Barbara Bouchet
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| Barbara Bouchet | |
|---|---|
| Born | Barbara Goutscher August 15, 1943 Liberec, Sudetenland |
| Years active | 1959 to present |
| Spouse(s) | Luigi Borgese 1976 - 2006 (separated) |
Barbara Bouchet, (born as Barbara Goutscher on August 15, 1943 in Reichenberg), is an actress and entrepreneuse who is fluent in English, German, and Italian. She is a cosmopolitan star. By birth and ethnicity she is German; by upbringing, she is American; and by residence, she is Italian.
She has acted in more than 80 films and television episodes and founded a production company that has produced fitness videos and books as well as owning a fitness studio. Her most famous roles include starring as Miss Moneypenny in Casino Royale, as Kelinda in Star Trek, By Any Other Name, as Patrizia in Non si sevizia un paperino and as Mrs Schermerhorn in Gangs of New York.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Overview
She was born as Barbara Goutscher, in 1943, in Liberec in the Sudetenland. Her place of birth is now in the Czech Republic, but she had to leave that country as a small child along with her family and the rest of her community. She was brought up in the United States and the country and culture in which she has spent most of her life, is Italy where she has lived since 1970 and which she considers home.[1] It is where she met her husband, married, raised a family and pursued her career.[2]
[edit] Background
After the end of the Second World War, the victorious Allied Powers, meeting at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, formalised their policy agreement on the systematic transfer of the Germans from Eastern Europe,[3] which included the Sudeten Germans.
The enactment and implementation of the Beneš decrees after the Allied victory in 1945, meant that the Sudeten Germans were considered to have been collectively punished,[4] by the Czechs, who regarded them as being untrustworthy and disloyal to Czechoslovakia because they had given their support to the Munich Agreement,[5]which had led to the incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany in 1938.
The decision to transfer the Germans, reinforced, as it was, by the terms of the new laws that came into effect, after the Allied liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945, led to the confiscation of Sudeten German land, property and possessions. These events were to have profound consequences for the Goutscher family as not only were they required to leave their home and belongings but they were also made stateless.
Little Barbara Goutscher, who had been nearly 2 years old at the time of the end of the war, accompanied her family, as they were transferred from the country. They were placed, along with many others, in a resettlement camp in the American occupation zone in Germany, from where they were, in time, able to apply for, and be granted, permission to emigrate.
Like many other refugees, at that time, in post-war Europe, the family discovered, to their relief, that they were eligible to migrate to the United States, as a result of the humanitarian provisions of the Displaced Persons Act[6] which had been legislated by Congress in 1948.[7]
[edit] Youth
After arriving in America, her family was, eventually, able to settle in San Francisco, California, where the young Barbara Goutscher was raised and where she, later, attended the Galileo High School which is situated at the crossroads between the Russian Hill and Marina District areas of the city, drawing students mainly from those two neighborhoods.
In 1959, spurred by the popularity of the film Gidget, KPIX-TV, the local television station covering the San Francisco Bay area, decided to hold a "Miss Gidget" beauty and talent contest on the Dick Stewart Television Show. The contest was open to all teenage girls in the local area, she entered and won, resulting in her first experience of fame. Subsequently, she went out on a date with the male star of the movie : James Darren.
The station offered her, as a prize, the chance, which she accepted, to become one of the "Regulars" in a dance group on the show, called The KPIX Dance Party.[8] They were teenage dancers who danced live to the top pop and rock and roll hits of the day and were TV stars, by virtue of the attention they received by being on television six days per week.
She was on the show from 1959 through 1962, after which she moved to the Hollywood area and made it into the film industry, changing her harsh Germanic sounding surname to the softer French sounding Bouchet which had a more fashionable, social cachet.
A youthful photo of Barbara Bouchet, as a dancing teenager, is available to be seen here.[9]
[edit] Career
Barbara Bouchet began her career modeling for magazine covers and appearing in television commercials, before eventually becoming an actress. Her first acting role was a minor part in What a Way to Go!, a romance, 1964, which led to a series of other roles in the 1960s, all of which emphasised her beauty, looks and figure making her a sex symbol.
Examples are such films as : John Goldfarb, Please Come Home, a comedy, 1964, in which she is dressed in alluring harem silk robes, In Harm's Way, a war drama, 1964, in which she is seen nude on the beaches of Pearl Harbor, and Agent for H.A.R.M., a spy action film, 1966, in which she wears a bikini for most of the time that she is on screen.
Moreover, in the 1967 James Bond satire, Casino Royale, she added a sultry element to the otherwise restrained Miss Moneypenny. Her early films gave her the grounding in character development that she needed in order to tackle more substantial roles later on in her career. She guest starred in the Star Trek episode "By Any Other Name", in 1968, which has a memorable scene where Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner, kisses her repeatedly.
In 1970, she moved to Italy where she began acting in Italian films after growing tired of being typecast and where she began to star in the leading roles that were being denied to her in Hollywood. She rapidly became one of the top actresses in the country as she was constantly in demand due to her strong professional work ethics, her natural acting abilities, and her grace, style and beauty.[10]
Her films, produced in Italy, can be categorised into three main genres : giallo, poliziottesco, and commedia erotica all'italiana, (sex comedy). Gialli combine crime, horror and eroticism. Poliziotteschi are police, crime and action thrillers while Commedia erotica all'italiana brings together bawdy humour and farce which was especially liberating in Italian society, as it was part of the sexual revolution that was sweeping Italy at that time.
In 1971, she starred with two other Bond girls, Claudine Auger and Barbara Bach in La Tarantola dal ventre nero, (Black Belly of the Tarantula) a giallo mystery film. Some notable films that she was in, at this era, were two giallo films that she starred with Rosalba Neri : Alla ricerca del piacere, (Amuck), 1971, in which they have a lesbian love making scene together and Casa d'Appuntamento, (French sex murders), 1972, a murder thriller. She starred in Milano calibro 9, 1972, with Gastone Moschin, a violent, poliziottesco, gangster film.
Other films that she starred in, and which were greeted with critical acclaim, were films such as Non si sevizia un paperino, 1972, a giallo film noted for its dark subject matter relating to child killings and directed by the Italian horror master, Lucio Fulci and L'Anatra all'arancia, (Duck in Orange Sauce), 1975, a farcical, commedia erotica all'italiana, in which, she starred with Monica Vitti.
She starred with Yul Brynner in Con la rabbia agli occhi, known in English, as Death Rage, 1976, a giallo mafia film and also that same year with Marty Feldman in 40 gradi all'ombra del lenzuolo, (Sex with a Smile), a commedia erotica all'italiana set as five farcical pieces in one film.
In the 1980s she became a television personality on Italian television, typically appearing on a chat show with fellow Italian actress, Edwige Fenech. She starred with Gregory Peck in The Scarlet and The Black, 1983, a successful WWII war rescue TV movie.
In 1985, she established a production company and started to produce a successful series of keep fit books and videos. In addition, she opened a fitness studio in Rome, Italy.
In 2002, she returned to American Cinema, starring with Leonardo DiCaprio in Gangs of New York, a film about the violence between the criminal underworld and immigrant gangs in New York, in which she appears as Mrs Schermerhorn.
[edit] Personal life
In 1976, Barbara Bouchet married Luigi Borghese, a producer, and has two sons, Alessandro, a TV chef and Massimiliano, a bartender, by him. He subsequently produced some of her later films. She separated from her husband in 2006, citing different aspirations.[1]
She lives with her family in Rome, where she is a set member of the city's celebrity social life.[11] She continues to work actively in films and television as well as her various business enterprises.
[edit] Filmography
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[edit] Television credits
- Dick Stewart Television Show, (1959-1962) - one of the dancers on the KPIX Dance Party (uncredited)
- The Rogues (1964) (1 episode) - Elsa Idonescu
- Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1965) (1 episode) - Tippy Penfield
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1966) (1 episode) - Narcissus Darling
- The Virginian (1967) (1 episode) - Marianne
- Tarzan - (1968) (1 episode) - Phyllis Fraser
- Star Trek (1968) (1 episode) - Kelinda
- Cool Million (1972) - Carla Miles
- Beauty Center Show (1983)
- The Scarlet and the Black (1983) - Minna Kappler
- Quelli della speciale (1992) (mini-series)
- Stracult 2 (2001) (1 episode) - Herself
- Incantesimo 6 (2003)
- Diritto di difesa (2004) (4 episodes) - Gilardi's Mother
- Un Posto al sole (2004)
- Capri (2006) - Avv. Maggioni
- Ho sposato uno sbirro (2007) - (mini-series)
[edit] See also
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[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b Boccalini, Siria. Intervista a Barbara Bouchet (Italian). Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
- ^ Lombardini, Luca. Incontro con Barbara Bouchet (Italian). Retrieved on 2007-01-12.
- ^ Prauser, Stefan & Rees, Arfon, “The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War”, European University Institute, Florense, <http://cadmus.iue.it/dspace/bitstream/1814/2599/1/HEC04-01.pdf>, 2004
- ^ The Makers of War, Neilson, Francis, Flanders Hall Publishers, ISBN 0-895-62093-6, 1950
- ^ National Cleansing - Retribution against Nazi Collaborators in Postwar Czechoslovakia, Frommer, Benjamin, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-81067-1, 2005
- ^ Displaced Persons Act, 1948. Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
- ^ A Terrible Revenge, De Zayas, Alfred Maurice, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 1-403-97308-3, 2nd edition, 2006
- ^ Interiano, Manny. KPIX Dance Party. Retrieved on 2007-07-16.
- ^ Interiano, Manny. Barbara Bouchet (Gutscher) Youthful Photo. Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
- ^ Regoli, Alessandro. Barbara Bouchet Biografia (Italian). Retrieved on 2007-01-12.
- ^ Barbara Bouchet, in May 2007, at the opening of a new celebrity restaurant in Rome, Italy. (Italian). Retrieved on 2007-07-19.
[edit] External links
- Barbara Bouchet at the Internet Movie Database
- Barbara Bouchet at the TCM Movie Database
- Barbara Bouchet recuerda sus inicios en el cine italiano - Barbara Bouchet talks about the beginnings of her career in Italian Cinema. (In Italian).
- Barbara Bouchet's kissing scene with William Shatner, a commentary
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bouchet, Barbara |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Goutscher, Barbara |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Actress and Entrepreneuse |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 15 August 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Liberec, Czech Republic |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
