1. Honey Rider (Ursula Andress in Dr No, 1962)
Honey Ryder set the Bond girl template in the first film in the franchise – 1962’s Dr No. Her name is a silly double entendre and she knows how to kill. The famous scene when Andress appears rising from the sea in her bikini was referenced decades later in Daniel Craig’s Casino Royale – only then with Bond in the swimwear.
2. Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman in Goldfinger, 1964)
The least subtle of all Bond double entendres – meaning an abundant supply of cats. In the novel, she heads a gang of criminal trapeze artists. In the slightly less silly film, former Avenger Honor Blackman’s Pussy Galore leads a group of female aviators tasked with spraying nerve gas over Fort Knox. Blackman is the oldest Bond girl – she was 39 when she starred in Goldfinger.
3. Teresa di Vicenzo – or Mrs Tracy Bond (Diana Rigg in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, 1969)
Another former Avenger, the gorgeous Diana Rigg deserves special mention as the only Mrs Bond. Teresa ‘Tracy’ Draco (also sometimes Countess Teresa di Vicenzo) is another one with a criminal background who turns good after being seduced by Bond: ‘Teresa is a saint, I’m known as Tracy.’ This one was handy with her fists.
4. Tiffany Case (Jill St John in Diamonds are Forever, 1971)
Tiffany Case was named after her birthplace – luxury jewellers Tiffany & Co. She’s a diamond smuggler working for Bond’s nemesis Blofeld. The two eventually work together and share a luxury cruise – interrupted only by a cake-based assassination attempt.
5. Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach, The Spy Who Loved Me, 1977)
Amasova is a sultry KGB agent played by the future Mrs Ringo Starr. Bond and Amasova share the same objective – they attempt to outwit each other over a piece of secret microfilm. Amasova vows to avenge herself on Bond when she discovers he killed her former lover.
6. Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland in The Man With The Golden Gun, 1974)
Goodnight initially appears as Bond’s secretary before wielding a gun and bikini in this early Roger Moore outing. Ekland plays a young and naïve agent who comes under Bond’s wing. Sample dialogue (from Bond): ‘I approve your uniform. Tight in all the right places, not too many buttons.’
7. May Day (Grace Jones in A View To A Kill, 1985)
Eccentric disco singer Grace Jones was a leftfield choice as assassin-turned-goodie May Day. There was zero sexual chemistry between her and the ageing Moore (who was 57 by this time) but we knew we were in the 1980s with the androgynous Jones – Duran Duran provided the theme song. Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny) had some bruising encounters with Jones on set: ‘Every time Grace saw me, she would grab me and just pick me up until I thought my ribs would crack.’
8. Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen in GoldenEye, 1995)
She was the ultimate Bond femme fatale as well as the owner of one of the silliest names. This former Soviet airpilot got her sexual thrills from killing – specifically by squeezing the life from her male victims by using her deadly thighs. Bond: ‘How do you take it?’ Onatopp: ‘Straight up… with a twist.’
9. Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo in The Living Daylights, 1987)
One of the classier Bond girls – this one’s a sexy cellist. True to the template, Milovy is a would-be assassin when she first encounters Bond. She switches sides, however, and her cello case comes in handy when the pair cross the border into Austria.
10. Vesper Lynd (Eva Green in Casino Royale, 2006)
And so we’re (almost) up to date. In Fleming’s novel, Vesper says she was born on a ‘dark and stormy night’ and so was named after the Latin for ‘evening’. She’s also the origin of ‘shaken, not stirred’ – the Vesper Martini comes from her and was invented in the 1953 novel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_girls
