Linda Christian
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Linda Christian (born Blanca Rosa Welter on November 13, 1924 (some sources cite 1923) in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico) is a Hollywood movie actress whose career reached its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. She played Mara in the last Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film Tarzan and The Mermaids (1948). She is also noted for being the first Bond girl, appearing in a 1954 TV adaptation of the James Bond novel Casino Royale. In 1963 she starred in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour called "An Out for Oscar."
Christian's mother was of Spanish, French and German descent, and her father was a Dutch executive with Royal Dutch/Shell.
She was first offered a movie contract after film scouts saw a picture of her at the beach taken by Andre de Dienes.
Linda Christian is famous for having wed (and divorced) fellow movie actor Tyrone Power. She and Power are the parents of actress Taryn Power and singer Romina Power, one half of the famous singing duo Al Bano & Romina Power from Italy.
Linda Christian was also briefly married to the Rome-based British actor (and one-time heartthrob) Edmund Purdom.
Her younger sister, the late Ariadna Welter (1930-1998), was a well-known actress in the Mexican cinema. Her most celebrated role was as 'Carlota Cervantes' in Luis Buñuel's 'Ensayo de un Crimen' (The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz) in 1955. Ariadna continued to appear in movies and on soap operas in Mexico in her later years until her death in 1998.
Christian's autobiography, Linda, was published in 1962.
