As paramount as the role of James Bond itself are of course the Bond villains and the Bond girls. Sixty years after the release of Dr No, the first James Bond film, we look back at some of the franchise’s most iconic Bond girls.
When Dr No hit our screens in October 1962, it made instant stars of two of its actors. Before becoming the first Bond, Sean Connery had been a milkman, coffin polisher, lifeguard and bouncer. He’d even been invited to play for Manchester United by Matt Busby. But acting was his passion and he got roles in TV dramas and films – Bond producer Albert R Broccoli spotted Connery in Darby O’Gill and the Little People, and was impressed by his charisma. Audiences warmed to his masculine, elegant and humorous portrayal of the suave James Bond.
Ursula Andress might not have technically been the first Bond girl – Eunice Gayson gets that honour for her portrayal of Sylvia Trench, Bond’s girlfriend – but she’s certainly one of the most iconic, notably for the scene where she emerges from the sea in a white bikini, with a knife attached to a belt around her hips. Bikinis were still seen as risqué but after the release of Dr No, their sales peaked – the dawn of the sexual revolution had arrived. Still, Andress was bewildered: "It's a mystery. All I did was wear this bikini, not even a small one, and whoosh! Overnight, I made it."
Sean Connery would go on to star in another six Bond films but it was in Goldfinger (1964) where he was once again paired with another memorable Bond girl. Honor Blackman had already starred in Jason and the Argonauts and The Avengers before she landed the role as Pussy Galore, who she played as a unique, strong woman who commanded the screen and Bond.
George Lazenby only had one outing as Bond – in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) – and it would be the only time Bond would marry. Diana Rigg, who like Honor Blackman had starred in TV series The Avengers, played Tracy and we saw a more human and vulnerable side to Bond when she is murdered at the end of the film. Actress Joanna Lumley also appeared in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in one of her earliest acting roles as a Bond girl.
Roger Moore would go on to star in seven Bond films between 1973 and 1985, playing him as a gentleman, a debonair and a serial seducer – hooking up with 17 women, who were mostly damsels in distress. Notable among his pairings was Jane Seymour’s Solitaire in Live and Let Die (1973) – a psychic who switches sides and loses her powers when she gets together with Bond.
In The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) Barbara Bach took on the role of fearless Anya Amasova, aka Agent Triple X, who starts as a rival agent but they end up allies.
Timothy Dalton’s appointment as Bond brought a shift. Bond became edgier and fell for intelligent women who could hold their own. In The Living Daylights (1987), Maryam d’Abo played Kara Milovy, a cellist and Russian assassin, and the pair not only had great chemistry but shared tender moments too.
Pierce Brosnan played a cooler, more suave Bond for four films, with GoldenEye (1995) the most popular. Although he has a love interest (Natalya Simonova) in the film, Judi Dench gives a commanding performance as M, head of the MI6, while Famke Janssen is terrifying as Xenia Onatopp, surely the baddest Bond girl of all time.
Daniel Craig’s Bond is considered the most faithful to Ian Fleming’s character – a more troubled and flawed hero, operating in a darker world.
Bond girls were more complex, such as Eva Green’s intelligent and mysterious Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale (2006).
The main heroine and Bond girl in the 2008 James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, was portrayed by Ukrainian-French actress and model, Olga Kurylenko, Camille Montes Rivero is an intelligence operative working for the Bolivian Secret Service who is seeking revenge for the murder of her family by exiled dictator, General Medrano.
In Skyfall, we see a femme fatale whose moral ambiguity matches James Bond's own, a beguiling lady from Shanghai who who goes by the single-entendre name of Séverine, played by Bérénice Marlohe.
And who could forget Léa Seydoux’s psychologist with a traumatic past (Madeleine Swann) in Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021).
Another notable Bond female role in No Time to Die is of course the fantastic Lashana Lynch, who co-stars as Nomi, a young, skilled MI6 agent who replaces Craig's retired Bond — and takes over his double-O alias.
Now the question is who will be the next James Bond - and of course, who will be the next Bond girl...