From Ursula Andress to Honor Blackman, Sun writers reveal who their favourite Bond girls are – and why
BOND girls are as iconic as the spy himself – but one of their hallowed number reckons political correctness means those smouldering bikini shots are a thing of the past.
Swedish siren Britt Ekland, now 77, who played ditzy assistant Mary Goodnight to Sir Roger Moore’s 007 in 1974 movie The Man With The Golden Gun, said: “The Bond girl has to look good in a bikini – that was her role.”
But she adds: “The Bond girl of my era exists no more because they’re not presented that way.
“You wouldn’t see her in a bikini next to Daniel Craig in a suit – the PR department would make sure that didn’t happen.”
We must wait until November to see what the Bond girls will be wearing in 25th film No Time To Die, starring Ana de Armas, Lea Seydoux and Lashana Lynch alongside Daniel as the M16 agent.
But here some Sun favourites tell who their top Bond girls are – and why . . .
Peta Todd
IF you think of a Bond girl and don’t instantly picture a radiant Ursula Andress emerging effortlessly from the sea in that white bikini, then I urge you to have a stern word with yourself.
Swiss Ursula was the original Bond girl in 1962, playing Honey Ryder to Sean Connery’s 007 in first Bond movie Dr No.
Being the first is a big deal but she didn’t know the iconic status this would go on to become or the place she would hold in cinematic history.
She just hopped out of the ocean in her swimming togs.
That famous scene has probably inspired all of us to slowly walk out of the waves in Southend pretending to be her while actually looking more like a drowned rat.
She inspired fashion trends in swimwear which are still referenced today, more than 50 years later.
She is no less a style icon than Audrey Hepburn or Kate Moss.
Her character was certainly not one breaking any stereo-types or trailblazing a strong female lead – Bond was most definitely swooping to her rescue, as was expected at the time.
But she still shone.
Her presence was more than just beauty and she unknowingly paved the way for all those great Bond girls who came after her.
Alex James
CONTESSA Teresa di Vicenzo, from 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, is my favourite. It’s for the simple reason that when I first saw the film as a ten or 11-year-old I instantly developed a massive crush on Diana Rigg, who played her, to George Lazenby’s Bond.
The contessa (Bond’s late wife) is quite a progressive character, though. When she pirouettes out of a crowd and into Bond’s life at the open-air ice rink, it is she who is the knight in shining armour, not he.
He is tired and alone and needs her help.
Bond author Ian Fleming was brilliant at describing glamour and Teresa is as exotic as it gets – sporty, bright and noble.
I really love the music in OHMSS – John Barry’s instrumental pieces in the many skiing sequences and Louis Armstrong’s We Have all the Time in The World, is one of the all-time great movie theme songs.
It is used to great effect to show Bond swooning like a girl and completely losing his heart to the only woman he ever married.
The song is so powerful that the sequence in the film can still bring a tear to my eye – not to mention the story’s ending, which shows Bond as weak, human and utterly heartbroken.
Rhian Sugden
GRACE Jones playing May Day to Roger Moore’s Bond in 1985 film A View To A Kill was my favourite Bond girl.
Jamaican Grace played such a formidable woman. She possessed superhuman strength so was much stronger than any man and she came across as such a power figure.
She looked just as sassy and sexy in her crime-solving suits as she did in her one-piece swimsuit.
She had such a unique and influential style, what with her high-top hair and shoulder-padded pinstripe suit. She just oozed glamour.
I was looking forward to her showing her prowess and beauty alongside Daniel Craig in upcoming movie No Time To Die, as was planned, and was disappointed when she pulled out last year.
Who is not impressed by a powerful woman kicking ass? It’s female empowerment at its finest.
A woman who can handle herself and can’t be defeated by any man is a heroine in my eyes.
Robert Rinder
THE Roger Moore era of Bond films (1973 to 1985) were funny and cheeky. I like the tongue-in-cheek humour Bonds the best.
But my favourite Bond girl came much later on – Denise Richards, starring as Dr Christmas Jones alongside Pierce Brosnan’s Bond in 1999’s The World Is Not Enough.
Aside from having the best strut of any previous Bond girl, her character’s name inspired the best Carry On-esque lines, including the most brilliant double entendre in any 007 film: “I thought Christmas only comes once a year.”
American Denise, who I also remember seeing in 1999’s black-comedy thriller Drop Dead Gorgeous, was breathtakingly beautiful.
Many people forget she was a Bond Girl and she is now known more for reality TV – and being Charlie Sheen’s ex-wife.
As Christmas, she was the least plausible nuclear physicist in the history of cinema and the high level of absurdity was the gift that kept on giving.
It would be like me getting a call saying: “Jason Statham can’t make it, can you fill in for him?”
Yet she is underrated as an actress.
And Christmas was knowing and sly – but most importantly funny.
Jane Moore
IN 1965’s Thunderball, Sean Connery’s Bond manages to seduce a woman by telling her it’s the only way to avoid getting sacked after an accident at her health farm.
In 1979’s Moonraker, Roger Moore romps with Dr Holly Goodhead – phnar, phnar – while his colleagues joke he’s attempting re-entry.
His more woke modernisation coincided with the arrival of my favourite Bond ever, Daniel Craig, in 2006’s Casino Royale.
And its Bond girl is my favourite ever – Vesper Lynd played by French actress Eva Green.
She’s gorgeous, intelligent and witty, and while they initially snipe at each other with waspish backchat, they eventually fall madly in love and Bond dreams of leaving the secret service to marry her.
The scene where, guilt-ridden over her involvement in someone’s death, she sits in the shower while James kisses her hands to comfort her is one of the sexiest in a Bond film ever.
When she dies (long story) he is grief-stricken and her death haunts him over the next two films.
He truly loved – rather than just lusted after – her.
Tony Parsons
WITHOUT question, my all-time favourite is Ana de Armas, who plays Paloma in the next 007 film, No Time To Die, which will finally be released later this year.
Much of what Britt Ekland says about the Bond girl being impacted by our woke modern world is true.
We are very unlikely to ever see another Bond girl called Pussy Galore, for example, while the pliant, insatiable, bikini-clad babes murmuring, “Oh James!” are no doubt a thing of the past.
But Ana is every inch a true Bond girl – sassy, striking, tough, exotic (she is Cuban) with a dangerous beauty.
She is a Bond girl the equal of any we have seen over the past half-century or so, even if the 007 franchise is far too PC to ever call her that.
And she is a terrific actress – she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in last year’s Knives Out, and she lit up Ridley Scott’s 2017 film Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic, playing a lovesick replicant.
Look at Ana smouldering like an unexploded firework in the trailer for No Time To Die, wielding a handgun in an evening dress slashed to the navel.
Flashing eyes that grown men could drown in.
Like every great Bond girl, you are not certain if she wants to go to bed with James Bond or assassinate him. Or both.
You think they don’t make Bond girls like they used to any more?
Oh yes they do.
Lorraine Kelly
PUSSY Galore was not actually a Bond Girl. She was a Bond woman. And what a woman.
Pussy, as portrayed by the late, great Honor Blackman, was more than equal to any of the male characters in 1964’s Goldfinger, including 007 himself.
She was fierce, feisty and fabulous, with balls of steel.
Her first scene with majestically muscular Sean Connery – in my opinion the best-ever James Bond – positively crackled with sexual chemistry and tension.
She pulls a gun on him and reveals her name, only for Bond, with a look of utter bliss on his face, to declare: “I must be dreaming.”
It was a meeting of two equals, not just the usually misogynist Bond taking advantage of a bubble-headed bimbo and giving her a quickie before she gets bumped off by the arch villain.
The double entendre of Pussy Galore obviously passed me by when I saw this movie as a five-year-old and it was only later I realised it was a sort of Carry On line.
Despite the silly name, Honor gave this role credibility, elegance and smouldering sexuality.
Of course, even Pussy succumbed to the charms of James Bond in the end – but I reckon she taught him a thing or two.
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