Tomb raider Lara Croft remains iconic enigma

LOS ANGELES -- Lara Croft, the ponytailed adventurer with the bombshell figure and short-shorts strapped with 9 mm handguns, is too busy for love.

The aristocratic British brunette's life has inspired six "Tomb Raider" video games and two films starring pouty-lipped actress Angelina Jolie, including the new sequel "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider -- The Cradle of Life." And her likeness has been emblazoned on calendars, comic books and action figures. She even joined U2 on tour, firing pistols on a giant screen during the song "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me."

But romance?

That has eluded her -- not that she's looking.

"She never found the man who could match up to her, she's a far too busy girl," said Adrian Smith, a sort of surrogate father to Croft. As operations director of British-based Core Design, Smith first introduced her to the world in 1996 with the original "Tomb Raider" game.

Croft is also far too busy to grant The Associated Press an interview for this story.

But those who know Croft best describe the virtual superwoman as quite human.

"She's not overly emotional, but she cares about her friends and has feelings," said Jolie. "She's just a really solid woman. She's tough. She's strong. But I don't think she's cold. I mean, if you happened to meet her and you were a good person, she'd be your friend."

Risky venture

Jolie said playing the role originally felt like a risky venture, since Croft was already so well-known when the first movie came out in 2001. "The reason they asked me to do it was because they thought we had things in common, a wild side and sense of freedom and adventure," she said.

Croft has demonstrated a wealth of passion in her life -- fitting for someone born on Valentine's Day -- but she has directed it mainly toward things long dead or forgotten: ancient tombs, lost temples, mystical relics.

"She's definitely searching," said Jan de Bont, director of "The Cradle of Life," who said he wanted the movie to showcase her little-seen vulnerabilities. "Some of that may be her character, that coldness we see. She's looking for something that she has lost. I think she's looking for part of her heart and part of her soul that has been lost somewhere."

So what happened to her?

The daughter of Lord Henshingly and Lady Andrea Croft was raised amid privilege at the ancestral Croft mansion in Surrey, England, and attended the exclusive Gordonstoun Boarding School in Scotland, where she shunned team sports in favor of solo activities like swimming, rock climbing, horse riding and archery. While attending finishing school in Switzerland, the young Croft honed her weaponry skills by charming her way onto a nearby Swiss Armed Forces training range.

The men she has flirted with over the years have shown warlike tendencies, like the telekinetic blade-thrower Kurtis Trent or the military mercenary Terry Sheridan.

Is that her kind of man?

Game designer Smith says she has little in common with such men apart from the opposites-attract dynamic between "brains and brawn."

Conflicting stories

Croft has managed to keep some parts of her life secret, while simultaneously courting public attention across so many mediums.

For instance, we know her body measurements -- 34D-24-35 -- but not her age. Other bits of trivia are common knowledge. "Her biggest fears are her auntie's corgis -- you know, the little dogs -- which had bitten her on lots of different occasions," Smith said.

But what about the great tragedies in her life? There are too many conflicting stories to know for sure.

What really happened that time she was missing and presumed dead in Egypt? Who murdered her mentor-turned-rival Werner Von Croy, chronicled in the recent "Tomb Raider" game "The Angel of Darkness"? And what led to the Himalayan plane crash she survived in her early 20s or late teens, which killed members of her family and, it is rumored, a young fiance?

Did her father also die in that crash, or did he disappear "in the field" while doing his own archaeological research, as the first movie "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" suggested in 2001?

Whatever the answers, Croft's shadowy background has only added to her popularity.

Although she has a reputation as a hero, some say Croft's adventuring has less to do with altruism and more to do with thrill-seeking. She has cheated death too many times to be satisfied with the quiet life.

"She's got her money, and now she's going to get her thrills out of it," said Renae Geerlings, managing editor of Top Cow publishing, which makes the "Tomb Raider" comic books.

"At the end of the day, she always does the right thing," Geerlings added. "Here and there she runs along people in trouble. That's not really her focus, but she always ends up helping them."

Some consider her a feminist icon for her brashness and independence, and her pop-culture significance has been debated in some academic circles.

Others regard her solely as a sexpot. A combination of her name and Jolie's apparently inspired one porn star's nom de guerre -- Angelina Croft. And while the real Lara Croft has never posed nude, the Internet is full of saucy, unauthorized images of the adventurer.

Does that bother her?

The question exasperates game creator Smith.

"She's not prudish in any way, shape or form," he said. "Maybe me as her father-type figure would say, 'Absolutely no way. Hell will freeze over first.' But that would just make her rebel more and do it."