Trina Parks

Trina Parks was the first African American Bond Girl. Trina started in the dance world, but became a Hollywood actress and is still acting today. Trina has starred in a multitude of films such as Diamonds Are Forever in 1971, Darktown Strutters in 1975 and a ton of more films.

Early life

Trina Parks was born in 1946 in Brooklyn, New York City. Her parents where Charles Henry and Tennel Fun Frazier. Her parents met in their shared neighborhood of the prestigious Sugar Hill in Harlem, New York. Trina's mother was an interior decorator and her father was the lead Tenor saxophonist for the Cab Calloway Band. Trina's mother unfortunately passed away when she was younger. Her father was always out with the band on tour so this led Trina to spend a lot of time with her grandmother and aunt. Trina Parks went to high school at the Manhattan School of Performing Arts. Initially, Trina wanted to audition for the Ballet department because she was dancing Ballet since she was six years old. Trina graduated high school in 1964. Trina then began her career after high school. Her first job was dancing for a dance company where she was mentored by the legendary Katherine Dunham. Trina went to school at the Dunham School of dance founded by Dunham after high school. The Dunham school is where she learned African Dance and Caribbean Dance. Trina also seemed to be able to learn a little bit of Karate at the school of Modern dance which would come in very handy later on in her career.

Early career

In the late 1960s Trina Parks moved to Los Angeles hoping to make it big in Hollywood. Once arriving to Los Angeles, Trina signed up for the APA which stands for the Agency for the Performing Arts. Trina came into contact with an Agent named Marty Klein during this time. Trina's debut role in Hollywood was starring in an episode of The Night Gallery titled Phantom Farmhouse in 1971. Trina played the role of the pretty girl named Betty and her character is killed by the end of the episode. After her episode in Night Gallery, Trina's agent landed her an audition for the newest James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. Trina was quoted as saying this about her audition process for Diamonds Are Forever when she was interviewed by Craig Belcher for Richmond magazine. "The producers (of the film) called the agency; they wanted an actor who danced but also knew karate. So, of course my agent knew that I danced, but he wasn't sure if I knew karate. The reason I know it is I studied karate with [famed choreographer] Katherine Dunham.' The agent said, 'They would like to see you for this role.' I didn't know who Sean Connery was at the time. I kind of knew about the James Bond thing, I was from the dance, theatre world, and that was more so my world than film." Trina did well on the audition and landed the role of Femme Fatale Thumper in Diamonds Are Forever.

Trina Park's Bond character, Thumper: Thumper was an operative in the criminal organization known as SPECTRE. She was hired by Ernst Blofeld to keep reclusive billionaire Willard Whyte imprisoned in his mansion. When James is tasked to rescue Willard in the movie he runs into Thumper and her partner Bambi, who are both tasked to kill James and keep Willard imprisoned no matter what. An action sequence then breaks out where both woman initiate combat against James. Thumper kicks James Bond in the crotch, which became Thumper's most well known moment in the fandom. The action really picks up when both woman throw James in the mansion's balcony pool and try to drown him. James overtakes both women and holds them both under water. A team of authority men then find James and asks him if he knows where Willard White is. He allows both women to come for air and holding their heads, says "Still haven't found out" and then puts them back under. Eventually, Thumper is able to swim away from James. Gasping for air, she points down to the lower level, admitting that White is down there. James and the authority men then go down there and that is the last we see of Thumper in Diamonds are Forever. The audience can infer a multitude of scenarios to happen to her character after the scene. Did she get taken to jail? Maybe. Did Ernst Blofeld find her and kill her for failing him? Maybe, because the audience doesn't see it, her fate is unknown. Trina Park's performance in this entire scene is remarkable and you can really see her dance experience in all of the acrobatic stunts she pulls. Trina's scene was filmed at the Elrod House in Palm Springs and it took two weeks to shoot her scene with Sean Connery. When Trina was asked if she enjoyed working with Sean by Kimberly Linbergs an interviewer for Cinebeats she was quoted as saying "Of course I enjoyed working with Sean. He was quite nice to work with. Very patient and no airs about him". Trina clearly enjoyed working on Diamonds Are Forever and there is no wonder as to why, she gave an iconic performance.

Darktown Strutters: Trina's next role would be the leading role in Darktown Strutters in 1975. Trina Parks played the role of Syreena in this film who is the leader of an all African American female motorcycle gang known as the Darktown Strutters. Syreena must discover the disappearance of her mother, Cinderella and a series of wild complications ensue. When asked by Kimberly Lindbergs about her work on Dark Strutters, Trina Parks had this to say "Through my agent Marty Klein, at APA who became head (C.E.O) of the agency. I also did some testing before I was actually cast. I had been performing in off-Broadway and Broadway shows since 1964 with well-known established actors. In that time, even though I was dancing and singing in the shows, I learned from the actors I worked with because I studied them closely during rehearsals and performances. I believe I might have learned more in those years of performing with these actors than I actually learned in acting school. Through my dancing I have always acted just not spoken, so all I had to do was accentuate the voice with the feeling and attitude of the character." Trina was asked by Kimberly if she was already a motorcyclist before filming to which Trina replied "Well as far as me being a motorcyclist, no! I sure was not and I had to train ride and steer that machine. I believe I was in motorcycle training for a week. It was scary at first but I was assured I would not have to do any wheelies. That was the stunt man's job. But I was going to be filmed a few times driving it myself and sometimes I was pulled by a pulley with the camera above me." Trina in this performance once again proved to herself, and to anyone else that she is capable of doing anything.

Trina Parks 1976-2000: In 1976 Trina landed another job playing the role of Marcie in The Muthers. The film is about women trapped in a prison compound. In the film, the main characters Kelly and Angie recruit Marcie (Trina Parks), and Montiero's mistress Serena to format a rebellion and escape the compound.

In 1980 Trina starred in the Blues Brothers alongside icons such as Chaka Khan and Aretha Franklin. Her role was smaller, she dances in the James Brown scene featured in the film.

For the rest of the 80's, 90's and 2000's Trina Parks took an acting hiatus. In 2002 she was featured in a documentary titled Bond Girls Are Forever. The documentary mainly talks about all of the great feats The Bond Girls acheived. Trina is mentioned as the first ever African American woman to be featured in a James Bond film. The documentary then briefly mentions Halle Barry who played Jynx in Die Another Day. Halle played Bond's love interest in the film where as Trina played an enemy of bond. The point of this segment of the documentary was to show how far the films have come when it comes to women of color.

Trina Parks 2010-Present Day:

In 2010 Trina starred in Machete Maidens: Unleashed! This was a documentary describing all of the crazy scenes 70s films shot in the Philippines and Vietnam had to film with no sense of regulations and safety. Trina is featured in the film talking about her experience working on The Muthers. She also talked about how she had to actually kick Sean Connery in the groin when filming her famous scene in Diamonds Are Forever.

Trina Parks landed another acting job in a film known as Immortal Kiss: Queen of The Night in 2012. The film is about a middle aged Vampire Queen who needs to find her perfect mate/slave. Trina Parks plays the Vampire Queen where she invites 5 very different black men to her Malibu mansion. She invites a writer, a criminal, an athlete, a model and a composer. Her goal is to choose one to be her eternal mate and to feed on the rest. Although the film did not get the best reviews, it still has a small fan base.

In 2013 Trina made a quick appearance in the Disney Channel TV show Liv and Maddie as a patron in a Senior Home. Trina starred in the episode Dodge-A-Rooney in Season 1 episode 7 of the show. Trina's character is unnamed but she is on Maddie's team in a dodgeball fight scene. Even though Trina has aged a little bit since 1971, she can still move and played dodgeball in the scene. There is even a part in the scene where she blocks the balls coming at her with a purse. The scene ends with Maddie hitting a ball out a window with a walker. Trina's character looks shocked at what Maddie just did, and then leads the people on her side of the room out of the scene.

Trina's most recent acting job was in a film titled 111 The Force which as an alternative title known as The 111 Experience. This was film is an indie film and was released in 2020. Trina stars as Joy Morris the wife of Jimmy Morris who is the main character. The plot of the film is 5 NYPD Detectives defuse tensions within the five borough's extraterrestrial residents.

References

This article "Trina Parks" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Trina Parks. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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