Film Fatales ─ Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962?973

Sean Connery began the sixties spy movie boom playing James Bond in Dr. No and From Russia with Love. Their success inspired every studio in Hollywood and Europe to release everything from serious knockoffs to spoofs on the genre featuring debonair men, futuristic gadgets, exotic locales, and some of the world’s most beautiful actresses whose roles ranged from the innocent caught up in a nefarious plot to the femme fatale. Profiled herein are 107 dazzling women, well-known and unknown, who had film and television appearances in the spy genre. They include superstars Doris Day in Caprice, Raquel Welch in Fathom, and Ann-Margret in Murderer’s Row; international sex symbols Ursula Andress in Dr. No and Casino Royale, Elke Sommer in Deadlier Than the Male, and Senta Berger in The Spy with My Face; and forgotten lovelies Greta Chi in Fathom, Alizia Gur in From Russia with Love, and Maggie Thrett in Out of Sight. Each profile includes a filmography that lists the actresses’ more notable films. Some include the actresses’ candid comments and anecdotes about their films and television shows, the people they worked with, and their feelings about acting in the spy genre are offered throughout. A list of websites that provide further information on women in spy films and television is also included.

Tom Lisanti is the award-winning author of multiple books about film history, and he blogs at www.sixtiescinema.com. He lives in New York. Louis Paul has contributed film reviews, interviews, biographies and articles to film-related publications including Chiller Theatre and European Trash Cinema. He published a genre film magazine in the 80s and 90s called Blood Times. Paul co-curated an exhibit at the New York Public Library celebrating 100 years of the horror film called “Screams on Screen.” He lives in New Jersey.