Hugh Grant

With his bumbling English charm, Hugh Grant (1960) achieved international stardom in the romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). The handsome Brit with his floppy hair and posh accent delivered more endearing comic performances in hits like Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and About a Boy (2002). Privately, Grant also proved to have enough sense of humour to survive a media frenzy.


Italian postcard by World Collection, no. P.c. 688.


French postcard by OK Podium. Photo: J-M Graber.


British postcard by Heroes Publishing LTD, London, no. SPC 2773.

A sexually conflicted Edwardian

Hugh John Mungo Grant was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1960. He was the second son of Fynvola Susan MacLean, a schoolteacher, and James Murray Grant, a carpet sales representative. His elder brother, James Grant, is a successful banker. From 1969 to 1978, Hugh attended the independent Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith on a scholarship and played 1st XV rugby, cricket and football for the school. In 1979, he won the Galsworthy scholarship to New College, Oxford where he starred in his first film, Privileged (Michael Hoffman, 1982), produced by the Oxford University Film Foundation.

Viewing acting as nothing more than a creative outlet, he joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and starred in a successful touring production of 'Twelfth Night' by William Shakespeare. To obtain his Equity card, he joined the Nottingham Playhouse, a regional theatre. Bored with small acting parts, he created his own comedy revue called 'The Jockeys of Norfolk' with friends Chris Lang and Andy Taylor. The group toured London's pub comedy circuit and proved a hit at the Edinburgh Festival. Their sketch on the Nativity told as an Ealing comedy, gained them a spot on the BBC2 TV show Edinburgh Nights. During this time, Grant also appeared in theatre productions of plays such as 'An Inspector Calls', Oscar Wilde's 'Lady Windermere's Fan', and Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus'.

His first leading film role came as a sexually conflicted Edwardian in Maurice (James Ivory, 1987), adapted from E. M. Forster's novel. He and co-star James Wilby shared the Volpi Cup for best actor at the Venice Film Festival for their portrayals of lovers Clive Durham and Maurice Hall. Despite such acclaim, Grant's next films were largely forgettable affairs except for The Lair of the White Worm (Ken Russell, 1988). Grant attained some cult status as a lord attempting to foil the murderous charms of a campy, trampy vampire (Amanda Donahoe). He had supporting parts in the BAFTA Award-nominated White Mischief (Michael Radford, 1987) and in Dawning (Robert Knights, 1988), opposite Anthony Hopkins.

His classic good looks made him a natural for romantic leads. He played Lord Byron in the Spanish production Remando al viento/Rowing with the Wind (Gonzalo Suárez, 1988). During the shooting of this Goya Award-winning film, Grant met model and actress Elizabeth Hurley, who was cast in a supporting role as Byron's former lover Claire Clairmont. Their subsequent relationship created much media attention. He portrayed another real-life figure, Frédéric Chopin, in Impromptu (James Lapine, 1991) opposite Judy Davis as George Sand. He also played Julie Andrews' gay son in the ABC made-for-television film Our Sons (John Erman, 1991).

In Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon (1992), he portrayed a fastidious and proper British tourist married to Kristin Scott Thomas, who finds himself enticed by the sexual hedonism of a seductive French woman (Emmanuelle Seigner) and her embittered, paraplegic American husband (Peter Coyote). His work in the award-winning Merchant-Ivory drama The Remains of the Day (James Ivory, 1993) went largely unnoticed.


Canadian postcard by Canadian Postcard, no. A-255.


Chinese postcard. Hugh Grant and James Wilby in Maurice (James Ivory, 1987).


Spanish postcard in the Colección 'Estrellas de actualidad' by CACITEL, S.L., 1990, no. 101.


Danish postcard by Forlaget Holger Danske, no. 931.

A bohemian and debonair bachelor

At 32, Hugh Grant became an overnight international star when he played bohemian and debonair bachelor Charles in Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell 1994), opposite Andie MacDowell. The romantic comedy, written by Richard Curtis, became the highest-grossing British film to date with a worldwide box office over $244 million. Among the numerous awards for the film, Grant earned his first and only Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award. He signed a two-year production deal with Castle Rock Entertainment and became the founder and director of the UK-based Simian Films Limited. He appointed Elizabeth Hurley as the head of development to look for prospective projects. Simian Films produced two Grant vehicles in the 1990s but closed its US office in 2002.

Grant was one of the choices to play James Bond in GoldenEye (Martin Campbell, 1995), but he eventually lost out to Pierce Brosnan. He did play Emma Thompson's suitor in Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee, 1995), the Academy Award-winning film version of Jane Austen's classic 1811 novel and Grant was a cartographer in 1917 Wales in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (Christopher Monger, 1995). He also performed in the Academy Award-winning Restoration (Michael Hoffman, 1995) with Robert Downey Jr. On 27 June 1995, Grant was arrested in Los Angeles, California, for lewd conduct after police checking into a ‘suspicious parked car’ found him with Divine Brown, a prostitute, in the front seat. He pleaded no contest and was fined $1,180, and placed on two years' summary probation.

The arrest occurred about two weeks before the release of Grant's first major studio film, Nine Months (Chris Columbus, 1995), which he was scheduled to promote on several American television shows. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno had him booked for the same week. In the much-watched interview, Grant was noted for not making excuses for the incident after Leno asked him, "What the hell were you thinking?" Grant answered, "I think you know in life what's a good thing to do and what's a bad thing, and I did a bad thing. And there you have it." The comedy Nine Months was almost universally panned by critics, but it proved a hit at the box office. Grant made his debut as a film producer with the thriller Extreme Measures (Michael Apted, 1996), a commercial and critical failure.

After a three-year hiatus, he paired with Julia Roberts in Notting Hill (Roger Michell, 1999), made by much of the same team that was responsible for Four Weddings and a Funeral. This new Working Title production displaced Four Weddings and a Funeral as the biggest British hit in the history of cinema, with earnings equalling $363 million worldwide. The comedy helped to restore some of Grant’s lustre.

He also released his second production output, a fish-out-of-water mob comedy Mickey Blue Eyes (Kelly Makin, 1999), that year. More successful was Small Time Crooks (Woody Allen, 2000) in which Grant played an unsympathetic art dealer. After 13 years together, Grant and Elizabeth Hurley split up in May 2000, but two years later Grant became godfather to Hurley's son Damian (2002).


Spanish postcard by Clasicos Cinema, no. 166. Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell in Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell, 1994). Caption: Love means never having to say "I do".


British Freecard by London Card Guide LTD, London. Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant in An Awfully Big Adventure (Mike Newell, 1995).


Italian postcard by Citrus Promotion, no. 0423. Photo: Universal / Working Title. Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in Notting Hill (Richard Curtis, 1999).


Italian postcard by Citrus Promotion, no. 0426. Photo: Universal / Working Title. Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in Notting Hill (Richard Curtis, 1999).

The bugger bugged

Hugh Grant played a charming but womanising book publisher in Bridget Jones's Diary (Sharon Maguire, 2001). The film, featuring Renée Zellweger and adapted from Helen Fielding's novel, was an international hit, earning $281 million worldwide. Grant also appeared as another womaniser, Will Freeman, in About a Boy (Paul Weitz, 2002), the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's best-seller At AllMovie, Michael Hastings notes: "Hugh Grant is one of the few actors since Cary Grant who can remain likeable even as he's committing near-despicable acts of dishonesty." The film earned Grant his third Golden Globe nomination, while the London Film Critics Circle named Grant its Best British Actor. About a Boy also marked a notable change in Grant's boyish look. Now 41, he had lost weight and also abandoned his trademark floppy hair. Grant was paired with Sandra Bullock in Warner Bros.'s Two Weeks Notice (Marc Lawrence, 2002), which made $199 million internationally but was panned by critics.

It was followed by the ensemble comedy, Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003), headlined by Grant as the British Prime Minister. A Christmas release by Working Title Films, the film was promoted as ‘the ultimate romantic comedy’ and accumulated $246 million at the international box office. In 2004, Grant reprised his role as Daniel Cleaver for a small part in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (Beebon Kidron, 2004), which, like its predecessor, made more than $262 million commercially. Gone from the screen for two years, Grant then reteamed with Paul Weitz for the black comedy American Dreamz (2006), in which he portrayed the acerbic host of an American Idol-like reality show. American Dreamz failed financially but Grant’s self-loathing performance was generously praised. In 2007, Grant starred opposite Drew Barrymore in Music and Lyrics (Marc Lawrence, 2007), a parody of pop culture and the music industry. Grant learned to sing, play the piano, dance (a few mannered steps) and studied the mannerisms of prominent musicians to prepare for his role as a has-been pop singer, based loosely on Andrew Ridgeley.

He co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker in the romantic comedy Did You Hear About the Morgans? (Marc Lawrence, 2009), which was a commercial as well as a critical failure. In April 2011, he published an article in the New Statesman ‘The Bugger, Bugged’ about a conversation with Paul McMullan, former journalist and paparazzo for News of the World. In unguarded comments which were secretly taped by Grant, McMullan alleged that editors at the Daily Mail and News of the World had ordered journalists to engage in illegal phone tapping and had done so with the full knowledge of senior British politicians. Wikipedia describes how “Grant's article attracted considerable interest, due to both the revelatory content of the taped conversation, and the novelty of Grant himself ‘turning the tables’ on a tabloid journalist”. The later revelation that the voicemail of the by then murdered Millie Dowler had been hacked, and evidence for her murder enquiry had been deleted, turned the coverage from media interest to widespread public and eventually political outrage. "Grant became something of a spokesman against Murdoch's News Corporation, culminating in a bravura performance on BBC television's Question Time in July 2011".

In November 2011, it was announced that Grant had become a father to a baby girl, Tabitha, earlier that autumn. The identity of the mother, with whom Grant had a 'fleeting affair' according to his publicist, was not at first announced; however, it was later revealed to be a Chinese woman, Tinglan Hong. In an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in April 2012, Grant revealed that his daughter's Chinese name is Xiao Xi, meaning ‘happy surprise’. Grant and Hong reportedly briefly reunited in 2012. In February 2013, Hugh Grant announced that they had recently welcomed a son named Felix Chang. In the cinema, Hugh Grant played six evil characters in the epic drama film Cloud Atlas (Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, 2012). Then he appeared in another romantic comedy, The Rewrite (Marc Lawrence, 2014) with Marisa Tomei, and in the action comedy The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Guy Ritchie, 2015), based on the legendary TV series. In 2016, he played the husband of the title character in the film Florence Foster Jenkins (Stephen Frears, 2016) starring Meryl Streep. His performance drew raves from film critics. Roger Ebert: "(Frears) coaxed Hugh Grant out of semi-retirement to play Jenkins’ devoted common-law husband St. Clair Bayfield. It’s a good thing he did, too, since Grant gives one of his finest performances ever." He was nominated for his first individual Screen Actors Guild Award and also earned nominations for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, a Critics' Choice Award, a Satellite Award and a European Film Award.

Hugh Grant's next appearance was as Phoenix Buchanan, a villain in the live-action animated comedy Paddington 2 (Paul King, 2017) which was a commercial and critical success. In 2018, Grant returned to television after 25 years, as Jeremy Thorpe in the BBC miniseries A Very English Scandal, which marked his second collaboration with director Stephen Frears. The miniseries, and in particular Grant, were widely and highly praised. Also praised was another against-type role as a seedy and unscrupulous private investigator in The Gentlemen (Guy Ritchie, 2019), his second collaboration with the director following The Man From U.N.C.L.E. In 2023, Grant reunited with Ritchie for the action Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (Guy Ritchie, 2023 alongside Jason Statham and Aubrey Plaza. Also in 2023, Grant appeared as an Oompa-Loompa in Wonka (Paul King, 2023), a film which serves as a prequel to the Roald Dahl novel 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', exploring Willy Wonka's origins. Grant is set to star in the upcoming Horror film Heretic (Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, 2024) and will reprise his role as Daniel Cleaver in the romantic comedy Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (Michael Morris, 2025).


Belgian postcard by MultiChoice Kaleidoscope. Photo: Isopress / Outline (Heisler).


Italian postcard by World Collection, no. 541.


Australian Freecard by AvantCard, no. 6848. Hugh Grant in About a Boy (Paul Weitz, 2002).


Dutch postcard by Boomerang Freecards, Amsterdam, no. P23-04. Hugh Grant in Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason (Beebon Kidron, 2004). Caption: Will you join us for the film?

Sources: Roger Ebert (RogerEbert.com), Rebecca Flint Marx (AllMovie - page now defunct), Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Michael Hastings (AllMovie - page now defunct), FilmReference.com, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Bond Girls of the 20th Century

'A Bond girl is a character who is a love interest, female companion or occasionally an adversary of James Bond in a novel, film, or video game', defines Wikipedia. Bond girls occasionally have names that are double entendres or sexual puns - Plenty O'Toole, Holly Goodhead, or Xenia Onatopp. The female leads in the films, such as Ursula Andress, Honor Blackman, or Maud Adams, can also be referred to as 'Bond girls'. The term is an anachronism now. The female stars in more recent Bond films deserve the name Bond Woman. This postcard series salutes 19 Bond Girls of the 20th Century.


Vintage card in the Bond Girls series. Ursula Andress in Dr. No (Terence Young, 1962).

Stunning Swiss sex symbol, starlet, and jet-setter Ursula Andress (1936) will always be remembered as the first and quintessential Bond girl. In Dr No (1962), she made film history when she spectacularly rose out of the Caribbean Sea in a white bikini. Though she won a Golden Globe Ursula's looks generally outweighed her acting talent and she never took her film career very seriously.


Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls Series. Daniela Bianchi in From Russia With Love (Terence Young, 1963).

Beautiful Daniela Bianchi (1942) is an Italian actress, whose best-known part was the luscious Soviet cipher clerk Tatiana Romanova in the James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963). She played in several more Eurospy films during the 1960s.


Vintage card in the Bond Girls series. Honor Blackman in Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964).

British actress Honor Blackman (1925-2020) was best known for playing the Bond girl Pussy Galore opposite Sean Connery in Goldfinger (1964). Blackman became a household name in the 1960s as Cathy Gale in the TV series The Avengers in which she showed an extraordinary combination of beauty, brains and physical prowess. Her career spanned eight decades.


Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls Series. Claudine Auger in Thunderball (Terence Young, 1965).

French actress Claudine Auger (1941-2019) was best known as Bond Girl Domino in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965). At 17, she was Miss France 1958 and she became the first runner-up in the Miss World contest. Later she worked mostly in France and Italy.


Vintage card in the Bond Girls series. Akiko Wakabayashi in You Only Live Twice (Lewis Gilbert, 1967).

Akiko Wakabayashi (1939) is a retired Japanese actress. She is best known for her role as Bond girl Aki in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967) with Sean Connery.


Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls Series. Diana Rigg in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Peter R. Hunt, 1969).

English actress Diana Rigg (1938-2020) was well-known as Emma Peel in the classic TV series The Avengers (1965-1968) and as Lady Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones (2013-2017). In between she had an extensive career in film and theatre. Between 1959 and 1964, she performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company and won several awards, including a Tony and an Emmy award. In the cinema, she made her mark as Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, the only Bond girl to ever get 007 to the altar, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).


Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls Series. Jill St. John in Diamonds Are Forever (Guy Hamilton, 1971).

Voluptuous, red-haired American actress Jill St. John (1940) played countless bikini sexpot roles in Hollywood films of the 1960s. She was at her best as the tantalizing Bond girl Tiffany Case in Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

Bond Girls Are Forever

Nearly all of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and short stories include one or more female characters who can be said to qualify as Bond girls. Fleming's Bond girls have some individual traits but they also have much in common. The typical Bond girl is in her early to mid-twenties, roughly ten years younger than Bond, who seems to be perennially in his mid-thirties. Bond girls possess splendid figures and tend to dress in a slightly masculine, assertive fashion, wearing little jewellery and square-toed leather shoes. They generally use little or no makeup and no nail polish, and also wear their nails short. Their hair may be any colour, though they typically wear it in a natural or casual cut that falls heavily to their shoulders. Their features, especially their eyes and mouths, are often widely spaced. The first description of a Bond girl, 'Casino Royale''s Vesper Lynd, is almost a template for the typical dress as well as the general appearance of later Bond girls; she sports nearly all of the features discussed above.

Another characteristic of Bond girls is their pattern of sexually suggestive names, such as Pussy Galore. Names with less obvious meanings are sometimes explained in the novels. While Solitaire's real name is Simone Latrelle, she is known as Solitaire because she excludes men from her life. Tiffany Case received her name from her father, who was so angry that she was not a boy that he gave her mother a thousand dollars and a compact from Tiffany's and then walked out on her. Fleming's penchant for double-entendre names began with the first Bond novel 'Casino Royale'. The name of the Bond girl in that novel, 'Vesper Lynd', was intended to be a pun on 'West Berlin', signifying Vesper's divided loyalties as a double agent under Soviet control. Several Bond girls, however, have normal names.

Most Bond girls are sexually experienced by the time they meet Bond. Quite often those previous experiences have not been positive, and many Bond girls have had sexual violence inflicted on them in the past, causing them to feel alienated from all men — until Bond comes along. Tiffany Case was gang-raped as a teenager. Honey Ryder was beaten and raped as a teenager by a drunken acquaintance. Pussy Galore was sexually abused at age 12 by her uncle. Kissy Suzuki reports to Bond that during her brief career in Hollywood when she was 17, "They thought that because I am Japanese I am some sort of an animal and that my body is for everyone." The implication is often that these violent episodes have turned these Bond girls against men, though upon encountering Bond they overcome their earlier antipathy and sleep with him not only willingly but eagerly. This trope reaches an extreme level in 'Goldfinger', where Pussy Galore is portrayed as a lesbian when she first meets Bond, but at the end of the novel she sleeps with him. When, in bed, he says to her, "They told me you only liked women," she replies, "I never met a man before."

In Fleming's novels, many Bond girls have some sort of independent job or career, often one that was considered inappropriate for women in the 1950s. Vesper Lynd, Tatiana Romanova, Mary Ann Russell, and Mary Goodnight are in intelligence or law-enforcement work. Those who are criminals, such as Case and Galore, tend to be similarly independent-minded in how they approach their work — the latter even running her own syndicate. Even those Bond girls who have more conventional or glamorous jobs show themselves to be invested in having an independent outlook on life. While the Bond girls are clearly intended as sex objects, they are nevertheless portrayed in the novels as having a high degree of independence. This is also frequently (but not always) the case in the films. In 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service', Bond enters into a relationship and an eventual marriage with Teresa 'Tracy' di Vicenzo.

Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder in Dr No (Terence Young, 1962) is widely regarded as the first Bond girl, although she was preceded by both Eunice Gayson as Sylvia Trench and Zena Marshall as Miss Taro in the same film. In Dr No, Sylvia Trench was also introduced as Bond girl. The idea was that James Bond would meet her in each film and marry her in the sixth and final film. This idea was abandoned after the second film. The third Bond film, Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964), established the Bond girl as regularly appearing in Bond films. There is no set rule on what kind of person a Bond girl will be or what role she will play. She may be an ally or an enemy of Bond, pivotal to the mission or simply there for her looks. There are female characters such as Judi Dench's M, who are not romantic interests of Bond, and hence may not be considered Bond girls. It is never explained why Bond's love interest in one film is gone by the next and is never mentioned or even alluded to again. This is not always the case in the novels, which do sometimes make references to the Bond girls who have appeared in previous books. For example, Tiffany Case and Honey Ryder are revealed to have married other men. In 2002, former Bond girl Maryam d'Abo co-wrote the book 'Bond Girls Are Forever: The Women of James Bond'. This book later became a DVD-exclusive documentary featuring d'Abo and other Bond girls, including Ursula Andress. In 2015, Monica Bellucci in Spectre (Sam Mendes, 2015) became the oldest Bond girl at the age of 50. She stated that she does not consider herself to be a 'Bond girl', but a 'Bond woman'.


Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls Series. Jane Seymour in Live and Let Die (Guy Hamilton, 1973).

British-American actress Jane Seymour (1951) is known as Dr Michaela Quinn in the long-running TV series Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993-1998). She also was Bond Girl Solitaire in Live and Let Die (1973) and became 'the Queen of the Miniseries' in the 1980s and 1990s.


Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls series. Britt Ekland in The Man With the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton, 1974).

Swedish actress Britt Ekland (1942) became famous through her marriage to Peter Sellers and her relationship with singer Rod Stewart. She was also known for her roles in such films as The Night They Raided Minsky's Get Carter, and The Man with the Golden Gun.


Vintage card in the Bond Girls series. Barbara Bach in The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert, 1977).

Barbara Bach (1947) is an American actress and former top model. She is best known as Bond girl Anya Amasova in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), in which she played opposite Roger Moore. She is also known as the wife of ex-Beatle Ringo Starr. Bach has 28 films to her credit.


Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls series. Lois Chiles in Moonraker (Lewis Gilbert, 1979).

American actress and former model Lois Chiles (1947) is best known for her role as Bond Girl Dr Holly Goodhead in the James Bond film Moonraker (1979). Before entering films, she was one of the very top models of the 1970s. Her other screen credits include The Way We Were (1973), The Great Gatsby (1974), Death on the Nile (1978), and Broadcast News (1987).


Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls series. Carole Bouquet in For Your Eyes Only (John Glen, 1981).

Carole Bouquet (1957) is a French actress and fashion model. She is best known for her role as Bond Girl Melina Havelock in the 12th James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only (1981). In the following years, she became the face of the French fashion house Chanel. She also starred in Cet obscur objet du désir/That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), and Trop belle pour toi/Too Beautiful for You (1990), for which she won a César Award.


Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls series. Maud Adams in Octopussy (John Glen, 1983).

Stunning Maud Adams is a Swedish-born ex-model who broke into film in 1970. She is the only Bond Girl who appeared in three James Bond films, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Octopussy (1983) and A View to a Kill (1985).


Vintage card in the Bond Girls series. Grace Jones in A View to a Kill (John Glen, 1985).

Grace Jones (1948) is a Jamaican singer, supermodel, and actress. Classic is her album 'Nightclubbing' (1981) and unforgettable are her hits 'La Vie en Rose', 'Pull Up to the Bumper' and 'I've Seen That Face Before'. She was also memorable as a James Bond villain in A View to a Kill (1985). But foremost, the unusual, androgynous, bold, dark-skinned artist was a style icon for the late 1970s and early 1980s.


Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls series. Maryam d'Abo in The Living Daylights (John Glen, 1987).

English actress Maryam d'Abo (1960) starred as Bond Girl Kara Milovy in The Living Daylights (1987) opposite Timothy Dalton as 007.


Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls series. Carey Lowell in Licence to Kill (John Glen, 1989).

American actress Carey Lowell is a former leading fashion model, almost 5'10'' (1 m 78) tall. She was a favourite with designers such as Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. As an actress, she is best known as New York Assistant DA Jamie Ross in Law and Order (1996–2001, 2022) and as Bond girl Pam Bouvier in the James Bond film Licence to Kill (1989).


Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls Series. Izabella Scorupco in GoldenEye (Martin Campbell, 1995).

Izabella Scorupco (1970) is best known as Bond Girl Natalya Simonova in the James Bond film GoldenEye (1995) with Pierce Brosnan. She is also known for her cover of the Shirley & Company song 'Shame, Shame, Shame'.


Vintage card in the Bond Girls series. Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies (Roger Spottiswoode, 1997).

Malaysian-Chinese actress Michelle Yeoh (1962) is known to Western audiences through her roles in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), for which she received the Oscar. She is the second woman of colour to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.


Vintage card in the Bond Girls series. Sophie Marceau in The World is Not Enough (Michael Apted, 1999).

French actress Sophie Marceau (1966) became a European film star with a string of successful films, including La boum/The Party (1980), L'Étudiante/The Student (1988), Fanfan (1993), and La fille de D'Artagnan/Revenge of the Musketeers (1994). Internationally she became known for her performances in Braveheart (1995), and the 19th James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999). She received a Cesar for La Boum 2 (1983) and she won a Moliere award for a stage production of 'Eurydice' in 1991.

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a funny animal cartoon character and the mascot of The Walt Disney Company. He was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at the Walt Disney Studios in 1928. An anthropomorphic mouse whose face can be drawn as three black circles. Often he wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves, Mickey is one of the world's most recognisable characters.


Swedish postcard by Scandecor, 1985, no. 3865. Image: Disney. Caption: Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, now in Technicolor.


British postcard in the Picturegoer series. Image: Walt Disney. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5227/1, 1930-1931. Image: Walt Disney. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


French postcard by Tobler. Image: The Walt Disney Company.


French postcard by Tobler. Image: The Walt Disney Company.


French postcard by Tobler. Image: The Walt Disney Company.


Vintage postcard. In 1932, Walt Disney received an honorary Academy Award for creating Mickey Mouse.

A mouse called Mortimer

Mickey Mouse was created as a replacement for a prior Disney character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Walt Disney got the idea for the character from a mouse he saw in his Kansas City office. Initially, the character was to be named Mortimer Mouse, but Disney's wife Lillian Marie Bounds thought that name was too serious and not representative of the weaker members of the population. Therefore, the name Mickey was chosen.

The character's depiction as a small mouse is personified through his diminutive stature and falsetto voice. Mickey's voice was originally provided by Walt Disney. Mickey debuted publicly in the short film Steamboat Willie (1928), one of the first sound cartoons. It was co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. Iwerks again served as the head animator, assisted by Les Clark, Johnny Cannon, Wilfred Jackson and Dick Lundy.

This short was a nod to Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Charles Reisner, Buster Keaton, 1928) released earlier that year. Although it was the third Mickey cartoon produced, it was the first to find a distributor and thus is considered by The Disney Company as Mickey's debut. Mickey Mouse went on to appear in over 130 films, including The Band Concert (Wilfred Jackson, 1935), Brave Little Tailor (Burt Gillett, Bill Roberts, 1938), and the feature Fantasia (James Algar, a.o., 1940).

The Band Concert (Wilfred Jackson, 1935) was Mickey's official first colour film. In 1932, he first appeared animated in colour in Parade of the Award Nominees. This film strip was created for the 5th Academy Awards ceremony and was not released to the public. In the production of The Band Concert (Wilfred Jackson, 1935), the Technicolor film process was used. Here Mickey conducted the 'William Tell Overture', but the band is swept up by a tornado.

By colourising and partially redesigning Mickey, Walt Disney put Mickey back on top once again. Mickey reached new heights of popularity. Brave Little Tailor (Burt Gillett, Bill Roberts, 1938), was an adaptation of the fairy tale 'The Valiant Little Tailor', which was nominated for an Academy Award. In total, ten of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, Lend a Paw (Clyde Geronimi, 1941), won the award in 1942.


French poster postcard by Sonis, no. A 33. Image: The Walt Disney Company. Poster for Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie (Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney, 1928).


English poster postcard by Cinema. Image: Pathé Nathan / Roger Cartier / Paris Consortium Cinéma. French poster for Mickey Mouse in Mickey Laboureur/The Plowboy (Walt Disney, 1929).


French poster postcard by Sonis, no. A 27. Image: The Walt Disney Company. Poster by United Artists for Mickey Mouse in Mickey's Good Deed (Burt Gillett, 1932).


English poster postcard by Athena International, no. 334259. Image: The Walt Disney Co. Poster by United Artists for Mickey Mouse in Mickey's Nightmare (Clyde Geronimi, 1932).


Vintage poster postcard by European Greetings, no. 535517. Image: Disney. Poster by United Artists for Mickey Mouse in The Whoopee Party (Burt Gillett, Wilfred Jackson, 1932).


French poster postcard by EuroDisney, sent by mail in 1992. Image: Disney. Poster by United Artists for Mickey Mouse in Buidling a Building (David Hand, 1933).


French poster postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. BD 26. Sent by mail in 1984. Image: Walt Disney. Poster by United Artists for Mickey Mouse and Pluto in Mickey's Pal Pluto (Burt Gillett, 1933).

A body of circles

Mickey Mouse's original design strongly resembled Oswald the Rabbit. Ub Iwerks designed Mickey's body out of circles (distinctly, the ears) to make the character easy to animate. Over the years, Mickey's appearance changed considerably. Pretty soon, Disney managed to give Mickey a friendlier face. In the oldest comics, Mickey wears red shorts with big buttons. In later versions, he dresses ‘normally’. Furthermore, he wears gloves that he never takes off.

In the 1930s, animator Fred Moore tried giving Mickey's body more of a pear shape to increase his acting range. Walt Disney liked this adaptation and declared, "That's the way I want Mickey to be drawn from now on." Mickey's character also changed quite a lot. In the first stories, he is predominantly a wanton little fellow who often plays strange pranks. Later, Mickey becomes much more serious and also quite sensible. Mickey is often the one who knows the right solution in difficult situations.

Mickey generally appears alongside his steady girlfriend Minnie Mouse, and his friends Donald Duck and Goofy. Remarkably, his pet dog Pluto behaves completely animal-like in every way, being the only one of the regular characters in the Mickey Mouse stories. Together, Mickey, Donald Duck, and Goofy would go on several adventures. Several of the films by the comic trio are some of Mickey's most critically acclaimed films.

These included Mickey's Fire Brigade (Ben Sharpsteen, 1935), Moose Hunters (Ben Sharpsteen, 1937), Clock Cleaners (Ben Sharpsteen, 1937), Lonesome Ghosts (Burt Gillett, 1937), Boat Builders (Ben Sharpsteen, 1938), and Mickey's Trailer (Ben Sharpsteen, 1938). In 1939, Mickey appeared in Mickey's Surprise Party (Hamilton Luske, 1939), along with Minnie, with a new design, which included pupils. Later on, in 1940, the character appeared in his first feature-length film, Fantasia (James Algar, a.o., 1940).

Fantasia (James Algar, a.o., 1940) used the redesigned version of Mickey with the pupils. His screen role as The Sorcerer's Apprentice set to the symphonic poem of the same name by Paul Dukas, is perhaps the most famous segment of the film and one of Mickey's most iconic roles. The apprentice (Mickey), not willing to do his chores, puts on the sorcerer's magic hat after the sorcerer goes to bed and casts a spell on a broom, which causes the broom to come to life and perform the most tiring chore—filling up a deep well using two buckets of water. When the well eventually overflows, Mickey finds himself unable to control the broom, leading to a near-flood. After the segment ends, Mickey is seen in silhouette shaking hands with conductor Leopold Stokowski. Mickey has often been pictured in the red robe and blue sorcerer's hat in merchandising.


English poster postcard by Athena International, no. 334277. Image: The Walt Disney Co. Poster for Mickey Mouse in Tugboat Mickey (Clyde Geronimi, 1940).


American poster postcard by Classico San Francisco Inc., no. 511-068. Image: The Walt Disney Company. Poster by RKO Radio Pictures for Mickey Mouse in Symphony Hour (Burt Gillett, 1942).


French postcard by Allain. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice in Fantasia (James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940).


French postcard in the series The Wonderful World of Walt Disney by Editions Kroma, Caissargues, no. 5. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice in Fantasia (James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940).


American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 328-008. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice in Fantasia (James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940).


American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 328-009. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice in Fantasia (James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940).


American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 328-0. Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice in Fantasia (James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940).


South Korean postcard by Disney Enterprises Inc, 2014. Image from 'The Art of Disney: The Golden Age (1937-1961)'. Sketch for Fantasia (James Algar, a.o., 1940).

Generation Mickey

Since 1930, Mickey Mouse has been featured extensively in comic strips and comic books. From 13 January 1930 to 29 July 1995, Mickey Mouse existed as a newspaper comic strip, published in numerous countries around the world. After 1940, Mickey's popularity declined until his 1955 re-emergence as a daily children's television personality.

Despite this, the character continued to appear regularly in animated shorts until 1943 (winning his only competitive Academy Award—with canine companion Pluto — for the short subject Lend a Paw) and again from 1946 to 1952. In these later cartoons, Mickey was often just a supporting character in his shorts. Pluto was instead used as the main character.

The character was featured in television series such as The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–1996). The last regular installment of the Mickey Mouse film series came in 1953 with The Simple Things in which Mickey and Pluto go fishing and are pestered by a flock of seagulls. A fan club for Mickey Mouse was founded in the 1960s, which is unprecedentedly popular and has thousands of members worldwide.

Mickey returned to theatrical animation with Mickey's Christmas Carol (Burny Mattinson, 1983) an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' in which Mickey played Bob Cratchit. This was followed up with The Prince and the Pauper (George Scribner, 1990). His most recent theatrical cartoon short was Get a Horse! (Lauren MacMullan, 2013) which was preceded by Runaway Brain (Chris Bailey, 1995).

From 1999 to 2004, he appeared in direct-to-video features like Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (Jun Falkenstein, a.o., 1999), Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (Donovan Cook, 2004) and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (Theresa Cullen, a.o., 2004). Mickey also appears in media such as video games as well as merchandising and is a meetable character at the Disney parks. He is one of the world's most recognisable and universally acclaimed fictional characters. In 1978, Mickey Mouse became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


British postcard by The Art Group Ltd., no. 8780. Image: Disney. Original sketch of Mickey Mouse from On Ice (Ben Sharpsteen, 1935).


British postcard by The Art Group Ltd., no. 8262. Image: Disney. Original story sketch of Mickey Mouse and Pluto from Pluto's Purchase (Charles Nichols, Jack Kinney, 1948).


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. BD 16. Image: Walt Disney. Caption: Mickey Mouse 1937. Mickey Mouse Magazine, May 1937, Vol. 2, no. 8.


American postcard by The OSP Line - Lawson Mardon Post Card, Sparks, NV, no. HSC-614 (PC 709). Image: The Walt Disney Company. Caption: Mickey Filmography.


American postcard by Lawson Mardon Post Card, Sparks, NV / The O.S.P. Line, no. HSC-615 (PC 709). Image: The Walt Disney Company. Caption: Memories of Mickey. Generation Mickey.


Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti srl, Verona, no. 133/4. Illustration: Walt Disney Productions. Film image of Mickey's Christmas Carol (Burny Mattinson, 1983). Sent by mail in 1988.


French collector card by Chocolat Poulain, Blois, series 42, no. 23. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Caption: Disney Channel.


Vintage postcard by Animated Animations Company / Edition Size, no. 500. Image: Walt Disney Animation Art. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy in The Three Musketeers (Donovan Cook, 2004).


Vintage postcard by Animated Animations Company / Edition Size, no. 2000. Image: Walt Disney Animation Art. Postcard to promote a limited sericel of Mickey and Minnie as Romeo and Juliet.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and Dutch) and IMDb.