Thursday, February 11, 2021

MARGARET NOLAN

Herbert Spencer (1924 - 2002) Margaret Nolan in Light, 1964

I meant to say something about Margaret Nolan last year when she passed away and I revisit that notion here. She was notable by her attitude to having little to seemingly no self consciousness about taking her clothes off! She was amongst the most photographed 'pin-ups' of her day and yet she was much much more than that. Known of course by her statuesque even amazonian good looks and naturally striking curvaceous figure she featured in many of the 'Carry On' film and 'girly' features of magazines of the time.

She perhaps most famously appeared as 'Dink' in the James Bond film 'Goldfinger' and was the stand in for Shirley Eaton to be painted as the gold nude across the title sequence at the very beginning and had a small role in the film itself. Clearly she had been capable of much more than the mere glamour work she was to be most famous for. Not unlike Barbara Windsor she was too quite the comedienne and yet was held back rather from the desire of the largely male audiences to 'get her kit off' rather than be allowed to develop any acting talent.

But what of the woman behind the nude photographs and the Carry On cliché ?

I found this obituary from the Guardian newspaper online and it is worth a read

Margaret Ann Nolan, British actor and artist, born 29 October 1943; died 5 October 2020.

Margaret Nolan, who has died aged 76, took roles that showed off her striking figure and also engaged in political theatre, her deeply held passion.
She was a popular member of the Carry On team – and she admired the skills of the comedy performers she worked alongside, learning much from them. Nolan played a secretary in Carry on Cowboy (1965), then a “buxom lass” in Carry on Henry (1971), with the roles getting better, and benefiting from her knowing performances, through Carry on at Your Convenience (1971), Carry on Matron (1972), Carry on Girls (which included a memorable fight scene with Barbara Windsor, 1973) and Carry on Dick (1974).
For the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964) she was sprayed gold and costumed in a matching bikini to adorn the striking opening title sequence (pre-empting the on-screen fate of Shirley Eaton as Jill Masterson): the images were used on posters and merchandise and Nolan also played Bond’s masseuse, Dink, in the film.
…
Seeking a change and sometimes disenchanted with the kinds of roles on offer, she retired from acting in 1983. Out of the limelight for some time, she decided to deconstruct her past image artistically by cutting up various black-and-white stills of herself and mounting them in striking montages. The resulting abstractions encapsulated the dissonance between her as “this passive woman, being looked at” and the one who “behind it all, behind my eyes, knew what was going on”. They were successfully exhibited in Spain (2007), at the Brick Lane gallery in London (2009) and, as part of the feminist exhibition Equals, at the Blankspace gallery in Manchester (2013).

The Guardian

Maybe not quite what you were expecting . . . . . .