Molly Peters, who played Patricia Fearing in Thunderball, has died at the age of 75. The news was broken by the official 007 Twitter account.
We are sad to hear that Molly Peters has passed away at the age of 75. Our thoughts are with her family. pic.twitter.com/6k3Ifs2gpY
— James Bond (@007) May 30, 2017
Peters was born on 15th March 1942 and best known for her role in the James Bond film Thunderball.
She started out as a model and was discovered by film director Terence Young. Of her three films from the 1960s, her best-known appearance was the role of Bond girl, Patricia Fearing or Pat, a nurse who takes care of James Bond (Sean Connery) while he is on holiday at her health clinic in Thunderball (1965). She was the first Bond girl to be seen taking her clothes off on screen in the Bond series.
Peters appeared in Playboy, in the November 1965 issue. Her appearance was as part of a pictorial essay entitled “James Bond’s Girls”, by Richard Maibaum.
According to the special edition DVD of Thunderball, Peters’ short film career was the result of a disagreement between her and her agent, the specifics of which were not revealed. According to Peters, her agent at the time of Thunderball held her to her contract agreement of representation due to the mega-successful box-office hit of the fourth James Bond film in 1965. Not until many years later, when the fame, the glamour and the chaos had faded from the release of Thunderball, her contractual agreement had ended and so had any modelling and/or film prospects.
When she was young, she gave birth to a daughter, whom she gave up for adoption. Peters later married and lived with her husband in Ipswich, Suffolk. She and her husband had a son, who has since died. In 2011, Peters suffered a mild stroke. Peters passed away at the age of 75 on 30th May 2017.
Filmography
Peter Studies Form (1964) (as Mollie Peters)
Thunderball (1965) as Patricia Fearing
Target for Killing (aka Das Geheimnis der gelben Mönche) (1966) as Vera
Das Experiment (1966) (TV) as Junges Mädchen
Armchair Theatre (1 episode, 1967) as Waitress
Baker’s Half-Dozen (1967, TV series, unknown episodes) as The Girl
The Naked World of Harrison Marks (1967) as Herself
Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River (1968) as Heath’s Secretary (final film role)