Madeline Smith
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Madeline Smith (born 2 August 1949) is an English actress. After working as a model in the late 1960s, she went on to appear in many television series and stage productions, as well as comedy and horror films, in the 1970s and 1980s.
Smith played Bond girl Miss Caruso in Live and Let Die (1973), but also had larger roles in the horror films The Vampire Lovers (1970), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), Tam-Lin (1970), Theatre of Blood (1973) and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), and comedy films including Up Pompeii (1971), Up the Front (1972) and Carry On Matron (1972) among others. She also appeared in the films The Killing of Sister George (1968), Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You (1970), The Amazing Mr. Blunden (1972), and the musical film Take Me High (1973) with Cliff Richard.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
After leaving the acting profession in the mid-1980s to raise her family, she returned to acting in 2011.<ref name="express"/>
Early life
Smith was born in Hartfield, Sussex, the only child of Robert and Ursula Smith (née Boas).<ref name= bfi>Template:Cite web</ref> Her father owned an antiques shop and painting restoration business near Kew Gardens, and her Swiss mother was a translator.<ref name="express">Template:Cite web</ref> Smith received a convent school education.
In her late teens, she held a temporary job at Biba, a boutique located on Kensington High Street, London.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At the instigation of Barbara Hulanicki, founder of Biba, Smith became a model.<ref name= "express"/>
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she was regularly featured in the work of Disc cartoonist J. Edward Oliver,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> who on one occasion devoted an entire strip to her entitled "The Life and Habits of the Madeline Smith".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Career
Smith's first screen role was a small part in the film Escalation (1968), followed by a role in The Mini-Affair (1967), although the latter was released first. Smith first worked for Hammer Film Productions in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), billed as Maddy Smith and playing an East End prostitute.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Among her other film appearances, she played opposite Ava Gardner in Tam-Lin, Peter Cushing in The Vampire Lovers and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, Diana Dors in The Amazing Mr Blunden, Frankie Howerd in Up Pompeii and Up the Front, and Vincent Price in Theatre of Blood.<ref name=bfi/> In 1972, Smith appeared in Carry On Matron in a scene alongside Hattie Jacques, Barbara Windsor, and Joan Sims.<ref name=bfi/>
In 1973, she played the Bond girl Miss Caruso in the post-opening titles sequence of Live and Let Die, the first James Bond film starring Roger Moore. Smith's role is therefore significant as Miss Caruso is the first Bond girl of the Roger Moore era.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Smith and Moore take part in a scene in which he unzips her dress with a magnetic wristwatch. She was recommended for the role by Moore himself, having previously appeared with him in an episode of the television series The Persuaders!.<ref name= bbc/>
Smith's numerous stage credits include working with US director Charles Marowitz on Blue Comedy (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford) and The Snob (at Marowitz's Tottenham Court Road venue the Open Space). She also acted opposite Alec Guinness in the original West End production of Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus (playing Felicity Rumpers), supported Frankie Howerd again in the Volpone adaptation The Fly and the Fox (Churchill Theatre, Bromley), played Elma in a Cambridge Theatre Company revival of Frederick Lonsdale's Canaries Sometimes Sing, and spent two years playing the female lead in Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap at the St Martin's Theatre.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Her television credits include Doctor at Large (1971), The Two Ronnies (appearing in the serial Hampton Wick, 1971), Clochemerle (1972), His and Hers (1970) with Tim Brooke-Taylor, Casanova '73 (1973) with Leslie Phillips, Steptoe and Son (1974), The Howerd Confessions (1976), Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (1980), and The Steam Video Company (1984). She also featured in two episodes of All Creatures Great and Small, as two different characters (as Angela Farmer in "Pride of Possession" (1978) and as Anne Grantley in the 1983 Christmas special). She was a member of the regular cast of the BBC2 series The End of the Pier Show (1974) and In the Looking Glass (1978) alongside satirists John Wells and John Fortune and composer Carl Davis.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Smith also starred in The Passionate Pilgrim (1984), which was the final screen appearance of Eric Morecambe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
After the birth of her daughter in 1984, Smith gradually wound down her career to enable her time to raise her. In 2009, Smith interviewed in, and was the cover star of, the coffee-table book Hammer Glamour.<ref name=bbc>Template:Cite web</ref> She returned to acting in 2011 with an appearance in an episode of Doctors. She then followed this with a role in a docu-drama marking the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic before starring in the miniseries Dancing on the Edge (2013) and appearing in an episode of Not Going Out in 2014. In 2015, she appeared as a contestant on the red team in the BBC antiques gameshow Bargain Hunt.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In December 2018, she appeared in episode 4 of the Christmas series of Celebrity Mastermind with the history of Kew Gardens as her specialist subject.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2019, Smith reunited with her Up Pompeii! co-star Tim Brooke-Taylor and actors including Frazer Hines and Camille Coduri in a recorded audio play of the same name to mark 50 years of the series.Template:Fact
Personal life
Smith married actor David Buck in 1975; he died from cancer in 1989.<ref>Marcus Hearn, Hammer Glamour: Classic Images from the Archive of Hammer Films, Titan Books, 2009</ref> The couple had a daughter, Emily, born in 1984.<ref name="express"/>
Filmography
Film
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Who-Dun-It | Gwynneth Evans | Episode: "Murder Goes to School" |
| Cribbins | 6 episodes | ||
| 1970 | His and Hers | Janet Burgess | 6 episodes |
| On the House | Angela | Episode: "A Little Bit on the Side" | |
| The Adventures of Don Quick | Leonie | Episode: "The Love Reflector" | |
| 1971 | Doctor at Large | Sue Maxwell | 5 episodes |
| The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder | Miss Clutterbuck | Episode: "The Willing Victim" | |
| Hine | Patricia Harris | Episode: "The Little White Lady" | |
| The Two Ronnies | Henrietta Beckett | 8 episodes | |
| The Persuaders! | Carla I | Episode: "The Long Goodbye" | |
| Jason King | Jonquil | 2 episodes | |
| 1972 | Clochemerle | Hortense Girodot | 3 episodes |
| ITV Sunday Night Theatre | Mary Todd | Episode: "Madly in Love" | |
| Them | Episode: "#1.2" | ||
| Milligan in... | Various | Episode: "Milligan in Autumn" | |
| Harriet's Back in Town | Diane | 2 episodes | |
| 1973 | The Fenn Street Gang | Miss Bedwell | Episode: "Business Deficiency" |
| Ooh La La! | Julie | Episode: "A Pig in a Poke" | |
| Casanova '73 | Tessa Finlay | Episode: "#1.6" | |
| 1974 | Crown Court | Patricia Drake | Episode: "Falling Stars: Part 1" |
| Wodehouse Playhouse / Comedy Playhouse | Aurelia Cammerleigh | Episode: "The Reverend Wooing of Archibald: Pilot" | |
| Happy Ever After | Sally Thompson | Episode: "Amateur Dramatics" | |
| Steptoe and Son | Carol | Episode: "Back in Fashion" | |
| Rooms | Fran | 2 episodes | |
| 1974–1976 | The End of the Pier Show | Various | All 7 episodes |
| 1975 | A Touch of the Casanovas | Teresa | TV film |
| 1976 | My Brother's Keeper | Angela Lloyd | Episode: "Tooling Up" |
| The Howerd Confessions | The Nurse | Episode: "#1.3" | |
| Going For A Song | Herself | Episode: 27 August | |
| 1977 | Big Boy Now! | Debbie Longhurst | Episode: "Mr and Mrs" |
| Romance | Peggy | Episode: "The Black Knight" | |
| 1978 | In the Looking Glass | Various | All 6 episodes |
| All Creatures Great and Small | Angela Farmer | Episode: "Pride of Possession" | |
| 1980 | Feelifax | Fridge | Voice |
| The Bagthorpe Saga | Aunt Celia | 3 episodes | |
| 1981 | Funny Man | Prunella | Episode: "Letting Go" |
| 1982 | A.J. Wentworth, B.A. | Mrs. Hillman | Episode: "Founder's Day" |
| 1982–1986 | Eureka | Various | All 32 episodes |
| 1983 | All Creatures Great and Small | Anne Grantley | Episode: "1983 Special" |
| 1984 | The Steam Video Company | Various | All 6 episodes |
| 1985 | The Pickwick Papers | Miss Nupkins | Episode: "#1.7" |
| 2011 | Doctors | Rita Prentice | Episode: "Whip Hand" |
| 2012 | Titanic: Southampton Remembers | Maud Newman | TV film |
| 2013 | Dancing on the Edge | Violetta | 2 episodes |
| 2014 | Not Going Out | Party Guest | Episode: "Christening" |
| 2021 | The Amazing Mr. Blunden | Geraldine | TV film |
Bibliography
References
External links
- [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0809184
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- BBC: Actress recalls glamour of Hammer – 2009 interview with Madeline Smith