Sean Connery’s Bond girl co-stars: From Honey Ryder to Pussy Galore
The Bond actor shared the screen with many leading ladies in his role as 007.
Silver screen giant Sir Sean Connery was perhaps most famous for his role as the martini-swirling, 007 agent in seven James Bond films.
Following Sir Sean’s death aged 90, the PA news agency takes a look at the Bond girls who complimented his leading role.
– Ursula Andress, Dr No (1962)
Swiss actress Ursula Andress played bombshell Honey Ryder, a shell diver who Connery takes with him on his first adventure as James Bond in the Terence Young film.
The pair first meet in a scene where Andress emerges from the ocean wearing her famous white bikini, complete with a knife tucked into her belt.
Bond hears Ryder singing a melody while collecting conches and joins in the song before approaching her to mark the first Bond girl meeting of the franchise.
Designed by Tessa Prendergast, Andress’ plain ivory two-piece with belt buckle detailing became so important in fashion history it has its own Wikipedia page.
Andress has said the bikini “made me into a success”, and it was expected to fetch more than £40,000 at a 2001 auction of props and costumes used in 007 films.
– Eunice Gayson, Dr No and From Russia With Love
Gayson’s character is credited with providing Bond’s famous introductory catchphrase, “Bond, James Bond” when she introduces herself as “Trench, Sylvia Trench” in the debut film while they are playing Baccarat, and he mimics her reply.
Trench and Bond share intimate moments in Dr No and From Russia With Love, but their encounters are forever cut short when he is sent on yet another secret mission.
Gayson died in 2018 aged 90 after starring in films including The Avengers and in London theatre productions.
– Daniela Bianchi, From Russia With Love (1963)
Soviet army corporal Tatiana Romanova helps save Connery’s Bond in the 1963 film also directed by Terence Young.
Romanova foils villain Colonel Rosa Klebb’s attempt to poison Bond by killing her at the film’s finale.
Italian actress and model Bianchi appeared in several European films in the 1960s before she retired from acting at the end of the decade.
– Honor Blackman, Goldfinger (1964)
Blackman played the memorably named Pussy Galore, and is perhaps the most famous Bond girl in the franchise’s history.
She was 38 when she shot to international fame in Goldfinger as the no-nonsense Galore, who initially rebuffs Connery’s Bond’s advances before succumbing in a barn.
Blackman was also known for TV roles in The Avengers and The Upper Hand.
She died in April this year aged 94, and Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli hailed her as a “film icon”.
– Shirley Eaton, Goldfinger
English actress, model and sex symbol Shirley Eaton appears in Goldfinger for only five minutes and dies within this time.
But the image of her death, where she is painted head-to-toe in gold has been credited as “one of the most enduring images in cinematic history” by Bond scholars Lee Pfeiffer and Dave Worrall in their 2003 book The Essential Bond.
Eaton appears as villain Auric Goldfinger’s aide-de-camp who Connery’s Bond catches helping him cheat at a game of cards.
Connery seduces her but because of her betrayal she is gilded in gold and, according to Bond, dies from “skin suffocation”.
Eaton became one of the most photographed actresses of the 1960s, according to Pfeiffer and Worrall.
– Tania Mallet, Goldfinger
A cousin of Dame Helen Mirren, Mallet played Tilly Masterson alongside in the 1964 classic.
Tilly is the sister of Jill Masterson, and she embarks on a mission to avenge her sister by killing Goldfinger, which sees her embroiled in a high-speed car chase with Connery’s Bond, until she also dies at the hands of Oddjob.
According to a biography on IMDB, Blackpool-born Mallet was working as a model when she was cast as Masterson by Albert “Cubby” Broccoli.
However, instead of pursuing a career in acting after her blockbuster turn, she returned to modelling.
Her death in April 2019 aged 77 was announced with condolences on the official 007 Twitter account.
– Claudine Auger, Thunderball (1965)
Former Miss France Claudine Auger plays Domino Derval, the mistress of Spectre’s number two agent Emilio Largo.
She becomes Connery’s Bond’s lover, and when he breaks the news to her that her brother has been killed by Largo, she risks her life to help him track the villain down, and kills him.
Auger co-starred with the original Bond girl Andress in Italian comedy Anyone Can Play in 1968, and she was reunited with director Terence Young in The Killing Game in 1967, before she died in 1995.
– Luciana Paluzzi, Thunderball
A Spectre “black widow” assassin, Paluzzi’s character Fiona Volpe seduces men before killing them – but Connery’s Bond sees through her character.
She seduces Bond, but he knows her real aim, and she falls victim to a bullet intended for him.
The Italian-American actress, who was also Miss Germany in 1954, starred in 1958 British war film of the same name as the upcoming 2021 Bond film – No Time To Die, renamed in America as Tank Force.
– Martine Beswick, Thunderball and From Russia With Love
Starring as a unique leading female in a Bond film in that she is not a lover of Connery’s Bond, actress Martine Beswick is best known for her role as Paula Caplan.
Beswick was reportedly asked by Young to sunbathe extensively for her role as the Bahamian character, and she also starred in From Russia With Love as gypsy girl Zora who has a catfight with her rival Vida.
– Karin Dor, You Only Live Twice (1967)
German actress Karin Dor played Helga Brandt, a Spectre assassin who is hired to kill Connery’s Bond, but is also seduced by him.
While on board a plane with Bond, she drops a magnesium flare disguised as a tube of lipstick and parachutes to safety, but Bond manages an emergency landing.
For this mistake, she is dropped through a trapdoor and eaten by piranhas lurking in the pit below.
Dor starred in theatre and film productions including Alfred Hitchcock’s 1969 film Topaz, before she died in 2017 aged 79.
– Jill St John, Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
A diamond smuggler whose operations are intercepted by Connery’s Bond, Jill St John stars as Tiffany Case, a villain-turned-ally after she is rescued by Bond.
The American actress, who is married to actor Robert Wagner, has appeared in TV shows including Batman and Seinfeld.
She also received a Golden Globe nomination for her leading role in 1963 comedy film Come Blow Your Horn, which starred Frank Sinatra.
– Lana Wood, Diamonds Are Forever
Starring as Las Vegas gold digger, Wood’s character helps Connery’s Bond win 50,000 dollars in a card game before going back to his suite with him – but she is greeted by Case and thrown out of the window by mobsters.
The sister of actress Natalie Wood, who died by drowning while married to Robert Wagner – who later married Bond girl Jill St John, Wood is the younger daughter of Russian and Ukranian emigrants.
– Barbara Carrera, Never Say Never Again
The Nicaraguan-American actress played the assassin Fatima Blush in Connery’s final Bond film.
Carrera’s character forces Bond to declare in writing that she is his “number one” sexual partner, but shortly afterwards he uses a fountain pen dart to kill her.
Before starring in Never Say Never Again, Carrera was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her role as Eula in 1975 film The Master Gunfighter, and she was nominated again for her performance as Blush in 1984.
