Lois Cleveland Chiles (born
April 15,
1947)
[Allmovie bio] is an
American actress and former
fashion model best known for her role as Dr. Holly Goodhead in the 1979
James Bond film
Moonraker.
Early life
Chiles was born in
Houston, Texas, the daughter of Barbara Wayne Kirkland and Marion Clay Chiles, who was the brother of oil tycoon and
Texas Rangers owner
Eddie Chiles.
[Yahoo][“If you don’t have an oil well, get one!”] She has one living sibling, brother William Edmonds Chiles, and a deceased brother, Clay Kirkland Chiles. Chiles was raised in
Alice,
Texas. She received her education at the
University of Texas at Austin and the former
Finch College in
New York City, where she was discovered by a
Glamour editor looking for a young woman to feature on the cover of the magazine's annual college issue.
[ She landed the job and soon had contracts with Wilhelmina Models in New York and Elite Models in Paris. Later, she studied acting under Roy London.]
Career
In the early 1970s, Chiles enjoyed a successful modeling career. She made her big-screen debut in Together For Days in 1972, followed by 1973's The Way We Were, in which she played opposite Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand as the college sweetheart of Redford's character. She was then cast as Jordan Baker in 1974's The Great Gatsby, alongside Mia Farrow and, again, Robert Redford. In 1978, she appeared in the film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile as the murder victim Linnet Ridgeway Doyle, and in 1979, she appeared in what is perhaps her most famous role, that of NASA astronaut, scientist, and Bond girl, Dr. Holly Goodhead opposite Roger Moore's James Bond in Moonraker. Chiles had initially been approached to star in the previous Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, but she declined the role as she was taking a break from acting at the time.[ She also appeared in a small role in the noted thriller Coma (1978), one of the many films where she played a murder victim.][Cinemorgue]
