Diane Cilento, ex-Mrs. Sean Connery, Dies At 78

Diane Cilento, ex-wife of actor Sean Connery, has died, Reuters reports.

According to Reuters:

(Reuters) - Australian actress Diane Cilento, nominated for an Oscar in the 1960s for her role in "Tom Jones" and ex-wife of James Bond star Sean Connery, has died after a long illness, local media reported on Friday. She was 78.

Cilento often played dizzy blondes, but she did appear in one of Connery's James Bond movies, You Only Live Twice. Wearing a black wig, she doubled for Japanese actress Mie Hama in a diving scene.

Next: "The Spy Who Loved Me"

Left, the first edition paperback of "You Only Live Twice" I finished reading last night.

Yes, I finished what I thought was the last Ian Fleming James Bond book I had in my collection, "You Only Live Twice." It is the first edition paperback as shown at left.

It turns out that I have one Fleming novel left (it was misplaced on my shelf) to read: "The Spy Who Loved Me." So I'll be reading it out of publishing order.

"You Only Live Twice" novel is vastly different than the movie version. The story takes place about nine months after Ernst Stavro Blofeld murdered Bond's wife Tracy. It does not involve spacecraft, but instead a mission to assassinate a Swiss doctor who set up a suicide "clinic" in a castle near Fukuoka, Japan.

Frankly, this story would've made a more interesting movie than the one Eon Productions put out in 1967 with Sean Connery.

On "The Spy Who Loved Me," we see 007 "through the eyes of a passionate woman." We'll see how it differs from the Roger Moore feature from 1977.

Next: "You Only Live Twice"

On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming was finished (finally!) last night.

It is one of Fleming's best James Bond novels and I found that the 1969 movie with George Lazenby (as Bond) and Diana Rigg (as Tracy) was pretty close to the book, with some changes here and there.

The next book (in the order of publication) I am going to read is You Only Live Twice, which is set in Japan. It will be interesting to see the differences between the movie (with Sean Connnery (as Bond) and Akiko Wakabayashi) and the book.

Left, Akiko Wakabayashi.