Honor Blackman

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Honor Blackman

Blackman in Jason and the Argonauts, 1963
Born 12 December 1927 (1927-12-12) (age 80)
Plaistow, Newham, London, England, United Kingdom
Years active 1947 - present
Spouse(s) Bill Sankey (1946-1954)
Maurice Kaufmann (1961-1975)

Honor Blackman (born 12 December 1927[1][2]) is an English actress, who is perhaps best known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and as Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Blackman was born in Plaistow, Newham, London to a statistician father. She trained as an actress at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, after persuading her father that an appropriate birthday gift would be acting lessons.

[edit] Films

Blackman's films include: Quartet and So Long at the Fair with Dirk Bogarde, the 1958 story of the Titanic's sinking A Night to Remember; Life at the Top with Laurence Harvey, The Virgin and the Gypsy, and the Western films Shalako with Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot and Something Big with Dean Martin.

She played the role of Hera in Jason and the Argonauts (1963). She also did an overdub for an actress in the same film providing the voice for the character of Medea. More recently, the actress has had small roles in the films Bridget Jones Diary and Hot Gold.

[edit] Bond girl

Blackman remains the second-oldest actress to play a Bond Girl, the oldest being Deborah Kerr in the 1967, non-EON Bond film Casino Royale. She is one of two Bond girls who was older than the actor playing Bond, the other being Diana Rigg in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. (Rigg had earlier replaced Blackman on The Avengers in the role of Emma Peel. As a coincidence, Joanna Lumley, who was to later to appear in the sequel to The Avengers, The New Avengers, appeared in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.)

Bond film supremo Albert R. Broccoli admitted that Blackman had been cast on the back of her success in The Avengers, despite the fact that the American audience had never even seen the programme. Broccoli said, "The Brits would love her because they knew her as Mrs. Gale, the Yanks would like her because she was so good, it was a perfect combination".[3]

[edit] Theatre

She spent most of 1987 at the Fortune Theatre. From 2005 to 2006 she toured the country as Mrs Higgins in My Fair Lady. Her show Word Of Honor, premiered in October 2006. In April 2007 she took over the role of Fraulein Schneider from Olivier Award-winning actress Sheila Hancock, in Cabaret at the Lyric Theatre in London's West End. She left the show at the end of September 2007.

[edit] Television

In a 1965 episode of The Avengers, titled "Too Many Christmas Trees", John Steed received his Christmas cards, one of which was from Cathy. "A card from Mrs Gale!", Steed exclaims in delight. Then, reading the inscription, he says, in a puzzled voice, "Whatever can she be doing at Fort Knox...?". It was an inside joke, as Blackman was filming Goldfinger at the time.

Blackman co-starred with Richard Basehart as a married pair of Shakespearean actors who commit a homicide in the American detective television series Columbo with Peter Falk.

In 1986, she had a role in the Doctor Who serial The Trial of a Time Lord. From 1990 to 1995 she appeared as Laura West on The Upper Hand. Blackman took a guest role on Midsomer Murders as ex-racing driver Isobel Hewitt in the episode A Talent for Life. She also, in September 2004, briefly joined the Coronation Street cast in a storyline about wife swapping.

In 2007, she participated in the BBC TV project The Verdict, as one of 12 well known figures forming a jury to hear a fictional rape case. The series was designed to explore the jury system. She was sworn in as a juror under the name 'Honor Kaufmann'.

Blackman was featured, alongside Chris Tarrant, in the show Lose A Million.

[edit] Singing career

A song she recorded with Patrick Macnee during 1964, "Kinky Boots", was a surprise hit, peaking at #5, in 1990 after it was played incessantly by BBC Radio 1 breakfast show presenter Simon Mayo. After her appearance in Goldfinger, Blackman recorded a full album of songs entitled Everything I've Got. Research to find 'the perfect voice has indicated that Blackman's voice is one of the best.[4]

[edit] Personal life

She married twice: Bill Sankey (1946 – 1956) and the British actor Maurice Kaufmann (1963 – 1975), with whom she appeared in the film Fright (1971); they adopted two children, Barnaby and Lottie.

Blackman is a signed supporter of Republic, The Campaign for an Elected Head of State, the UK campaign to replace the monarchy with a republic.[5] She declined a CBE honour in 2002. She has also been a prominent supporter of the Liberal Democrats.

[edit] Partial filmography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Film & TV Database , BFI
  2. ^ GRO Birth register SEP 1925 4a 294 W HAM mmn = Stokes
  3. ^ The Lady - England's Oldest Weekly Magazine for Women
  4. ^ BBC News, 2008. Formula 'secret of perfect voice'.
  5. ^ Republic | Our Supporters

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Blackman, Honor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sankey, Honor; Kaufman, Honor
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actress
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH West Ham, London
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_Blackman"
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