Domino Petacchi played by Kim Basinger in 1983’s Never Say Never
Again
The 1983 movie Never Say Never Again is not considered an “official”
James Bond film, because it did not originate from EON Productions and
United Artists. It was originally supposed to be released in competition
with the official Bond film Octopussy, but the two were released at
different times in 1983, and both were successful at the box office.
In Never Say Never Again, Kim Basinger plays the part of the bad
guy’s girlfriend, Domino Petacchi, who falls in love with Bond, played
in this movie by Sean Connery, who had not played Bond since the movie
Diamonds are Forever in 1971.
Basinger started out her career in the public eye as a beauty queen
and a model for Ford in New York. In the early 1970s she was perhaps the
most famous of the Breck Shampoo Girls, appearing on the bottles. In
addition to ads, she also appeared on a number of magazine covers.
By 1976, however, she was ready to move to Los Angeles and pursue an
acting career. After a number of television roles, she made her feature
film debut in 1981’s Hard Country. But it was 1983’s Never Say Never
Again that made her famous. That same year she did a photo shoot for
Playboy, which she said led to good opportunities, like 1984’s The
Natural, with Robert Redford. For that movie she earned a Golden Globe
nomination as Best Supporting Actress.
After her breakout role as Bond Girl Domino Petacchi, Basinger went
on to numerous film roles, eventually marrying (and later divorcing)
actor Alec Baldwin, with whom she co-starred in 1990’s The Marrying Man.
She won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild
Award in 1997 for her role as Lynn Bracken in L.A. Confidential. Since
then she has steadily appeared in films at the rate of one or two per
year, most notably as the mother of Eminem’s character in 2002’s 8 Mile.
