Detailed Biography

Barbara Carrera is a Nicaraguan-born American film and TV actress as well as a former model. She is known for her roles as Bond girl Fatima Blush in Never Say Never Again and Angelica Nero on the television series Dallas.

Biography

Early life

Carrera was born Barbara Kingsbury in San Carlos, Nicaragua. Her mother, Dona Florencia, was a Nicaraguan of European and Native ancestry, and her father, Louis Kingsbury, was a U.S. employee of the American embassy in Nicaragua. There is some uncertainty regarding her year of birth, which some sources give as 1947 or 1951, but most list 1945. She apparently prefers to say 1953. Carrera came to the U.S. at age ten and studied at the St. Joseph Academy in Memphis. She moved to New York at the age of fifteen.

Career

Carrera began a career as a model at the Eileen Ford agency at the age of 17, at which point she changed her last name to her mother's maiden name, Carrera. In 1972, she appeared on the screen in a publicity role for the Chiquita bananas. Her first film role was as a fashion model in Puzzle of a Downfall Child , which fared poorly at the box office. In 1976 she earned her first Golden Globe nomination for her role in The Master Gunfighter. She later played in such films as The Island of Dr. Moreau, Lone Wolf McQuade, Condorman, Point of Impact, Tryst, and Embryo. For her portrayal of the villainess Fatima Blush in the James Bond movie Never Say Never Again, she earned a 1984 Golden Globe nomination for "Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture". She worked opposite Laurence Olivier in Wild Geese II the next year.

On the television screen, she played a part in the series Dallas as Angelica Nero, and, more prominently, in the historical television miniseries Centennial in 1978 and Masada in 1981. These roles brought her to the mainstream attention of American audiences. She also starred as Emma Coe Forsayth in the TV miniseries Emma, Queen of the South Seas.

Carrera has appeared on the pages and covers of such magazines as Vogue, Paris Match, Harper's Bazaar, and twice posed nude in Playboy . She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in The Master Gunfighter in 1975. In 1997 she was appointed ambassador-at-large for Nicaragua by then President Arnoldo Alemán. She is also an artist and her work has been showcased in the Makk Galleries in Beverly Hills in California since the 1980s, and the Roy Miles Gallery in London, England. In May 2002 her work was exhibited at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum and have typically been sold for up to $8,000.

Personal life

Carrera has married model Uva Harden, Baron Otto von Hoffman, Greek shipowner Nicholas Mavroleon by his 2nd wife Gioconda de Gallardo y Castro), and photographer Cameron Docherty. She has no children.