.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember her very well but that is a bit scary because I can't remember seeing any of that stuff.

Anonymous said...

you saw her tits and pretty face, albeit vacant, that was enough for any red blooded bloke!

Anonymous said...

Jack Oliver did indeed include Ms Smith in many of his strips, as you can see on his site: http://www.jeoliver.co.uk/

Anonymous said...

I remember working with Maddie on the 1972 BBC satirical TV series with Willie Rushton, John Welles and John Bird and John Fortune called The End of the Pier Show ...or something similar. Maddie had to appear semi naked in a coffin in one scene and in a recreation of the painting Dejeuner sur l'Herbe by Manet. Her role was not, I think very challenging but she was a perfectly lovely person to work with.