Barbara Jefford - 15254

Great British actress, best known for her Shakespearean theatrical performances and for her role as Molly Bloom in the 1967 film of James Joyce's Ulysses. She also made a notable contribution to three James Bond films by overdubbing actresses. After spending just one year working in repertory theatre, RADA-trained Jefford joined the Shakespeare Memorial Company, (later to become the Royal Shakespeare Company) in 1950, moving to the Old Vic four years later and spending the next two decades playing major Shakespearean roles. She repeated many of these in her long career, appearing in 54 productions of all but four of his plays. The last of these was Richard III with Kenneth Branagh in 2002, at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. Jefford also worked extensively in television and film. Her film work began with dubbing work for actresses in Bond films, firstly for Daniela Bianchi in From Russia With Love (1963) and later for Mollie Peters in Thunderball (1965) and Caroline Munro in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Her first major film role was as Molly Bloom in Ulysses in 1967, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA. This was followed by The Bofors Gun (1968); The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968). Lust for a Vampire (1971), Hitler: the Last Ten Days (1973), Fellini's And the Ship Sails On (1983) Claudia (1985) and Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate (2000). This is an exceptionally pretty early vintage black and white photograph (8" x 6.5"), nicely signed ("Very best wishes, Barbara Jefford") in dark blue fountain pen ink. There are some light indentations to the surface of the image, near the left edge, across from the tip of her nose (a label appears to have been removed) but these can be seen only by tilting the photograph against the light. Overall condition is very good.