The Bond Girl is an institution in herself and perhaps one of the best known Bond Girls of all time was Miss Caruso in Live and Let Die. The actress who played her was Madeline Smith and there is no shortage of photos of her that will keep your eyes glued to your screen – as you’re probably doing right now!
And as we look at how these tempting photos of Madeline Smith leave nothing to the imagination, let’s look back at her life and career. Her biopic is one that’s long overdue.
While it’s been an incredible life and career, it hasn’t been without its ups and downs. And with our changing attitudes and cultures mores, she’s become outspoken in her defense of Bond Girls…
Join FactsVerse to see how the tempting photos of Madeline Smith leave nothing to the imagination…
MADELINE SMITH’S EARLY LIFE AND CAREER
Madeline Smith was born on August 2nd, 1949, in Hartfield, East Sussex, in England. Her life was an ordinary life for any child born a few years after the Second World War. England was rebuilding and most families lived humble lives. Her English father sold antiques and her Swiss mother worked as a translator. One would expect young Madeline, an only child, to have a similar trajectory and just live ‘the quiet life.’
But she had bigger dreams, and it was on the advice of others that she dreamt the impossible – or what seemed to be impossible.
She attended a convent school and in her late teens, she wanted to find a job to make some pocket money. She found a part-time and temporary job at a place called Biba. Biba was founded by Barbara Hulanicki – who was born in Poland but raised in England. She became a well-known fashion designer in the country and eventually started Biba. Until its closure in 1977, Biba was one of the most famous and most prestigious fashion boutiques in the country.
It’s now the stuff of legends that Madeline Smith worked there while she was still in her teens and much credit must go to Barbara Hulanicki for giving Madeline Smith her start. But her “start” didn’t start and end with Madeline Smith working at Biba!
Barbara Hulanicki was also responsible for Madeline Smith’s early career as a fashion model. Barbara Hulanicki noticed Madeline Smith’s beauty and knew that she was destined for greatness. She knew that if Madeline pursued a career as a fashion model – she’d succeed without any doubt. She encouraged Madeline to pursue this career and the young girl listened without hestitation.
She began her modeling career in the 1960s and this carried out throughout the 1970s. She instantly became popular and her beauty and her persona were so popular that the cartoonist J. Edward Oliver dedicated an entire comic strip to her for the music magazine Disc.
It was quite clear that she was destined for greatness and her modeling career helped her gain prominence and is responsible for some of the photos you’ve been looking at now. But modeling was by no means the beginning and the end. In fact, Madeline Smith was just getting started…
MADELINE SMITH’S CAREER
Madeline Smith began her acting career when she was 18 and was still in the early stages of her modeling career.
Her first film was The Mini-Mob in which she played Samantha. This comedy film followed a group of girls who were so tired of being single that they decided to kidnap potential boyfriends! While this didn’t exactly make her a star, it was a great way to get her foot in the door. It was the start of Madeline Smith becoming a sex symbol.
Her next film was the British-Italian film “Escalation.” She was part of an ensemble cast and perhaps didn’t get as much recognition as she was acting alongside major names such as Gabriele Ferzetti, Claudia Auger, and Leopoldo Trieste who were already familiar to English audiences.
But the success of this film was enough for her to get role after role – year after year.
She got her big break when she appeared in 6 episodes of the sketch comedy show Cribbins – starring the famous actor and comedian Bernard Cribbins. The show only had 12 episodes so she got lots of attention due to being in half of the episodes. It also showed that she could play various characters in a variety of sketches. But of course, it was her beauty that mainly captivated audiences. She couldn’t simply be a supporting actress – she had to be the main attraction.
The 1970s was when her acting career really took off and she became a staple of the Hammer horror films. Hammer Film Productions made a slew of successful horror films in the UK and many great stars got their start from these films.
Among the Hammer horror films that Madeline Smith acted in were The Vampire Lovers, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Tam-Lin, Theater of Blood, and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.
During the time she worked on these horror films, she also appeared in one episode of the TV show The Persuaders. In her episode, she acted alongside Roger Moore.
In 1973, Roger Moore recommended Madeline Smith to appear with him in the new James Bond film “Live and Let Die.” This would be the first James Bond film after Sean Connery’s departure and Roger Moore had to find a way to introduce himself to die-hard fans and make a great impression.
Clearly, his plan worked.
The film starts with Bond in bed with Miss Caruso – also credited as “Beautiful Girl” – played by Madeline Smith. Though she’s not the main heroine of the film, this beautiful girl became one of the most famous Bond girls and though Madeline Smith continued to have a prolific career – this became one of her best-known roles.
Nevertheless, she’s had a continuous career in film and television. She took a large hiatus in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s to focus on her family life. She made her comeback in the year 2000 and now she’s back in show business. Her most recent credit was in the 2021 television movie “The Amazing Mr. Blunden.”
DEFENDING BOND GIRLS
In 2022, a year since her last acting role, Madeline Smith made headlines when she tackled the controversy surrounding Bond Girls.
Some people felt that Bond was old-fashioned and that many of the older films were sexist and that the Bond girl should be more modernized. In response, Madeline Smith, now in her seventies, scoffed at the suggestion. She made it clear that the Bond Girls were great the way they were.
In an interview with Yahoo, she stated, “I don’t think it’s sexist, so there you are. I’m waiting for the flack.”
There was a bit of flack but she certainly didn’t care.
She stated that her scenes only took 3 days on the set of Live and Let Die. While she’s had a long career, she still remembers those 3 days as being the best days of her career. She loved working on the scene with Roger Moore and still thinks it’s a great scene and a great introduction to the film.
She stated that the jokes were funny and that she and the other ladies in the film and in all Bond films were ‘in on the joke’ and enjoyed it. She has stated that she likes that the new iterations of the Bond girl have a lot more to do in the film but she doesn’t want the humor of the earlier films to disappear.
MADELINE SMITH’S LEGACY
Madeline Smith stated in an interview in 2019 that she was only paid a bit less than 100 pounds for her role in Live and Let Die.
She also stated that since then she was never paid more than 9,000 pounds a year for her work! Nevertheless, her career continued to flourish, and she managed to make a comeback in her fifties after taking a hiatus of 14 years from 1986 to 2000.
Apart from her role as one of the Bond girls, she’s still remembered for her role in the Hammer horror films. Her early British films and her role in Cribbins are still loved by her fans.
And her modeling career, though long since gone, is still discussed. Her photos are viewed by fans old and new and we expect that you loved seeing many of the photos in this video.
We don’t know what’s next from her. She hasn’t announced her retirement but neither has she announced any upcoming films or TV shows. Nevertheless, we have a feeling we’ll still see quite a lot of her.
Madeline Smith was married to actor David Buck from 1975 until his death in 1989. They had one child together whom she raised by herself following her husband’s death. She’s considered to be one of the most famous English actresses of her generation and she was instrumental in popularizing many of the great British comedy and horror films from the 1960s and 1970s. She also played her part in shaping James Bond for Roger Moore – who envisioned a more humorous take on the role.
And for that, we’ll truly be grateful toward her. As you’ve learned about her life and career, you’ve probably noticed that these tempting photos of Madeline Smith leave nothing to the imagination. As Bond would say, “it’s sheer magnetism…”
So, now let’s hear from you:
Are you a fan of Madeline Smith? Have you heard about these fascinating details about her life and career?
In fact, here’s what we want to know:
Do you think that there is an expiration date to Bond Girls and actresses being sex symbols in films?
Or will we continue to see them as they are such an important part of film culture?
