Caroline Munro is an English actress and model known for her many appearances in horror, science fiction and action films of the 1970s and 1980s. She played the Bond girl Naomi in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me. In the film, Naomi was the helicopter pilot / henchwoman for the evil villain Karl Stromberg. Ten years earlier, she also had an uncredited bit part in the 1967 version of Casino Royale; the Internet Movie Database lists her role as "Guard Girl".
Munro was also one of the models who appeared on the film tie-in cover of the 1969 reprinting of On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Pan Books; she is at the very top of the image.[1]
Trivia[]
- Munro turned down the opportunity to play villainess Ursa in Superman in favor of her role as Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me.
- Munro, as Naomi, holds the distinction of being the first woman ever undeniably killed by James Bond.
Caroline Munro, top middle, on the cover of the film tie-in edition of OHMSS.
- Following the film, producer Cubby Broccoli urged Munro to make her way to America in search of more lucrative offers. She declined, preferring to stay close to her family in England.
- In the 1972 horror film Dracula A.D. 1972, Munro played the character Laura Bellows, who was bitten by Count Dracula. Dracula was portrayed by Christopher Lee, who played Francisco Scaramanga, the titular villain in the Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun.
- She portrayed the journalist who gets close to Adam Ant in his music video for "Goody Two Shoes".
- During the 1980s she was often reported by entertainment media as having been lined up to co-star as the companion in a proposed feature-film version of Doctor Who that was never produced.
Appearances[]
(Casino Royale)
Biography[]
Born in Windsor, Berkshire, Munro was the youngest child of a lawyer and a housewife. As a young child, Munro and her family moved to Rottingdean, near Brighton where she attended a convent school.
Career[]
Munro's career commenced in 1966 when her mother and a photographer friend entered some headshots of her in The Evening News's "Face of the Year" contest:
"I wanted to do art. Art was my love. I went to art school in Brighton but I was not very good at it. I just did not know what to do. I had a friend at the college who was studying photography and he needed somebody to photograph and he asked me. Unbeknownst to me, he sent the photographs to a big newspaper in London. The fashion photographer, David Bailey, was conducting a photo contest and my picture won." —
This led to modelling work for Vogue magazine at the age of 17. She moved to London to pursue modelling work and became a cover girl for fashion and TV advertisements while there. She had bit parts in films such as Casino Royale (1967) and Where's Jack? (1969). One of her photo ads led to a screen test and a one-year contract with Paramount where she was cast as Richard Widmark's daughter in the comedy western A Talent for Loving (also 1969). Photographs of Munro were used to portray Victoria Regina Phibes, the wife of the title character (played by Vincent Price) in The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971), and its sequel, Dr Phibes Rises Again (1972).
Hammer Horror films[]
The chairman of Hammer Films, Sir James Carreras, spotted Munro on a Lamb's Navy Rum poster/billboard. He asked his assistant, James Liggett, to find and screen test her. She was promptly signed to a one-year contract. Her first film for Hammer proved to be a turning point in her career. It was during the making of Dracula AD 1972 (1972) that she decided from this film onward she was a full-fledged actress. Munro acted in Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1974). Directed by Brian Clemens, she played the barefoot gypsy girl Carla. In Paramount Pictures' DVD commentary, Clemens explains that he envisioned the role as a fiery Raquel Welch-type redhead.
Munro has the distinction of being the only actor ever signed to a long-term contract by Hammer Films. She turned down the lead female roles in Hammer's Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971), Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), and the unmade Vampirella because they required nudity. She also turned down roles in Force 10 from Navarone (1978) and The World Is Full of Married Men (1979) as they required nudity.
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad[]
Brian Clemens helped her to be cast in the role of Margiana, the slave girl in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973).
"I got the part – I had been signed by Hammer, for one year, for a contract, out of which I did two films, one being Dracula AD 1972, and the second one being Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, which, kind of, would come full-circle, to Sinbad. It was written and directed by Brian Clemens, who wrote the screenplay for The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, so, I was lucky enough to be chosen for Captain Kronos, and they were searching for somebody to do Sinbad, and they wanted a big name, somebody American, or well-known, but Brian said 'No'. He kept lobbying Charles Schneer [producer] and Ray Harryhausen — saying: 'I think you should come and look at the rushes, and see what you think, because I think she's right.' So, they said 'No', but, eventually, Brian persuaded them to do that, and they saw the rushes, and that was how I got the part. So, it was lovely, like work-out-of-work. I was very lucky to have done that." —
Munro has served as a trustee of the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation.
Other appearances during this time included I Don't Want to Be Born (1975) with Joan Collins, and At the Earth's Core (1976) with Peter Cushing and Doug McClure. She appeared also as Tammy, a nursing employee of a sinister health farm, in "The Angels of Death", an episode of the TV series The New Avengers that featured also rising stars Pamela Stephenson and Lindsay Duncan.
Late 1970s and 1980s[]
In 1977, Munro turned down the opportunity to play villainess Ursa in Superman in favour of Bond girl Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Munro continued to work in numerous British and European horror and science fiction films throughout the 1970s and 1980s, such as Starcrash (1978) with David Hasselhoff, Christopher Plummer and Marjoe Gortner.
Munro's career continued to thrive well in the 1980s, and she appeared in many slasher and Eurotrash productions. Her first film shot on American soil was the William Lustig production Maniac (1980). This was soon followed by the "multi-award winning, shot during the Cannes Film Festival" shocker The Last Horror Film (1982) (directed by David Winters), in which she was reunited with her Maniac (and Starcrash) co-star Joe Spinell. She had a cameo role in the film Don't Open Till Christmas (1984), Slaughter High (1986), Paul Naschy's Howl of the Devil, and Jess Franco's Faceless (1988), followed in rapid succession. She reteamed with Starcrash director Luigi Cozzi for Demons 6: De Profundis (aka Il gatto nero, 1989).
Between 1984 and 1987, Munro was a hostess on the Yorkshire Television game show 3-2-1. Munro was a popular pin-up girl during this time, although she refused to pose nude. In the early 1980s, she appeared in music videos for Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes" (1982) and Meat Loaf's "If You Really Want To" (1983).
Since 1990[]
Munro's film roles were confined to performing cameos as herself in Night Owl (1993), as Mrs. Pignon in To Die For (1994), as the counselor in her friend Jeffrey Arsenault's film Domestic Strangers (1996), and as Carla the Gypsy in Flesh for the Beast (2003).
In 2018, Munro re-teamed with her Dracula A.D. 1972 co-star Christopher Neame to appear in the horror film House of the Gorgon (2018).
In September 2021, Munro started presenting Talking Pictures TV’s new, exclusive series The Cellar Club. In the series, Caroline introduces celebrated and obscure horror films from her Cellar Club and gives her personal, insider perspective.
Music[]
An early effort of Munro's was a 45 single release by Columbia, "Tar and Cement", backed with "The Sporting Life". The musicians who played on the recording included Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker.
During the 1970s, Munro recorded a number of singles with her husband Judd Hamilton:
- "You Got It", backed with "Where Does Love Begin"
- "Rhythm Of The Rain", backed with Sound Of The Rain"
- "Love Songs", backed with "Sound Of The Sun"
In 1984, Munro collaborated with Gary Numan for the single "Pump Me Up", which was released on Numan's Numa record label.