Plenty O’Toole: “Hi, I’m Plenty.” James Bond: “But of course you are.” Plenty O’Toole: “Plenty O’Toole.” James Bond: “Named after your father perhaps?”
Time to look at one of the most beautiful “Bond Girls” who was also a member of Hollywood Royalty!
Lana Wood Was More Than “Plenty O’ Toole!”
Sex kitten Lana Wood wowed 007 fans with her portrayal of “Bond Girl” Plenty O’Toole in “Diamonds Are Forever” – without a doubt one of the more outrageous monikers in the series…
Lana Wood was a hugely successful Actress in the 60’s and 70’s, but she would perhaps be unfairly overshadowed by the superstardom of her older sister, Natalie Wood…
Lana had early stardom thanks to her role in the classic soap “Peyton Place.” A classic Hollywood sex kitten, she was approached by Hugh Hefner in 1970 to pose for Playboy.
Introducing “Plenty O’Toole!”
Those photos appeared in the April 1971 issue, along with Wood’s poetry. She was then cast as a Bond girl, “Plenty O’Toole”, in the James Bond film, “Diamonds Are Forever.”
The film introduced her with a hilarious double entendre, carried off with perfect timing by Sean Connery:
Plenty O’Toole: “Hi, I’m Plenty.” James Bond: “But of course you are.” Plenty O’Toole: “Plenty O’Toole.” James Bond: “Named after your father perhaps?”
“I Didn’t Know There Was A Pool Down There…”
One of the most memorable scenes in “Diamonds Are Forever” comes when 007 is surprised by mobsters while in his room with her. She is “escorted” semi-nude from the room – in an unusual exit that includes one of the best one-liners in the entire Bond series!
Here is that memorable scene from “Diamonds Are Forever”:
Here is some great trivia: while filming the scene where Plenty O´Toole is found drowned, Wood actually had her feet loosely tied to a cement block on the bottom. Film crew members held a rope across the pool for her, with which she could lift her face out of the water to breathe between takes. The pool’s sloping bottom made the block slip into deeper water with each take. Eventually, she was submerged but was noticed by on-lookers and rescued before drowning for real. Wood, being a certified diver, took some water but remained calm during the ordeal, although she later admitted to a few “very uncomfortable moments and quite some struggling until they pulled me out.”
Over the course of her career, Wood appeared in more than twenty movies and over three hundred television shows – everything from “Bonanza” to “Mission: Impossible”, “Starsky and Hutch” to “Fantasy Island.”
Lana Wood retired from acting in 1982 to concentrate on a Producing career, but has since returned to acting in a number of low-budget films since 2008.
Wood wrote a memoir, “Natalie, A Memoir by Her Sister” in 1984. Her professional career didn’t take off the way her sisters did, but she was mesmerizing in her modeling work:
She struggled financially several years ago but with the help of fundraising campaigns she appears to have come out of it OK and bravo to her for that…
Her many memorable Hollywood moments have been unfairly neglected because of the tragedy surrounding her sister, but for me, she will always be one of the most beautiful Bond girls of all time!
The James Bond series is full of classic “Bond girls”, including the first – Ursula Andress!
Ursula “Undress!”
yes, that was her nickname! Read more about the first-ever Bond girl who set a very high standard here:
I am reviewing all of the Bond films in order, and will soon be up to “Diamonds Are Forever”, but here is the latest for “Thunderball” – did you know it was supposed to be the first Bond film? Here’s why it wasn’t!
If you or your readers are interested, please check my blog out. Lana Wood will be appearing in person in Park Ridge Illinois September 15. All the info about the event and how to get there is found at gracerellie.wordpress.com
You can't take the Scotland out of a girl... Reel entertainment reviews and more from that Darlin Husband’s Scottish, square-eyed and film-mad wife living in Finland.
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If you or your readers are interested, please check my blog out. Lana Wood will be appearing in person in Park Ridge Illinois September 15. All the info about the event and how to get there is found at gracerellie.wordpress.com
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Thunderball not Thunderbolt..
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Thanks for the note, it’s that damn “autocorrect!” It’s been fixed!
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