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Maud Adams, Lynn-Holly Johnson and Lana Wood talk about their Bond girl appearences

29-Nov-2003 • Bond News

One was a fashion model, one a professional ice skater and another an actress living in the shadow of her famous sister.

But Maud Adams, Lynn-Holly Johnson and Lana Wood are now forever known as "Bond women." As MGM releases three DVD packages with all 20 of its James Bond movies, from "Dr. No" to "Die Another Day, the actresses spoke to The Associated Press about their screen romances with 007.

Adams is renowned as the only woman to appear in three Bond movies, although she quarrels with that distinction.

In 1964 the Swedish-born model played Andrea Anders, the mistress of "The Man With the Golden Gun" who lures Roger Moore`s Bond into danger. And in 1983, she appeared opposite Moore again as a sexy smuggler with the suggestive name "Octopussy."

She then visited Moore on the set of his last Bond movie, 1985`s "A View to a Kill," where director John Glen asked her to be a background extra. But Adams doubts she`s actually visible in that movie.

"It has become a big joke to find Maud in `A View to a Kill,`" she said. "Some people say, `She`s in this crowd` or `That`s her in the streetcar.` I never managed to do it."

At 28, Adams was already an established fashion and magazine model when producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli offered her the chance to co-star in "The Man with the Golden Gun."

After appearing in such movies as "Rollerball" (1975) and "Tattoo" (1981), she returned as a new Bond love interest in "Octopussy."

At first she had doubts about the name. "I thought, `Surely they`re kidding,`" she said. "But it was a little bit of a spoof, and part of the fun was being coy with the name."

Her last movie was the little-seen 1996 thriller "Ringer." In recent years Adams, now 58, has focused on running her self-titled clothing line in Sweden and working as president of the skin-care products company Scandinavian Biocosmetics.

In 1999, she married Charles Rubin, a Beverly Hills municipal judge. What does his honor think of her spy-lover image?

"I think he secretly likes it," Adams said. "When he gave our wedding speech, he ended the toast by saying, `Eat your heart out, Bond."

The amorous Bond isn`t known for turning down a romp in the sack, but Johnson was one temptress whose charms didn`t work for him.

She co-starred as the baby-doll Bibi Dahl in 1981`s "For Your Eyes Only," playing an Olympic hopeful ice skater sponsored by Kristatos, a Russian agent trying to take possession of a fleet of nuclear submarines.

"I was 21," Johnson said, "but I played it younger ... I was this little nymphette with a very innocent exterior."

Bibi Dahl betrays her villainous sugar daddy by developing a crush on Moore`s Bond, who thinks she`s stunning, but a bit too young. "Put your clothes on and I`ll buy you ice cream," he tells her.

"I have the dubious distinction of being the only Bond girl to be turned down by James Bond," Johnson, now 44, says with a laugh. "It`s a riot to have that title."

Johnson was a professional ice skater whose first acting role was in the 1978 romance "Ice Castles," opposite Robby Benson.

She also appeared in "The Watcher in the Woods" and "Where the Boys Are `84," but her career waned in the 1990s and she gave up acting and skating to raise a family. Now married to a real-estate developer, Johnson lives in Orange County with her 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter, who are big fans of her old work.

"They watch `Ice Castles,` but they call it `The Mom Movie,`" Johnson said.

"For Your Eyes Only" will have to wait until the tikes get older. "It`s hard enough for them to watch me kissing Robby Benson," she said.

Lana Wood, once known as the sister of actress Natalie Wood, became immortalized in 1971 as Plenty O`Toole.

"But of course you are," Sean Connery`s James Bond says in "Diamonds Are Forever" when he hears the name, glancing at her cleavage as she leans on a Las Vegas craps table.

There are two kinds of Bond women, the seductress who leads the spy into danger, and the sweetheart who usually ends up dead.

Wood played the latter. After meeting Bond in the casino, they retire to a hotel room where she strips down to her underwear. Then goons interrupt the romance and toss her naked out a window. She lands safely in a pool, only to turn up dead later.

At one point while filming the window-dropping scene, she was perched atop a stuntman`s shoulders on a high-dive at the International Hotel, where the cameras capture her plunging into the water.

"I was just in these little panties, which certainly weren`t transparent," she said sarcastically. "I was worried that people would see me, but the filmmakers said `No, don`t be silly. It`s three in the morning.` So I got up on the guy`s shoulders and looked around the hotel to see nothing but staring faces from every window."

Now 57, Wood lives in Thousand Oaks, Calif., with her daughter and two grandchildren, ages 5 and 3. She hasn`t acted in a movie since the 1981 horror film "Satan`s Mistress," but she hopes to return to acting this year in the upcoming independent thriller "The Monkey`s Paw."

Since the 1980s, she has worked mainly as a producer and is currently creating a TV movie for ABC about her sister`s life, set for broadcast next spring.

"Hopefully it will bring to light more of who Natalie was and how she attained her dream of stardom, and will offer another slant on a very dysfunctional family," Wood said.

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