Water Sports and Bond in the News.....Day 47 of Bond 365

Dolores Keator in only onscreen role

Dolores Keator

Born this day in 1925

Mary in Dr. No

Dolores Keator’s only onscreen role was as Mary Trueblood, secretary to John Strangeways in Dr. No. According to James Bond 007 Wiki, her back story was that she was a former Chief Officer WRNS and was stationed in Jamaica. Early in the film, she is killed by the Three Blind Mice as she prepares to report into the London headquarters because Strangeways has information regarding Crab Key and Dr. No.

Keator’s Jamaica home was used as Strangeways house in the film. Wiki contradicts itself by stating that Keator’s character is the first Bond girl to appear on the screen in the first official EON Productions Bond film. However, she did not share the screen with Bond nor was she romantically involved with Bond, so I would argue that Keator was not a Bond Girl. I believe that honor still goes to Eunice Gayson’s Sylvia Trench.

Ricou Browning

Ricou Browning

Born this day in 1930

Second Unit Director/Underwater Director: Underwater Sequence in Thunderball; Underwater Sequence Director on Never Say Never Again

Writer. Director. Camera and Electrical Department. Producer. Second Unit Director or Assistant Director. Miscellaneous Crew. Actor. Stunts. Special Effects. This is renaissance man was born in Florida, so perhaps it was not a surprise that Ricou Browning ended up with a career in which water was prominent in his life. Prior to scuba gear, he had learned how to breath through an air hose when he first started diving for local water shows.

Browning worked on the Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) completing all of the underwater sequences. He went on to work on the sequels: Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956). He wrote, directed and produced the original Flipper series in the 1960s. He even did some acting in the series as well.

He originally joined the Bond family in 1965’s Thunderball and then worked on Never Say Never Again in 1983 as the Underwater Sequence Director. For Thunderball, Browning specifically was “responsible for the staging of the cave sequence and the battle scenes beneath the Disco Volante and called in his specialist team of divers who posed as those engaged in the onslaught” (Wikipedia: Thunderball).  I think it is interesting that Browning worked on the two Bond films that were tied together via the McClory-Fleming legal dispute that lasted from 1961 – 2006.

And now to highlight Bond news from this past week:

Can I test drive?? Pretty please???

02/10 – Designboom reported that Spectre will feature the sporty Jaguar C-X75 supercar hybrid version (man is it sweet!) as well as a Range Rover Sport SVR. 

02/12 – Geeks of Doom report their first look at Spectre, plus video!

02/14 – Louis Jourdan, who played Kamal Khan in Octopussy passed away at the age of 93 in his Beverly Hills, California home. A lengthly obituary write up from Variety.

02/16 – The Guardian reported that the Arciconfraternita di Carita verso I Trapassati has denied the Spectre crew from filming at the 2,000 year old Verano Cemetery. It is anticipated that Mendes will film at the Museum of Roman Civilisation in Rome instead.

Idris Elba 

02/16 – Pierce Brosnan weighed in on the question of whether Idris Elba would make a good James Bond. Brosnan said the 42-year-old would make a good Bond. Elba’s stance regarding the rumors has fallen to both sides: no validity to the rumors to yes, he would take the role if it was offered to him. With Bond 25 at least a couple of years out, I wonder if Elba would have reached that tipping point of being too old by then?

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