TRINA PARKS: THE GIRL WHO ZAPS JAMES BOND.


TRINA PARKS: THE GIRL WHO ZAPS JAMES BOND.

Ebony, Mar1972, Vol. 27 Issue 5, p68-74
Trina grew up in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant ghetto (her mother died years ago; her father. Chuck Frazier, is a musician who played saxophone and flute with Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington) and made her professional debut in 1964 as a dancer with the Katherine Dunham Kevue. She followed the Broadway and off-Broadway theater route while working up a nightclub act as a singer.

She was in Las Vegas singing in the Flamingo Hotel Lounge when she heard that the Diamonds crew was in town looking for a girl to do a wild scene with actor Sean Connery. "I didn't know what kind of 'wild scene' they were talking about," Trina laughs, "but I decided to go over and check it out anyway." She got the part—one which teams her with stunt actress Donna Carratt as bodyguards of a recluse millionaire. In a spectacular scene, the girls employ some well-placed kicks and blows to pummel Bond from the living room to the swimming pool of the millionaire’s home. To film the scene, Trina was given a two-week leave of absence from the Flamingo Lounge. "James Rond only comes into a girl's life once—if she's lucky, so I just had to have that leave," she says. Rehearsal and filming of her fight sequence was not unlike a dance performance. "Just about everything was choreographed in detail by stunt producer Paul Baxley," Trina says.

"And I hope." she says, "that the industry doesn't start typing me as that kind of actress . . . you know, the superphysical type with not many lines to say. I’m interested in being an actress, not a stunt girl."

If she accomplishes that, Trina would be a "triple threat" — actress, dancer and singer. "Wonder if I can make it really big in all three fields . . . big hit records, good film roles, top club dates, even concerts?" asks Trina with all the bubbliness of a little girl who's just been handed three super-swell toys.


Diamonds is Trina’s fifth movie following earlier small roles in The Great White Hope, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Night Gallery and Deux Anges Sont Venus, a film she made in Paris while on tour with the Dunham troupe. Her theater work has included roles in Emperor Jones, House of Flowers, Her First Roman and The Prodigal Son. She also has appeared on a number of TV programs, including The Dean Martin Show, Hollywood Palace and the Dionne Warwicke Special.

Two forthcoming black-oriented films may provide important showcases for Trina’s talent as an actress. They are the sequels to Shaft and Cotton Comes to Harlem, both of which are being filmed in New York. Trina has talked with Shaft director Gordon Parks and with Cotton star Raymond St. Jacques and she says, "I asked them to consider only one thing—that I be given a chance to show that I'm not a deaf-mute . . . that I can handle a major speaking role." St. Jacques also is considering Trina for a role in The Book of Numbers, a film he will produce and direct and in which he will star.

It seems that Trina Parks is on her way.


(Photo) Trina Parks, who plays "Thumper," a bikini-clad bodyguard of a multi-millionaire recluse, in latest James Bond film, Diamonds are Forever, perches on rock in employer’s home, observes actions of Sean Connery as Agent 007.

(Photo) Bond is ever the gallant as he helps "Thumper" from her perch, but learns too late why girl has been given unusual name as he recoils (right) from her sudden attack. Trina is a dancer and singer who took leave of absence from show in Las Vegas hotel lounge for filming of role.

(Photo) "Thumper" is joined by another bodyguard, “Bambi" (Donna Garratt), for assault during which Bond is given one of worst beatings of his career. Below. he picks himself off floor to ward off new assault.

(Photo) Temporarily beaten, Bond heads for a cooling-off in swimming pool of girls’ employer’s home. But the unconquerable 007 makes comeback when girls dive into pool after him to finish their job, yet instead fall prey to agents savvy.

(Photo) TRINA Parks finishes a dance rehearsal, eases off her slippers and lets her willowy five-foot-eight body sort of melt into a position of relaxation. Wow! She sure doesn't look now like "Thumper." that kicking, karate-chopping bodyguard who helps give Agent 007 such an awful beating in the new James Bond film, Diamonds are Forever.

(Photo) In concert in New York's Carnegie Hall, Trina (l.) dances with Claudine Howard and Loretta Abbott in Sights and Sounds show. Choreographed hy Morton Winston, show also featured dancers Al Perryman, Otis Salid.

(Photo) During performance, Trina dances solo (r.) then with partner Otis Salid (below). She grew up in Brooklyn, studied dance at Brooklyn Academy of Music and at Carnegie Hall. She says fight sequence in Bond film called for movements "very much like those one uses in dance." Trina also had a part in film The Great White Hope.

(Photo) The performance ended, Tiina takes bows with other members of company. A few days later, she left for dance concerts in Bahamas. Trina has appeared in Broadway and off-Broadway shows, is now interested in developing her career in movies.

(Photo) In New York, a begoggled Trina waits for subway train. Below, she stops by apartment of actor Raymond St. Jacques to discuss possible role in sequel to film Cotton Comes to Harlem which St. Jacques was filming in Manhattan. With them is St, Jacques' son. Sterling.

(Photo) In her N. Y. apartment,

(Photo) Trina prepares tea for herself and her boyfriend, actor-model Charles Elder. They live in Los Angeles but come to New York often to work. Below, Trina, who has broken her shoe heel enroute to rehearsal, stops in shop for repair.

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