Linda Christian, D.E.P.

The first “first Bond girl” and the only woman other than Jane to tempt Tarzan,  Linda Christian, died Sunday in Palm Springs, California.

In the late 1940s and early 50s, Christian was marketed as the “Anatomic Bomb”, which was no reflection on her acting ability, but on … er… ah… screen presence.

Christian had an international childhood, growing up in Mexico, South Africa, Venezuela., France, Romania, Palestine… and points in-between.   She was fluent in English, French, German and Italian, and said to speak passable Russian and Arabic.

Recruited into the film industry by Errol Flynn, her break-though role was in the 1949 Tarzan and the Mermaids, the last Johnnie Weissmuller Tarzan film, and the first Tarzan film made in Mexico.  Her last English-language film role was in the 1964 Casino Royale, the first Bond movie.

Never a major star, she was best known as Mrs. Tyrone Power, whom she divorced in 1956.  As she aged, the anatomical threat became less alarming or alluring, the polyglot actress continued to work in European and Mexican films  into the 1980s.

Born Blanca Rosa Henrietta Stella Welter Vorhauer in 1923, to a Dutch father and Mexican mother, she is at least remembered with a plaque on the Plaza des Armes in her home town, Tampico, Tamaulipas.