A Celebration of Moonraker Bond Girl Lois Chiles at 70

By: Anders Frejdh

Published:
2017-04-15

Profile of Lois Chiles, the gorgeous "James Bond girl" from Moonraker (1979), for her birthday. (In our eyes, Lois is one of the 'best' Bond girls in the film series.)

With this special page, FSWL would like to extend our wishes to Ms. Chiles on her birthday.

"Dear Lois, happy birthday and much love from Sweden."

About Lois Chiles

Lois Chiles was born in Alice, Texas, USA in 1947.

Lois attended the prestigious Finch College at University Of Texas where she was discovered by a Glamour magazine editor. This led to a modelling contract being offered. From being one of the USA’s very top modelS, even having posed for the cover of Elle magazine, Lois turned to acting in 1972 and two short years later was playing opposite Robert Redford in The Great Gatsby (1974) with Coma (1978) and Death on the Nile (1978) following in quick succession.

Lois was a contender for Agent Triple X in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), but it was in the following film Moonraker (1979) that she was to make her Bond debut after director Lewis Gilbert sat next to Lois (and remembering her from a couple of years earlier) on a flight into the USA. That prompted him to suggest to Cubby Broccoli that she would make a terrific 'Dr. Holly Goodhead'.

A few years later, Lois won a role in the ever-popular tv series Dallas (1982-1983) opposite Larry Hagman as JR Ewing. Between film projects, Lois appeared in many top-rated tv shows such as Murder She Wrote (1990), Hart To Hart (1981) and L.A. Law (1994).

Film credits include Broadcast News (1987), Creepshow 2 (1987), Twister (1989), Burning Bridges (1990), Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery (1997), Speed 2 (1997), Diary of a Hit Man (1991), Curdled (1996) and Sudden Fear (2002).

In the spring of 2002, she taught a course in film acting at the University of Houston. Also in 2002, Lois appeared in Bond Girls Are Forever, a documentary for television co-written by fellow Bond girl, Maryam d'Abo.

Unlike some "Bond girls", Chiles good naturedly says that "being a Bond-girl is a fun way to be remembered" although she jokes that being asked to sigh "Oh, James" is annoying as "you can’t live up to people’s fantasies". Chiles is still friendly with the Bond producers and often attends premieres of the series' films and other events.

In 2005, friend Quentin Tarantino, with whom she had previously worked on the set of Curdled, recruited her to appear in the two-episode finale of season five of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which he wrote and directed.

When asked about her character of Dr Holly Goodhead, and how she explained the character’s name to her parents, she replied “I told them I was called Holly, and was very clever.”

The trickiest sequence to film in Moonraker was almost certainly the love scene at the climax of the film. Lois and Roger Moore were ‘floating’ in the spacecraft. In fact there was a very complicated system of wires and harnesses suspending them in mid air – very uncomfortable and tricky. Not the sort of situation to consummate a friendship!

Editor's note:
As a big fan of Dallas, it is worth noting that, apart from Lois Chiles, several other of the "Bond actors" appeared in the series over the years. They include Barbara Carrera, Barry Nelson, Clifton James, Gloria Hendry, and Kristina Wayborn.

Photo above:
Lois Chiles at the world premiere of Die Another Day at Royal Albert Hall in London, November 18, 2002. Photo © Kieran Doherty/Reuters.

Read more about Moonrkaer's leading lady on IMDB.

Tags:

#birthdays

#bond_girls

#lois_chiles

Tag Cloud

A Celebration of Moonraker Bond Girl Lois Chiles at 70

About Lois Chiles

Tag Cloud