Remembering Adolfo Celi on the Anniversary of his birth

By: Steven Jay Rubin

Published:
2021-07-27

The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia presents This Day in James Bond Movie History - remembering the late Italian actor Adolfo Celi on the anniversary of his birth in 1922, and wishing Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta (The World Is Not Enough) a very happy birthday.

Adolfo Celi portrayed SPECTRE one-eyed spymaster Emilio Largo in Thunderball (1965), who is in charge of executing the “NATO project”, a vast international blackmail scheme, trading stolen A-bombs for $100 million pounds in diamonds.

Largo is masquerading as a wealthy businessman, complete with enormous yacht (the “Disco Volante”), a fabulous beach house at Palmyra (complete with shark pool), an army of bodyguards, and a stunning mistress, Domino (Claudine Auger).

Bond (Sean Connery) meets him at the baccarat table in Nassau, where he quips, “I thought I saw a spectre at your shoulder.” Largo replies, “What do you mean?” Bond deftly comments, “The spectre of defeat, that your luck is about to change.”

Maria Grazia Cucinotta is identified simply as “Cigar Girl” in The World is Not Enough, because she offers Bond (Pierce Brosnan) a cigar at a bank meeting in Bilbao, Spain. Later revealed as an assassin under the spell of Renard (Robert Carlyle), she detonates an explosive device at MI6 HQ in London and Bond chases her on the Thames, where she commands a huge power boat. Maria is so good in a small role, you really regret her quick demise. Bond makes an effort to turn her, but it’s no good – she’s been brainwashed.

So let’s hoist an island cocktail in Mr. Celi’s memory, and a tall one to Cucinotta for her striking presence.

All text. Copyright © 2021 Steven Jay Rubin. All rights reserved.

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Remembering Adolfo Celi on the Anniversary of his birth

Largo is masquerading as a wealthy businessman, complete with enormous yacht (the “Disco Volante”), a fabulous beach house at Palmyra (complete with shark pool), an army of bodyguards, and a stunning mistress, Domino (Claudine Auger).

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