Shirley Eaton.In 1964, Shirley Eaton played Jill Masterson in James Bond 'Goldfinger'. Her character betrays Goldfinger and in a cruel twist of fate he creatively kills her by covering her body in gold paint, thus 'suffocating' her. Bond discovers her painted corpse which appears to be made out of solid gold. He explains her death, how the body breathes through the skin and covering it will lead to death by suffocation. He goes on to explain that exotic dancers leave a small patch of skin bare at the base of the spine so that when they are painted the patch of skin unpainted will help prevent them falling victim to asphyxiation. Of course we know that it is not possible to die this way. You do breathe through your skin, but as long as you can breathe through your nose and mouth you can not suffocate. If this was the case body painting would not be a form of art as it is today! However, in 1964 when the film was released people were quite gullible, so would have believed this could actually happen. This is also probably where the urban legend about Shirley Eaton's death came from. People actually thought Shirley Eaton had died during the making of Goldfinger due to asphyxiation, this rumour was encouraged even more by her disappearance from the limelight in the early 70s to raise her children. We know that she didn't die during the making of Goldfinger, in fact she is still very much alive. Shirley wasn't completely naked during the gold paint scenes, she wore a thong and just to be safe the makeup artist, Paul Rabiger left a small patch of skin about 6-inches long on her abdomen as a safety precaution and the studio even had doctors on standby for Miss Eaton's safety. In 2015, Shirley recreated her famous gold paint look at the age of 78. She spent 2 hours being painted to recreate the iconic pose from the 60s, the original pose was on the cover of US magazine life to promote the film. Shirley created this look again to show that ages doesn't matter, I found the images very empowering!
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AuthorThis blog is to follow on from my university final project, which was a historical reference book on ‘Female Hair and Makeup Throughout History’. Each week I will release a post featuring an era and an aspect of hair, makeup and fashion from the time. I will also have my makeup muse of the week, who could be a makeup or fashion trendsetter of their time or a makeup artist who has innovated the industry. Archives
November 2016
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