English actress Molly Peters, known for her role as Patricia Fearing in Thunderball, passed away on May 30. She was 75.
Peters’s career began in modeling. Bond director Terence Young “discovered” Peters and cast her in Thunderball, her role in which caused some controversy. Her character, Patricia Fearing, became the first woman in a Bond film to take off her clothes on screen. No nudity was actually shown, only suggested.
In the film, Patricia Fearing is Bond’s nurse at a health spa called Shrubland, where Bond is spending some holiday time. Despite his flirtatious one-liners, Fearing shows no interest in Bond. But after he is nearly injured on a motorized traction table (see scene below), he uses the incident as leverage and coaxes Patricia into the steam room with him.
The steam room scene did not sit well with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The board nearly gave the film an X rating. Furthermore, several other scenes had to be cut from the film before release.
In an interview for Some Kind of Hero, by Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury, Peters stated that the nudity did not bother her, due to her experience as a model. She also revealed that Connery was “protective” of her during their time on set (p. 138).
After Thunderball, Peters’s only notable role was in the Jerry Lewis comedy, Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River, released in 1968. In the “Special Features” of the DVD release of Thunderball, Peters stated that her film and acting career stalled after Thunderball due to contractual disagreements with her agent.
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