The assistant was the unnamed assistant/secretary to Karl Stromberg and a supporting character in 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. Portrayed by British actress Marilyn Galsworthy, the character also appeared in in Christopher Wood's accompanying novelization and was given the name Kate Chapman.
Biography[]
The Spy Who Loved Me (film)[]
In the film, Karl Stromberg is meeting with a pair of scientists, Dr. Bechmann and Professor Markovitz. Both invented a secret submarine tracking system and Stromberg summoned them to tell them that they had been paid. However, Stromberg knows that someone has been trying to sell the plans to competing world powers and that only someone close to the project could have done so. He suspects his assistant. At the moment, the assistant is in the room, taking notes on the meeting for her boss but Stromberg requests her to leave the dining room. The assistant enters the elevator but Stromberg presses a button which makes the floor give way, and she falls into a sea, while Stromberg says that it was her who betrayed him, selling out his information and she is going to pay the penalty. The shark swims after her and the poor girl is eaten by it, screaming with agonizing pain. This leaves a lasting impression on Bechmann and Markovitz who are forced to watch this, and shows Stromberg's cruelty doesn't hesitate to mercilessly end a beautiful young woman's life for a treachery.
Later, when James Bond poses as marine biologist Robert Sterling to meet with Stromberg, he notices one of the assistant's chewed-off hands at the bottom of a fish tank.
Alternate continuities[]
James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me[]
In the novel, her name is Kate Chapman. She is a tall and slim young brunette in her mid-late 20's who is working as a discreet secretary for Stromberg. However, she sold her boss's film on the black market for her own profit and her boss decides to make her pay a terrible price for this.
While she is quietly taking notes for her boss during his meeting with Professor Markovitz and Dr. Bechmann, wearing a black dress with a little white collar, she is asked by Stromberg to go to a secret room which is supposed to contain a safe. The secretary promptly obeys the order and goes to the room. However, the room is totally empty. Confused, Kate is then startled when she gets locked in it by the door behind her in a loud noise. Thinking of a technical problem, she tries to push a button but nothing happens, making her become nervous. Kate begins to worry a little bit for herself when the wall in front of her starts to slowly rise. She is then astonished to be put face to face with an enormous glass wall with tons of water and fishes behind it and starts to panic, thinking that the glass could possibly break on her. While having a really bad feeling about the situation, she tries to calm herself, thinking her boss would not take her to a dangerous place. She wonders what is happening and where she could be, trying to believe that she is worrying for nothing, Kate determines that it had to be a simple mistake, she just has to stay calm.
After taking a deep breathe, she scrutinizes the room, looking for any exit button or emergency system when suddenly, Kate suddenly distinguishes a really big shadow approaching amongst the fishes. Disconcerted, Kate is trying to figure out what it is while the thing is getting closer. Its not long till she realizes it is a large shark. Kate starts to panic. The shark is now getting closer and is violently hitting the glass with its nose, making her yell even more. She then trips and falls back and begins to stare at the shark, wondering what she could do to avoid it. The monstrous fish still keeps hitting on the glass again and again while Kate is loosing options to figure out a suitable plan for escape.
The glass suddenly starts to crack in a big noise, startling Kate and causing her to scream once more, which then also causes her to hear something else in the background.
A loudspeaker then activates. For a second, Chapman briefly assumes that it is someone to save her, but unfortunately its Stromberg's voice telling his secretary that she is going to pay the highest penalty for what she did with the film. Completely shocked and betrayed, Kate screams words of apology and asks her boss to spare her life. Stromberg then sadistically denies everything she says and decides to not give her a second chance. Finally Kate stops begging to be freed and decides to figure a way out herself, despite the water already reaching at a dangerous level. Cursing at Stromberg for what he's doing to her because of what she did with the film, the girl still tries to stay above, but the water quickly rises above her, which then follows the shark plunging to kill her. Kate decides to just swim as fast as she can, unfortunately to her surprise the shark ends up catching up to her quicker than she expected,
In the other room, Stromberg and his two shocked associates are cruelly looking at Miss Chapman's demise on-screen. The shark ended up biting the girl's leg causing her to be pulled under and seemingly in extreme agony, Kate attempts to push away the animal's head away as a last attempt for freedom. They are still seen to witness this disturbing act without any form empathy until Kate finally perishes.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The assistant has no lines (she did cry out for help in some versions) in the film.
- She is similar to Helga Brandt in You Only Live Twice.
- They both are beautiful assistants to a villain (Stromberg for the assistant/Osato for Helga).
- They both fed to carnivious animals (the assistant was fed to a shark/Brandt was fed to pirahnas).