Linda Christian

LINDA CHRISTIAN d2011. Mexican film actress. Her career reached its peak during the 1940-1950s. 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 television adaptation of the James Bond novel "Casino Royale". In 1963 she also starred in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour "An Out for Oscar". She was married to screen idol Tyrone Power between 1949-56. A month after she divorced Tyrone Power, she was seen & photographed with Spanish racing driver Alfonso de Portago (who was married to American Carroll de Portago) before the notorious 1957 Mille Miglia car race. The photo showed Christian leaning in to kiss him before he drove off and crashed his Ferrari, killing himself, his navigator Ed Nelson and at least ten spectators in the process. The press labeled the photo at the time "The Kiss of Death". De Portago was 28 years old. Her ex-husband, Tyrone Power, died the following year of a heart attack at the age of 44. Linda Christian died herself on colon cancer aged 87 on July 22nd 2011.