Happy 86th birthday, Luciana Paluzzi

Luciana Paluzzi and Sean Connery during the filming of Thunderball

Today, June 10, is the 86th birthday for actress Luciana Paluzzi. She is perhaps best known for playing Fiona Volpe, the femme fatale in Thunderball. But she performed in spy-related entertainment before that.

—Five Fingers: A short-lived 1959-60 television series where she co-starred with David Hedison.

–The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: Paluzzi played Angela, a femme fatale that, essentially, was a warmup for her Thunderball part. She filmed her scenes in early 1964. The intent was to expand the show’s pilot into a movie for international distribution.

There are two versions of those scenes. The first is To Trap a Spy, the aforementioned movie version. It’s in color and sexier. The other is The Four-Steps Affair, an episode of U.N.C.L.E.’s first season, which was in black and white and not as sexy. A new story was devised around the Paluzzi footage.

Post-Thunderball, there were other moments.

–The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.: Paluzzi played a sympathetic character in the show’s first episode, The Dog-Gone Affair.

–Hawaii Five-O: Near the end of her acting career, Paluzzi played an Italian journalist causing problems for Steve McGarrett amid an international crisis in a 1978 episode. Paluzzi had earlier acted with star Jack Lord in a 1966 episode of 12 O’Clock High.

UPDATE: A Paluzzi credit I forgot — The 1966 MGM movie The Venetian Affair, starring Robert Vaughn, with a cast that also included Elke Sommer, Boris Karloff, Roger C. Carmel and Edward Asner.