Honor Blackman before and after Bond

[stuart.uk]

During the war, Honor Blackman was a motorbike dispatch rider, which came in handy in her acting career.

After the war she made the film A Boy, A girl And A Bike with John McCallum and. Anthony Newley. Though she was the films leading lady Honor would spend the next few yrs in supporting roles, most notably The Square Peg with Norman Wisdom and A Night To Remember, arguably the best of all the Titanic movies. In my research for this thread I’ve discovered Honor seemed to have a regular role in the Jack Hawkins/Dan Dailly International crime series Four Just Men.

When Avenger’s Patrick McNee’s co-star Ian Hendry, who played Dr. David Keel decided to leave the Tv series after one season, it was decided to replace him with 3 characters, another Doctor, a night club entertainer Venus Smith and action heroine Cathy Gale as played by the 35-year-old Honor Blackman. To begin with the 3 characters alternated when playing alongside Patrick McNee’s John Steed, but such was Blackman’s impact the other 2 were dropped and she became Steed’s regular partner. It was the beginning of Steed preferring to work with a woman with Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) Tara King (Linda Thorson) and Purdey (Joanna Lumley) joining the show in its later yrs. The Blackman series was mainly shot in a Tv studio with occasional film shots, some of Cathy riding her motor Bike. While I accept Diana Rigg was the most popular and best of the Avenger girls, having seen some of Blackman’s old footage, I wonder if her fight scenes were more convincing. Honor once famously knocked out professional wrestler and part-time actor Jackie Pallo in a graveyard fight scene. One of Honor’s regrets on leaving the show was that the program and reverted to film after she’d gone, but Bond was calling.........................................................................................

At 37 Honor on the back of The Avengers got the part of Miss. Galore in the Bond movie Goldfinger with Sean Connery. She was a big hit, becoming for a while an International star. She did the British made western Shalako with Sean Connery, Jack Hawkins and Bridget Bardot. However, I preferred her in Andrew V McGlaglen’s comedy Western Something Big with Brian Keith, Dean Martin and Carol White. Honor also co-starred with Richard Baseheart in a British made Columbo with Peter Falk.

Though her Hollywood career was over, the still stunning Honor worked for the next few decades on UK tv, usually in guest roles. However, she had a hit with the UK version of Who’s The Boss, The Upper Hand, playing a glamorous grandmother. Honor did have one great film left, He Walked With Lions, where she followed in the footsteps of Virginia McKenna and Susan Hampshire when she played Joy Adamson in what was IMO probably the most realistic of the 3 Born Free movies with Richard Harris. Here's a link of an early Honor

[movieman1957]

I caught her recently in a "Midsomer Murder." She still looked very good. I haven't seen her in much else over here. Interesting reading, thanks.

[stuart.uk]

It's a pity that no-one tried to bring Honor, Patrick, Diana, Linda, Joanna and Gareth Hunt together for one epic Avengers movie, while they were still young enough to pull it off. The mid 80s would have been perfect

Here's a recent comercial

[RedRiver]

A very informative post! Most of this is news to me. I know Ms. Blackman mainly as the most allegorically named of all the Bond girls!

I wonder if her fight scenes were more convincing

I hope so. Mrs. Peel's antics looked pretty ridiculous!

[stuart.uk]

Red River

Here's where Honor gave herself a fright by knocking professional wrestler Jackie Pallo out cold for 7 minutes



Here's another one



And here's Honor in her 60s, looking as if she could still play a mature Avengers looking after Emma, Tara and Purdy

[Rita Hayworth]

It's a pity that no-one tried to bring Honor, Patrick, Diana, Linda, Joanna and Gareth Hunt together for one epic Avengers movie, while they were still young enough to pull it off. The mid 80s would have been perfect

Here's a recent comercial

I agree with you Stuart ... I often think of that too.

[stuart.uk]

Kingme

I even thought when Linda Thorson was in the UK soap Emerdale looking great, I thought she still looked great enough to play Tara, who was nowt but a kid (A beautiful one nonetheless) in the original and the same for Joanna Lumley, who remains a stunner and often does travel documentaries like the one she did up The Nile. However, even they now are a bit long in the tooth.

I know most think of Rigg as Steed's best partner, but having seen many of the episodes I felt Thorson's Tara was the one who was romantically involved with him, so I would have suggested her as a potential mother of Steed's child and bring in a young actor to play the role

[Rita Hayworth]

Kingme

I even thought when Linda Thorson was in the UK soap Emerdale looking great, I thought she still looked great enough to play Tara, who was nowt but a kid (A beautiful one nonetheless) in the original and the same for Joanna Lumley, who remains a stunner and often does travel documentaries like the one she did up The Nile. However, even they now are a bit long in the tooth.

I know most think of Rigg as Steed's best partner, but having seen many of the episodes I felt Thorson's Tara was the one who was romantically involved with him, so I would have suggested her as a potential mother of Steed's child and bring in a young actor to play the role

Stuart,

Linda Thorson ... I'm not a Soap Opera Fan but I do agree with you that she was more romantically involved with John Steed (played by Patrick Macnee) and I felt that she never gotten the fair shake in the Avengers. I do like her a lot. A very attractive and talented actress that took her role as Tara very professionally. I admire her for that.

Linda Thorson with Patrick Macnee


Joanna Lumley ... I do adore (incredibly gorgeous too) her ... but, I felt that she was a little too much for me to be a part of the Avengers. I admire her in her works and I wished she was a prominent Bond girl instead. I find her too hot to handle in the Avengers and I like the chemistry that she and Gareth Hunt worked so well with Patrick in that incarnation of the Avengers.

Joanna Lumley, Gareth Hunt, and Patrick Macnee


Diana Rigg ... My favorite partner for John Steed. I wished they done another year or two together ... I love the Chemistry and the quirky romance that they exhibited in the series ... I love the endings of each program and the way John Steed says to Diana ... "Mrs Peel We're Needed" always warms me up.

Diana Rigg and Patrick Macnee

[Rita Hayworth]

Stuart,

One more thing (in a separate post) ... I have not seen much of Honor Blackman ... other than she was a Bond Girl in Goldfinger. Just to let you know that.

[stuart.uk]

Kingme

Here's a trick question for you. How many Avenger girls were Bond Girls-2 was it, sorry it was 3. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, as well as Diana Rigg, Joanna Lumley was cast as one Blofeld's experiments, as was another talent Hungarien actress Catherine Schell, who went onto play Lady Litton in The Return Of The Pink Panther and pretended to be Lord Brett Sinclair's (Roger Moore) wife in a good episode of The Persuaders, before playing Maya in Space 1999

Here's part of a doc Joanna made about Bond




Here's a link about Honor's last Avengers. There is a hint of the Bond movie Goldfinger at the end. See if you can spot it

[RedRiver]

I think, for American audiences, Diana Rigg was a hard act to follow. To us, she was the first partner. She WAS The Avengers. Magically beautiful, charming and mischievous, the viewer fell in love at the drop of a bowler. God bless Ms. Thorson and Lumley for their fine efforts, but it was Mrs. Peel we needed!