Margaret Nolan Biography

Margaret Nolan (born 29 October 1943) is an English visual artist, actress and former glamour model. She was born in Hampstead, London to Irish parents. Nolan was married to English playwright Tom Kempinski in 1963 and divorced in 1972. She has two sons.

Early career

Margaret Nolan began her career in front of a camera lens as a model. As her glamour modelling career took off, she was briefly known as Vicky Kennedy in the early 1960s. Nolan reverted to her birth name as soon as acting roles beckoned; appearing in numerous television shows, theatre productions and movies. The latter included A Hard Day's Night with the Beatles, Ferry Cross the Mersey with Gerry and the Pacemakers and Marcel Carn's Three Rooms in Manhattan.

Goldfinger

In 1964, Nolan played the small role of Dink, Bond's masseuse, in the James Bond film Goldfinger. She was painted gold and wore a gold bikini for Robert Brownjohn's title-sequence, advertisements and soundtrack-cover (not Shirley Eaton as in the narrative of the film). This led to photographs in Playboy magazine's James Bond's Girls edition of November 1965. In the 1971 film Carry On At Your Convenience, composer Eric Rogers referenced Nolan's Goldfinger affiliation by using its three-note motif on a close-up of her. Nolan appeared on the front cover of both the US and UK versions of the 2005 book Robert Brownjohn: Sex and Typography. The title-sequence was also parodied by the pop-band Scissor Sisters for their 2006 music-video Land of a Thousand Words. In 2012, Nolan gave her first interview concerning her experiences as the model. Asked if the imagery liberates or celebrates womanhood, Nolan responded that

It does celebrate the physical form. If I'd been nude it might have been about liberation because up to that point you wouldn't have seen a nude woman in a publicly visible thing like that. I could have been very pretentious and said this is liberating. But because I was dressed-up anyway I didn't get that sense.

It became the first film-title to be shown in installation at MoMA, New York (2012).

Acting career

On appearing in Michael Pertwee's 1969 farce She's Done It Again at London's Garrick Theatre, Nolan was described as combining '...a long list of physical attractions with a talent that has contributed to the success of many films and television plays...' She was known for five BBC series with Spike Milligan and in 2013 published a short essay on her time working with him. Nolan gave a live reading of the work at the Poetry Society in Covent Garden, reviewed by What's On London as a "deeply-personal memoir... her performance simply magical." She spoke of her awareness of Milligan's depressive character but also of their friendly working relationship; noting that "Professionally, he taught me that timing is what makes things funny. Timing is crucial..." Nolan was given bigger roles in several 1970s Carry On films - and most sizably Carry On Girls. The scene in Carry On Girls where a woman in a one-piece swim suit sneezes and bursts open two buttons on her outfit (revealing most of her breasts) is Nolan. The same film contains the sequence of Nolan (in a silver bikini) and Barbara Windsor cat-fighting on a hotel floor.

Nolan also appeared in serious theatre, motivated by political themes, and in one of the first episodes of the television police drama The Sweeney. In 2011, Nolan's work as a comedy actor was recognised with her name included on Gordon Young's Comedy Carpet installation in front of Blackpool Tower. Also in 2011, Nolan returned to the screen after a gap of nearly three decades. She starred in a role especially written for her by Ann Cameron, in Yvonne Deutschman's The Power of Three. The film was set in Hampstead, and well-received on the independent circuit with a 7.2 rating on IMDb.

Art career

As a visual artist, Margaret Nolan produces graphic and sometimes grotesque photo-montages assembled from cut-outs of her early publicity photographs. These pieces concern "a unique and personal dialogue intrinsically related to a view of a woman and how a woman is viewed." She has exhibited in London at venues including the Brick Lane Gallery (2009), The Misty Moon Gallery (2013) and Gallery Different (2013), whilst a screen-print is held by Kemistry Gallery.

In 2009, early publicity shots of Nolan inspired screen-prints by Brighton-based graffiti artist Hutch. Nolan's work in photo-montage was also selected for the front cover of Playerist literary magazine (No. 2, 2012). In 2013, her artworks featured in the group show equals: exploring feminism through art and conversation at BLANKSPACE Manchester; the press release quoting that "Her voice carries alongside universal debate on socio-sexual hierarchies in the age of mass media." Nolan lives and works in her home town of Hampstead, continues to exhibit, and occasionally attends conventions for film fans.

Television appearances

• The Saint - "Iris" (1963)
• Crossroads (1964)
• ITV Play of the Week - "Deep and Crisp and Stolen" (1964)
• 199 Park Lane (1965)
• After Many a Summer (1965)
• Danger Man - "Parallel Lines Sometimes Meet" (1965)
• The Bed-Sit Girl (1966)
• Thirty-Minute Theatre - "The Enchanted Night" (1966)
• World of Wooster (1966)
• Adam Adamant Lives! - "More Deadly than the Sword" (1966)
• Buddenbrooks (1966)
• Hugh and I - "Goodbye Dolly" (1966)
• Theatre 625 - "A Man Like That" (1966)
• The Newcomers (1966)
• Take a Pair of Private Eyes (3 episodes) (1966)
• Armchair Theatre - "Compensation Alice" (1967)
• The Des O'Connor Show (1967)
• The Wednesday Play - "Death of a Private" (1967)
• The Morecambe and Wise Show (ATV) (1967)
• Nearest and Dearest - "Take a Letter" (1968)
• The World of Beachcomber (2 episodes) (1969)
• The Adventures of Don Quick - "The Benefits of Earth" (1970)
• Budgie - "Everybody loves a Baby" (1971)
  "Brief Encounter" (1972)
  "Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run, Run, Run" (1972)
• Steptoe and Son - "A Star is Born" (1972)
• The Persuaders! - "Element of Risk" (1972)
• New Scotland Yard (1 episode) (1972)
• Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? - "I'll Never Forget Whatshername" (1973)
• Last of the Summer Wine - "Pate and Chips" (1973)
• Black and Blue - "The Middle-of-the-Road Roadshow for all the Family" (1973)
• Crown Court - "A Crime of Passion" (1973)
• The Sweeney - "Thin Ice" (1975)
• I Didn't Know You Cared - "The Way My Wife Looks at Me..." (1976)
• Fox (3 episodes) (1980)
• Brideshead Revisited (1981)
• Crown Court- "Sword in the Hand of David" (1983)
• Carry On Forever (ITV3) (2015) Herself (not to be confused with the 1970 BBC Film Night Special of the same name)

Film appearances

• It's a Bare, Bare World! (1964) as Vicki
• Saturday Night Out (1964) as Julie
• A Hard Day's Night (1964) as Girl at Casino
• The Beauty Jungle (1964) as Caroline
• Goldfinger (1964) as Dink, Bond's masseuse
• Ferry Cross the Mersey (1965) as Norah
• Three Rooms in Manhattan (1965) as June
• Promise Her Anything (1965) as Mail-Order Film Girl
• Carry On Cowboy (1965) as Miss Jones the President's secretary
• The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966) as Susie Naphill
• Witchfinder General (1968) as Girl at Inn
• Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River (1968) as Spink's nurse
• Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969) as Little Assistance
• Crooks and Coronets (1969) as Girlfriend
• The Best House in London (1969) as Busty Prostitute
• Toomorrow (1970) as Johnson
• Carry On Henry (1971) as Buxom Lass
• Carry On at Your Convenience (1971) as Popsy
• Carry On Matron (1972) as Mrs. Tucker
• No Sex Please, We're British (1973) as Barbara
• Carry On Girls (1973) as Dawn Brakes
• Carry On Dick (1974) as Lady Daley
• Sky Bandits (1986) as Waitress
• The Power of Three (2011) as Dame Margaret