A Bond Girl is a character or the actress portraying a love interest or sex object of James Bond in a film, novel or video game. They typically have names that are double entendres, such as "Pussy Galore" or "Plenty O'Toole."
Generally, Bond girls are victims rescued by Bond, fellow agents or allies, villainesses or members of an enemy organization, or merely eye candy that have no direct interaction with James Bond whatsoever. Other female characters such as Judi Dench's M, Rosa Klebb, Irma Bunt and Miss Moneypenny are not classified as Bond girls.
The role of a Bond girl is typically a high-profile part that can give a major boost to the career of unestablished actresses, although there have been a number of Bond girls that were well-established prior to gaining their role. For instance, Diana Rigg and Honor Blackman were both Bond girls after becoming major stars for their roles on the television series, The Avengers. Additionally, Halle Berry won an Academy Award in 2002, an award presented to her while in the midst of filming Die Another Day.
Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder, the first main Bond girl in the official films.
History
Ursula Andress is often considered the first Bond girl, playing Honey Ryder in the film Dr. No (1962). She was, however, preceded by Eunice Gayson who played the character Sylvia Trench. Trench is the only Bond girl to appear as the same character in more than one film, appearing again in From Russia with Love (1963). Initially, Trench was planned to be a regular girlfriend of Bond's in the series, but was subsequently dropped after the encore appearance.
It should be noted that Valerie Mathis was the first ever Bond girl on screen in the 1954 version of Casino Royale. She was played by Linda Christian.
Linda Christian - the very first Bond girl to appear on screen in 1954.
To date, only two Bond girls has captured the heart of James Bond. Tracy di Vicenzo played by Diana Rigg, marries Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). At film's end, Tracy Bond is gunned down by 007's nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld. It was initially planned that her death would actually occur in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), but this idea was dropped during filming of On Her Majesty's Secret Service when current-Bond George Lazenby announced he would step down from the role and the other girl is Vesper Lynd who was secretly working for Bond's enemies and shared the same fate.
Within the official series, Maud Adams is the only actress to portray a main character as two different Bond girls in two different films, starting as Andrea Anders in The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974 and again as the title character in Octopussy (1983). She additionally appears as an extra in a third Bond film, A View to a Kill in 1985. Two other girls, Martine Beswick (Thunderball) and Nadja Regin (Goldfinger) also appear in a second adventure, appearing first in From Russia with Love. Tsai Chin appeared in two Bond films as well You Only Live Twice (1967) as a Ling and later as Madame Wu in Casino Royale (2006).
In 1995 Famke Janssen, who portrayed Xenia Onatopp was considered the only major female character (and villain) whom Bond does not bed. However in 2008, lead Bond Girl Camille Montes also shows a restraint to Bond's usually forward charms.
Becoming more frequent, traditional Bond girls that have romantic trysts with Bond, are later discovered to be villainesses starting with Sophie Marceau's Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Miranda Frost played by Rosamund Pike in Die Another Day (2002).
In late 2014, it was announced that Monica Bellucci will play Lucia Sciarra in Spectre (2015). At age 50, Bellucci made record as the oldest Bond girl in the film series. Previously, Honor Blackman held record, playing Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, aged 39 in 1964. Both actresses play the unlikely role, of being a Bond girl older than James Bond.
Films
A timeline of Bond Girls (1962-2012).
Official James Bond girls
In addition to those actresses mentioned above, the Bond films traditionally have groups of women in the background whose general purpose is nothing more than eye candy: they include the sunbathing Miami beauties and Pussy Galore's Flying Circus in Goldfinger, the Thai girls at the kung fu school in The Man With the Golden Gun, Tiger Tananka's bathing beauties in You Only Live Twice, and Sheik Hossein's harem in The Spy Who Loved Me. However, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, and The Living Daylights these women were also referred to in the media as full fledge Bond girls to provide added publicity for the film through eye-catching magazine and newspaper appearances.
In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, they include Blofeld's Angels of Death. In Moonraker (1979) this included members of Hugo Drax's "master race" and a group of women encountered by Bond in the jungles of Brazil, in For Your Eyes Only (1981) many women were seen frolicking around a villain's pool, while in Octopussy (1983) they served mainly as the title character's servants and guards. In A View to A Kill (1985) they adorned Max Zorin's outdoor reception and in The Living Daylights (1987) they served as decorations at the villain's swimming pool and later Bond overpasses a harem in Tangiers. Although the Bond films haven't stopped making use of feminine "eye candy" completely, such large "Bond girl groups" have not featured again since The Living Daylights.
Group Galleries
.jpg "Pussy Galore's Pilots (Promotional Still 2).jpg (120 KB)")
Novels
Ian Fleming
Mary Goodnight was a supporting character in several Bond novels before graduating to full Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun. The short stories "Quantum of Solace", "The Living Daylights" and "The Property of a Lady" feature female characters in prominent roles, but none of these women interact with Bond in any sort of romantic fashion.
Kingsley Amis
| Novel | Bond girl |
|---|---|
| Colonel Sun | Ariadne Alexandrou |
John Gardner
| Novel | Bond girl |
|---|---|
| Licence Renewed | Lavender Peacock Mary Jane Mashkin |
| For Special Services | Cedar Leiter Nena Bismaquer |
| Icebreaker | Paula Vacker Rivke Ingber |
| Role of Honour | Percy Proud Freddie Fortune Cindy Chalmer |
| Nobody Lives For Ever | Sukie Tempesta Nannie Norrich |
| No Deals, Mr. Bond | Ebbie Heritage Heather Dare |
| Scorpius | Harriet Horner |
| Win, Lose or Die | Beatrice Maria da Ricci Clover Pennington Nikki Ratnikov |
| Brokenclaw | Sue Chi-Ho |
| The Man from Barbarossa | Nina Bibikova Stephanie Adore |
| Death is Forever | Easy St. John Praxi Simeon |
| Never Send Flowers | Flicka von Grüsse |
| SeaFire | |
| COLD | Sukie Tempesta Beatrice Maria da Ricci Toni Nicolleti |
Raymond Benson
| Novel | Bond girl |
|---|---|
| "Blast From the Past" | Cheryl Haven |
| Zero Minus Ten | Sunni Pei |
| The Facts of Death | Niki Mirakos |
| "Midsummer Night's Doom" | Lisa Dergan |
| High Time to Kill | Helena Marksbury Gina Hollander Hope Kendall |
| "Live at Five" | Janet Davies Natalia Lustokov |
| Doubleshot | Heidi Taunt Hedy Taunt |
| Never Dream of Dying | Tylyn Mignonne |
| The Man with the Red Tattoo | Reiko Tamura Mayumi McMahon |
Playboy Playmate Lisa Dergen is, to date, the only real-life person to be featured as a Bond girl in any literary Bond story.
Charlie Higson
| Novel | Bond girl |
|---|---|
| SilverFin | Wilder Lawless |
| Blood Fever | Amy Goodenough |
| Double or Die | Kelly Kelly |
| Hurricane Gold | Precious Stone |
| By Royal Command | Roan Powers |
Steve Cole
| Novel | Bond girl |
|---|---|
| Shoot to Kill | Boudicia "Boody" Price |
| Heads You Die | Jagua Maritsa |
| Strike Lightning | Unknown |
Video games
| Game (production company) | Bond girl | Actress (if applicable) |
|---|---|---|
| Agent Under Fire (Electronic Arts) | Zoe Nightshade | Caron Pascoe |
| Nightfire (Electronic Arts) |
Dominique Paradis |
|
| Everything or Nothing (Electronic Arts) | Serena St. Germaine Dr. Katya Nadanova Miss Nagai Mya Starling |
Shannon Elizabeth Heidi Klum Misaki Ito Mýa Harrison |
| From Russia with Love (Electronic Arts) | Tatiana Romanova Eva Adara Elizabeth Stark |
Daniela Bianchi (likeness) Maria Menounos Natasha Bedingfield |
| Quantum of Solace (Activision) | Camille Rivera Vesper Lynd |
Olga Kurylenko Eva Green |
| GoldenEye 007 (2010) (Activision) | Natalya Simonova | Kirsty Mitchell |
| Blood Stone (Activision) | Nicole Hunter | Joss Stone |
| 007 Legends (Activision) |
Honor Blackman (likeness)/ Natasha Little (voice actor) |
Trivia
- After the release of For Your Eyes Only (1981) a background actress in a pool scene, Tula, was revealed to be a transsexual.
- Vesper Lynd, the Bond girl from Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, is believed to be based on Christine Granville, a real-life SOE agent.
- In 2002, former Bond girl Maryam d'Abo co-wrote the book Bond Girls Are Forever: The Women of James Bond. This book later became a DVD exclusive documentary featuring d'Abo and other Bond girls, including Ursula Andress. In some locations, the documentary was released as a gift with the purchase of Die Another Day on DVD An updated version was included on the original Casino Royale DVD..
- Halle Berry and Kim Basinger are the only Oscar winners to play a Bond girl.
- After the release of Die Another Day, MGM and EON Productions considered creating a spinoff series featuring Halle Berry's Jinx character. Plans for this were cancelled in 2003.
- Early drafts of Die Another Day included an appearance by Wai Lin, but Michelle Yeoh was unavailable.
- Media reports for The World is Not Enough indicated the producers planned to include cameo appearances by every surviving Bond girl actress, ranging from Ursula Andress to Michelle Yeoh, but that did not occur; however, one "eye-candy" Bond girl was played by Eunice Gayson's daughter.
- Ursula Andress and Maud Adams remain, to date, the only actresses to have played more than one major Bond girl, although several other actresses have appeared more than once as "eye-candy" Bond girls.
- It is interesting to note that while Jill is listed as an enemy on the Bond girl timeline, Pussy was more of an antagonist to Bond.
External links
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