Molly Peters played nurse Patricia Fearing in Thunderball, opposite Sean Connery. She died on Tuesday at 75.
Peters was known for being the first Bond Girl to take off her clothes in a 007 film, according to the Williston Herald. Consequently, Thunderball almost received an “X” rating, and several scenes had to be cut to appease the British Board of Film Classification.
She was discovered by Thunderball director Terence Young, who she said in an interview brought her to her first sound stage and introduced her to a “tall, handsome man” who turned out to be Sean Connery:
Following her role in Thunderball, Peters only appeared in one other major Hollywood film, Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River in 1968, starring Jerry Lewis. Though she was only in two movies, Peters had a huge fanbase as the iconic blonde bombshell of the era. She says in the interview below that she was sometimes baffled by fan fixation:
“Because I was blonde, I had a tan, and wore a white dress, people wanted to touch me,” she said. “I found that very strange. And I think it was because of the different coloring — I don’t know. Or perhaps, in their eyes I’d become something unattainable to them. I don’t know what it was.”
