Martine Beswick, born Mary Rose Penso Beswick on 26 September 1941 to Ronald Stuart Davis Beswick, a British father, and Myrtle Could, of Portuguese-Jamaican heritage, is an actress and former mannequin from Jamaica’s northeast coast. She went on to safe a singular place in movie historical past as the one actress to painting a Bond Lady in two completely different 007 movies, whereas additionally making her mark in cult horror and Hollywood tv — achievements that cemented her as one of many defining display screen sirens of the Nineteen Sixties and 70s.
Early Life and Pageant Days
Beswick spent her early childhood in Jamaica earlier than transferring to England together with her household as an adolescent. Returning house in 1960, she labored briefly as an air hostess and entered the Miss Jamaica Magnificence Contest. Writing in The Gleaner in 1965, journalist Hartley Neita famous that she was runner-up within the competitors and used her prize cash to finance a return to London, the place she started modelling for magazines and tv commercials.
A later Gleaner profile in 1987 recalled a barely completely different model of occasions, stating that she was unplaced within the contest however bought a Mini Minor motorcar she had received in a neighborhood occasion to fund her journey overseas. As soon as in London, she supported herself with odd jobs — even pumping petrol in a bikini — whereas pursuing appearing work. That very same yr she additionally appeared on the duvet of the Each day Mirror after a nightclub fracas involving her “tight denims,” a publicity stunt that boosted her visibility.
Her persistence paid off. In 1963 she appeared on the duvet of the Each day Mirror after being caught up in a nightclub scuffle, a publicity stunt that introduced her wider discover. Across the identical time, she dropped her given title Mary for the extra unique “Martine.”
Double Responsibility as a Bond Lady
Beswick auditioned for Dr. No (1962), hoping to land the a part of Honey Ryder, which in the end went to Ursula Andress. Her break got here the next yr when she was solid as Zora, a fiery gypsy lady in From Russia with Love (1963). The movie featured a now-famous “catfight” scene with actress Aliza Gur, Miss Israel 1960, which cemented her display screen presence.
Director Terence Younger introduced her again for Thunderball (1965), the place she performed Paula Caplan, a area agent who allies with James Bond within the Bahamas. Beswick’s character met a tragic finish, selecting suicide over betraying state secrets and techniques to her captors.
Cult Horror Icon
Whereas Bond gave her worldwide recognition, it was Hammer Movies that cemented Beswick as a cult star. She co-starred with Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. (1966), famously locking horns in one other on-screen brawl, this time with dinosaurs within the background. In Prehistoric Ladies (1967), she performed the villainous Queen Kari, and in Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971), she took on the formidable twin position of Jekyll’s sinister feminine alter ego.
As Basic Monsters journal has famous, these roles established her repute as a “Queen of Horror” — capable of mix glamour with menace in ways in which made her stand out in a crowded style.
Hollywood and Tv
By the Nineteen Seventies, Beswick had relocated to Hollywood, the place she started making appearances on American tv. She guest-starred in collection together with The Six Million Greenback Man, Mannix, Baretta, Aspen, and It Takes a Thief.
Within the mid-Eighties she joined the solid of the primetime cleaning soap Falcon Crest, enjoying Pamela Lynch after a dramatic storyline involving cosmetic surgery gave the character a brand new face. The Gleaner, reporting on her casting in 1987, proudly famous that the “new Pamela” was none apart from the Jamaican-born actress who had first caught consideration many years earlier.
Later Life and Legacy
Beswick retired from appearing in 1995 after showing in Evening of the Scarecrow. In later years she contributed commentary to a number of documentaries, together with Inside From Russia with Love (2000) and The Wild Untold Story of Cannon Movies (2004). She additionally joined a bunch of Bond alumnae for BBC MasterChef in 2013.
In 2018, she briefly got here out of retirement to seem in Home of the Gorgon, appearing alongside fellow Hammer icons Caroline Munro, Veronica Carlson, and Christopher Neame. A yr later she was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Basic Horror Awards’ Monster Child Corridor of Fame, a recognition of her lasting contribution to cult cinema.
Most just lately, Beswick revealed her memoir On My Manner, a set of anecdotes spanning her childhood in Jamaica, her movie profession, and her lifelong friendships. The ebook features a foreword by screenwriter John Logan (Skyfall, Gladiator), who praised her work in Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde and celebrated her enduring affect on cinema.
Greater than six many years on, Martine’s legacy continues to be celebrated at movie conventions, Bond retrospectives, and amongst followers who nonetheless bear in mind the Jamaican actress who twice stood alongside 007.
