Barbara Carrera
Encyclopedia
Barbara Carrera is a Nicaraguan-born American film and television actress
as well as a former model
. She is best known for her roles as Bond girl
Fatima Blush in Never Say Never Again
and as Angelica Nero on the soap opera Dallas
.
, Nicaragua
. Her mother, Doña Florencia Carrera, was a Nicaraguan of European and Native ancestry, and her father, Louis Kingsbury, was a U.S.
employee of the American embassy in Nicaragua. There is some uncertainty regarding her year of birth, which some sources give as 1947 or 1951, but most list 1945. (She apparently prefers to say 1953.) Kingsbury came to the U.S. at age ten and studied at the St. Joseph Academy in Memphis
. She moved to New York at the age of fifteen.
at the age of 17, at which point she changed her last name to her mother's maiden name, Carrera. In 1972, she appeared on the screen in a publicity role for the Chiquita
banana
s. Her first film role was as a fashion model in Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970), which fared poorly at the box office. In 1976, she earned her first Golden Globe nomination for her role in The Master Gunfighter
. She later played in such films as The Island of Dr. Moreau
, Lone Wolf McQuade
, Condorman
, Point of Impact
, Tryst, and Embryo
. For her portrayal of the villainess Fatima Blush in the James Bond
film Never Say Never Again
, she earned a 1984 Golden Globe nomination for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture". She worked opposite Laurence Olivier
in Wild Geese II
the next year.
On television, she played a part in the soap opera Dallas
as Angelica Nero, and more prominently, in the historical miniseries
Centennial
in 1978 and Masada
(opposite Peter O'Toole
and Peter Strauss
) in 1981. These roles brought her to the mainstream attention of American audiences. She also starred as Emma Coe Forsayth in the miniseries Emma: Queen of the South Seas in 1988.
Carrera has appeared on the pages and covers of such magazines as Vogue
, Paris Match
, Harper's Bazaar
, and twice posed nude in Playboy
(August 1977 and March 1982). She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in The Master Gunfighter in 1975. In 1997, she was appointed ambassador-at-large for Nicaragua by then President Arnoldo Alemán
. She is also an artist and her work has been showcased in the Makk Galleries in Beverly Hills, California
since the 1980s, and the Roy Miles Gallery in London
, England
. In May 2002, her works were exhibited at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum and have typically been sold for up to $8,000.
shipowner Nicholas Mavroleon (the younger but only surviving son of Manuel Basil Mavroleon, alias "Bluey", by his second wife, Gioconda de Gallardo y Castro), and photographer Cameron Docherty. She has no children.
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
as well as a former model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
. She is best known for her roles as Bond girl
Bond girl
A Bond girl is a character or actress portraying a love interest, of James Bond in a film, novel, or video game. They occasionally have names that are double entendres or puns, such as "Pussy Galore", "Plenty O'Toole", "Xenia Onatopp", or "Holly Goodhead"...
Fatima Blush in Never Say Never Again
Never Say Never Again
Never Say Never Again is a 1983 spy film based on the James Bond novel Thunderball, which was previously filmed in 1965 as Thunderball...
and as Angelica Nero on the soap opera Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
.
Early life
Barbara Kingsbury was born in San Carlos, Río San JuanSan Carlos, Río San Juan
San Carlos is the capital city of the municipality of San Carlos and of the Río San Juan Department of Nicaragua. The city proper has a population of roughly 12,174, while the city and surrounding communities contain 37,461 as of 2005. San Carlos is positioned on the confluence of Lake Nicaragua...
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
. Her mother, Doña Florencia Carrera, was a Nicaraguan of European and Native ancestry, and her father, Louis Kingsbury, was a U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
employee of the American embassy in Nicaragua. There is some uncertainty regarding her year of birth, which some sources give as 1947 or 1951, but most list 1945. (She apparently prefers to say 1953.) Kingsbury came to the U.S. at age ten and studied at the St. Joseph Academy in Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. She moved to New York at the age of fifteen.
Career
Kingsbury began a career as a model at the Eileen Ford agencyFord Models
The Ford Modeling Agency, or as it is known today Ford Models, is a modeling agency in New York City. It was established in 1946 by Eileen and the late Gerard W. Ford.-Company:...
at the age of 17, at which point she changed her last name to her mother's maiden name, Carrera. In 1972, she appeared on the screen in a publicity role for the Chiquita
Chiquita
Chiquita can refer to:*Chiquita Brands International, a large produce company*Rio Chiquita, a river in Táchira, Venezuela*Chiquita , a song by Sam H. Stept*Chiquita , a book about the life of Cuban dwarf dancer and singer Espiridiona Cenda...
banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
s. Her first film role was as a fashion model in Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970), which fared poorly at the box office. In 1976, she earned her first Golden Globe nomination for her role in The Master Gunfighter
The Master Gunfighter
The Master Gunfighter is a film released in 1975, written and produced by Tom Laughlin, who also played the lead as Finley. It is commonly believed Laughlin also directed the film, using the name of his son, Frank Laughlin, as a pseudonym. He had used his children's names in various forms as...
. She later played in such films as The Island of Dr. Moreau
The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977 film)
The Island of Dr. Moreau is the second movie version of the H. G. Wells science fiction novel about a scientist who attempts to convert animals into people, starring Burt Lancaster, Michael York, Barbara Carrera, and Richard Basehart...
, Lone Wolf McQuade
Lone Wolf McQuade
Lone Wolf McQuade is a 1983 action film, starring Chuck Norris, David Carradine, Barbara Carrera, and Robert Beltran, and is directed by Steve Carver. The film score was written by Francesco De Masi and borrows heavily from Ennio Morricone's score for Once Upon a Time in the West...
, Condorman
Condorman
Condorman is a 1981 comedy/adventure film from Walt Disney Productions starring Michael Crawford and Oliver Reed. Inspired by Robert Sheckley's The Game of X, Condorman follows comic book illustrator Woodrow Wilkins' attempts to assist in the defection of a female Soviet KGB agent.-Plot:Woodrow...
, Point of Impact
Point of Impact
Point of Impact is a 1993 thriller novel by award-winning author Stephen Hunter.-Plot introduction:The plot revolves around a former Vietnam sniper named Bob Lee Swagger or Bob 'the Nailer'. This character is loosely based upon the real Vietnam sniper and Marine Corps legend Carlos Hathcock...
, Tryst, and Embryo
Embryo (1976 film)
Embryo is a 1976 science fiction / horror film directed by Ralph Nelson. Starring Rock Hudson and Barbara Carrera, it is now in public domain because of missing copyright indication.-Plot:...
. For her portrayal of the villainess Fatima Blush in the James Bond
James Bond (film series)
The James Bond film series is a British series of motion pictures based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond , who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines...
film Never Say Never Again
Never Say Never Again
Never Say Never Again is a 1983 spy film based on the James Bond novel Thunderball, which was previously filmed in 1965 as Thunderball...
, she earned a 1984 Golden Globe nomination for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture". She worked opposite Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
in Wild Geese II
Wild Geese II
Wild Geese II is a 1985 British action-thriller film, based on the 1982 novel The Square Circle by Daniel Carney, in which a group of mercenaries are hired to spring Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in Berlin. The film is a sequel to the 1978 film The Wild Geese, which was also adapted from a novel...
the next year.
On television, she played a part in the soap opera Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
as Angelica Nero, and more prominently, in the historical miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
Centennial
Centennial (miniseries)
Centennial is a 12-episode American television miniseriesthat aired on NBC from October 1978 to February 1979. It was based on the novel of the same name by James A. Michener. The miniseries was produced by John Wilder....
in 1978 and Masada
Masada (miniseries)
Masada is an American television miniseries that aired on ABC in April 1981. Advertised by the network as an "ABC Novel for Television," it was a fictionalized account of the historical siege of the Masada citadel in Israel by legions of the Roman Empire in AD 73. The TV series' script is based on...
(opposite Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
and Peter Strauss
Peter Strauss
Peter Strauss is an American television and movie actor, known for his roles in several television miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s.-Personal life:...
) in 1981. These roles brought her to the mainstream attention of American audiences. She also starred as Emma Coe Forsayth in the miniseries Emma: Queen of the South Seas in 1988.
Carrera has appeared on the pages and covers of such magazines as Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, Paris Match
Paris Match
Paris Match is a French weekly magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. It was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost....
, Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
, and twice posed nude in Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
(August 1977 and March 1982). She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in The Master Gunfighter in 1975. In 1997, she was appointed ambassador-at-large for Nicaragua by then President Arnoldo Alemán
Arnoldo Alemán
José Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo was the 81st President of Nicaragua from 10 January 1997 to 10 January 2002.-Biography:Alemán was born in Managua and received his early education at the La Salle institute in Managua...
. She is also an artist and her work has been showcased in the Makk Galleries in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
since the 1980s, and the Roy Miles Gallery in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. In May 2002, her works were exhibited at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum and have typically been sold for up to $8,000.
Personal life
Carrera has married (and divorced) model Uva Harden, Baron Otto von Hoffman, GreekGreece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
shipowner Nicholas Mavroleon (the younger but only surviving son of Manuel Basil Mavroleon, alias "Bluey", by his second wife, Gioconda de Gallardo y Castro), and photographer Cameron Docherty. She has no children.