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The most iconic of all Bond girl poses – Shirley Eaton was painted gold, head to toe, as the tragic Jill Masterson.
BOND ON GIRLS
How does one describe a ‘Bond girl’? Bond girls are considered to be ‘ubiquitous symbols of glamour and sophistication’, according to Robert A. Caplen in his book Shaken & Stirred: The Feminism of James Bond, that is. Bond girls are certainly bewitching, beguiling and memorable but they are not always necessarily just the victims of Bond’s charm: many villainesses, allies and co-workers are given the moniker too, as is my wife Kristina – my favourite Bond girl of all.
Ursula Andress was voted ‘Best Bond Girl of All Time’ by readers of one national newspaper in 2008. She also received a Golden Globe as ‘New Star of the Year’ for her role in Dr. No.
In Fleming’s books, Bond girls always seemed to be in their mid-twenties, a decade or so younger than Jim, though in Goldfinger Fleming wrote that Bond suspected Pussy Galore was in her early thirties. An older woman? Perish that thought!
BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE …
Needless to say, all Bond girls are very beautiful, more often than not sporting a light sun tan, and with their eyes and mouths widely spaced – or so wrote Ian Fleming. Their eyes, by the way, are usually blue, but in Diamonds Are Forever Tiffany Case’s are chatoyant – ‘varying with the light from grey to grey-blue’ – while in Goldfinger Pussy Galore has deep-violet eyes, the only truly violet eyes Bond had ever seen.
Eunice Gayson was the very first Bond girl. Her famous red dress was in fact a last-minute change, and as it wasn’t made to measure, she had to use a few strategically placed clothes pegs to hold it together!
Yes, they all usually have exotic-sounding names too. In addition to the aforementioned, we have Suki, Vesper, Honey, Tatiana, Solitaire, Chew Me, Bibi, Octopussy, Mayday, Kara, Lupe, Paris and Elektra. Suggestive, sexy and very, very Bondian.
Fleming indicated that most of the Bond girls were sexually experienced by the time they met 007, which is probably just as well. However, not all of their experiences had been positive, with histories of sexual violence often a contributory factor in alienating them from men – until Jim arrived on the scene. Jim, meanwhile, I should add, lost his virginity on his first visit to Paris when he was sweet sixteen.
Though this darker backcloth to the characters is largely absent from the films, many Bond girls do face some abuse on screen – Domino (Claudine Auger) at the hands of Largo’s cigarette and ice in Thunderball; Andrea Anders (Maud Adams) in The Man With The Golden Gun is hurt by the dastardly Francisco Scaramanga; Lupe Lamora (Talisa Soto) in Licence To Kill is whipped by Franz Sanchez … perhaps these events were behind their determination to resist Bond at first?
But Jimmy’s charms win through … even in the case of lesbian Pussy Galore when, in bed, Bond says, ‘They told me you only liked women,’ and she tellingly replies it was because ‘I never met a man before.’
You have to laugh. To think Bond could turn a gay woman is quite comical. But then again, Judi Dench’s M did describe Jim as being ‘a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War…’ in GoldenEye, so he’d probably like to think he could.
Margaret Nolan played Dink in Goldfinger. A well-rounded role!
Put ’em up! Honor Blackman (centre) with Shirley Eaton (left) and Tania Mallett inside the Fort Knox set on Goldfinger.
Cubby Broccoli admitted that Honor Blackman had been cast on the back of her success in The Avengers, despite the fact that the American audience had never even seen the programme. He said, ‘The Brits would love her because they knew her as Mrs Gale, the Yanks would like her because she was so good, it was a perfect combination.’
One time I was doing an interview with Jimmy Tarbuck on Sunday Night at the London Palladium and Tarbuck said:
‘You’re the Saint, Sean Connery is Bond, Patrick McGoohan is Danger Man and Patrick MacNee is in The Avengers … do you ever meet up?’
I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’
‘Do you go out together?’
‘Yeah,’ I said.
‘Pussy Galore?’
‘Well, we don’t go looking for it …’ I replied.
I’m still not sure how we got away with it!
BEWARE NUMBER ONE
Bond rarely limits himself to just one conquest per film. The pattern established by Cubby and Harry – and still honoured to this day – usually sees anyone sleeping with Bond in the first reel bumped off before the end of the second. So beware young actresses.
Sean and Martine Beswicke in Thunderball. Martine also appeared in the gypsy fight sequence in From Russia With Love.
Roald Dahl summed it up best when he spoke about being contracted to write the screenplay for You Only Live Twice (1967): ‘“You put in three girls,” the producers said, “girl number one is pro-Bond. She stays around roughly for the first reel of the picture, then she is bumped off by the enemy, preferably in Bond’s arms.
‘ “Girl number two is anti-Bond and usually captures him, and he has to save himself by knocking her out with his sexual charm and power. She gets killed in an original (usually grisly) fashion mid-way through the film. The third girl will manage to survive to the end of the film.” ’
Mollie Peters played Patricia in Thunderball, and helped soothe Jim’s stress.
To date, only two Bond girls have actually turned the formula around and captured Bond’s heart – though neither lived very long, proving you can’t tamper with the recipe too much. In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg) married Bond, though she was shot dead soon after the ceremony by Irma Bunt and Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The second to wed was Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) in Casino Royale. Bond professes his love for her and resigns from MI6 in order that they can have a normal life together. Later, he learns she was actually a double agent working for his enemies at Quantum (in the film) – the enemy organization ostensibly kidnapped her former lover and was blackmailing her to secure her cooperation. She died by drowning in a lift in a building under renovation. Realizing his betrayal and loss in equal measure, Bond confirmed, ‘The bitch is dead’ – one of the most intense lines of all Fleming’s novels, which was also used in the film.
FAQS
Among the most frequently asked questions I am asked in interviews (and I assume this is true of any other retired 007) is, ‘Who is your favourite Bond girl?’
‘Oh! How original!’ I exclaim. ‘No one has ever asked me that before.’
I never give an answer as I think it is terribly unfair to name one co-star as being any better than another; you immediately upset someone. ‘What was wrong with me?’ they cry out.
Avoiding naming names also allows me to talk about some leading ladies without actually identifying them, though if I drop the odd hint, you might put two and two together.
In the 1960s, while playing Simon Templar, I was being interviewed by a television station and the journalist started off with, ‘You’ve played Ivanhoe, Maverick and now the Saint … you must have got through a lot of leading ladies in your time.’
‘You can’t say that!’ I cried.
The happiest days of Bond’s life. Mr and Mrs James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
My interrogator didn’t seem to realize what he was saying. He re-phrased it and said virtually the same thing again. I cringe whenever I see the clip.
Normally when you have a scene involving kissing a lady (or I guess a man if you fancy it), you never actually go in for the kiss during rehearsal as it tends to smudge make-up and ruffle hair. You just go through the motions, move in close, say ‘and they kiss’ and get on with the rest of the scene. In The Spy Who Loved Me I rehearsed one such scene with an Italian actress, and it all seemed to go rather well. Lewis Gilbert leaned over and said, ‘Can we have a sample of the kiss, dear?’
Suddenly from across the stage floor, this long snake-like tongue shot at me at the speed of light, worked its way around my teeth like dental floss and plunged deep into my throat. I was quite taken aback.
There is certainly no romance in a love scene, save that for the dressing room, if you’re lucky – and if your wife ever walks in on you, heed the advice of Burt Lancaster as relayed to me by Tony Curtis: ‘Just continue, and when you get home, explain they have people that look like you on the film.’
My good friend Jill St John, Mrs Robert Wagner these days, showing that diamonds are a girl’s best friend in 1971.
My first leading lady, Jane Seymour. In the casting session, she removed her hat, shook her head, and let her long hair fall out. There was no question of anyone else after that.
Far from being a romantic moment of intimacy shared by two people, a film love scene is often witnessed by fifty or sixty crew members, many being hairy-arsed technicians in the rafters clenching fists and shouting, ‘Go on, Rog! Give her one for us!’ It does rather put one off one’s stride. And if there’s mention on the call sheet of a love scene, or one of at least partial nudity, it always amazes me how the crew size swells and we tend to inherit workers from adjacent stages and productions.
WHO WILL IT BE?
There is always a huge interest in who is going to be cast as the next Bond girl, not least among the crew, and inevitably there is a press conference to introduce her. She then has a few minutes to talk about being ‘different from the normal Bond girls’ by ‘being independent, tough, intelligent and a new type of girl’. They all say it.
Many girls, particularly in the early films, were cast because of their ravishing good looks. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I’m no sexist either, let me add. If they happened to have rather large busts, that certainly sealed their involvement as far as Cubby was concerned. He was what you’d call ‘a boob man’. Though he also once remarked, on set, while looking at one of the lovely beauties wandering about, that she had a ‘particularly lovely derrière’. The lady seemingly also had particularly good hearing, as she turned, pounced and told Cubby he was a ‘sexist, misogynist swine’ and went into a long diatribe about how women have been kept down over the centuries by men like him, and how women are actually better than men, and how dare he treat her like a bimbo.
His and Hers outfits came as standard on this set. Lois Chiles as Dr Holly Goodhead. In explaining away her character’s name to her father she said, ‘I’m a doctor, with a very good head on my shoulders.’ Well, what else would it mean?
Another time we incurred the wrath of one of our leading ladies was when Lewis Gilbert offered me a little direction: ‘Roger, when you come in and she sees you …’
‘She! She?’ exclaimed the intelligent, tough, independent beauty. ‘I have a name and it is ******!’ and she spelled it out in a very loud voice.
‘I wasn’t talking to you, dear, I was talking to him,’ Lewis replied rather nonchalantly.
On another occasion, when giving direction to the same lady, Lewis suggested, ‘You come in here, and follow him over there.’
‘Why do I always have to follow him?’ she asked.
‘Because, dear, he is f***ing James Bond!’ Lewis helpfully replied.
To be perfectly honest, ladies cast in a Bond film were primarily signed because of their beauty, charm, charisma and, oh yes, a little acting ability helped too. It’s no great secret that Nikki Van Der Zyl dubbed many of the voices in the sixties films, because their accents were considered a little too heavy, but their outstanding beauty made them much sought-after individuals.
The lovely Cassandra Harris played Countess Lisl. She was joined by her young husband for the premiere. Cubby thought he could be a candidate for Bond …
If you’re going to fool around in a wardrobe, I suggest you do it with the delectable Madeline Smith.
Not all were very experienced in screen acting technique, and I recall all too well a sequence when cigarette smoke (or actually a stun gas) had to be blown into my face. For smoke, talcum powder was substituted, and instead of blowing it slightly to the side of my face the lady in question blew it straight into my eye – not just in one take, but in four. It wasn’t one of my favourite days.
Just ahead of a rather large set piece, involving big explosions, another leading lady wondered why my make-up man had presented me with a set of earplugs. I explained the noise would be rather deafening. ‘Oh well, that won’t bother me as I’ll stand near you.’ I had to explain that it was me they were trying to kill.
Towards the end of my tenure, I believe I was extraordinarily patient and good-willed with two leading ladies who became obsessive about dashing back to their handbags after every take to re-apply lipstick and face powder. I’d wait and wait for them to reappear with another layer, say a line and then disappear again. This went on incessantly and wasted so much time. When they weren’t looking, I decided to take the lipsticks out of the bags, and built a little pile of them, along with powder puffs and mirrors, but the ladies never really noticed as, without flinching, they dipped their hand in to their bottomless bags to produce yet another one. Heaven only knows how many sets they owned.
The character of Goodnight appears in Ian Fleming’s books On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and You Only Live Twice as Bond’s secretary, before becoming a fully-fledged Bond girl in The Man With The Golden Gun. Britt Ekland was a great fan of the books and lobbied the producers to cast her in the role. Then, as is often the way in this business, she read an article saying Swedish actress Maud Adams had been confirmed as the next Bond girl. Her heart sank. Of course, she then received a call to say she had got the part after all, Maud was playing the villain’s girlfriend, Andrea Anders.
My Swedish friend Britt Ekland. Bon appétit, and Goodnight.
On James Bond Island the crew rigged up explosions for the finale of the movie, when Scaramanga’s HQ goes up in smoke. Everything was carefully timed for us to run from A to B as the explosions went off. Rather worryingly, the cameras were set up offshore on boats.
Guy Hamilton called ‘Action!’ and I ran. But Britt hesitated for a moment. I was faced with a split-second decision: carry on running, or be the gallant hero and go back for her. I turned around, grabbed and pulled her forward, towards me. I then felt all the tiny hairs on her back singe after the first explosion. I’m such a hero.
Barbara Bach, former model and wife-to-be of Ringo Starr, was quite a different Bond girl in that she was the Soviet oppo of Jim. As agent Triple-X she perhaps had the most prominent starring role since Diana Rigg in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Maud Adams as Octopussy.
Cubby was under huge pressure to get everything right on this film, and I know he had spent a long time looking for the perfect girl. He answered the question of why Barbara Bach with his usual aplomb:
‘There isn’t an actress today, with the possible exception of Barbra Streisand, who can open a film. We explored a certain lady in Hollywood who commands a $500,000 fee and that blew her right out of the box for me because she’d contribute no more than Barbara Bach.’
I used to pull her leg, of course, dubbing her Barbara-Back-to-Front, and in Luxor when we left for the location each morning we’d always pass hundreds of black-burka-clad women.
‘The nuns are out early again,’ I said, rather lightheartedly.
‘Oh, are they all Catholics here?’ she asked earnestly.
She and Ringo are now neighbours of mine in Monaco, and we still see each other from time to time.
A ONE-WOMAN BOND
In my final outing, I was joined by Mary Stavin, Fiona Fullerton, Tanya Roberts and Grace Jones.
She who shall remain nameless.
A day in a hot tub with Fiona could never be considered ‘work’ really, could it? And floating away on board a submarine with Mary Stavin must be many men’s dream. As to the others, I’ll leave it there, I think.
Another obligatory posse. Do I complain?
‘Would you like it harder, Miss Fullerton?’ – the massage I meant! A de-briefing scene from A View To A Kill.
In Quantum Of Solace Olga Kurylenko provided Bond’s back-up girl, Camille.
Post-me, in the mid-1980s, HIV/AIDS was becoming a major issue in the world and Bond writers felt that Timothy Dalton’s new 007 should not be as promiscuous as my 007. He therefore became a one-woman Bond with Maryam d’Abo’s Kara Milovy in The Living Daylights but stepped up a gear in Licence To Kill with two romantic interests, Carey Lowell and Talisa Soto.
Nice to see you back, Miss Vesper Lynd. The only lady to really break Bond’s heart was played by Eva Green in Casino Royale.
Whereas Paris Carver, an old flame, sadly went to bed with Bond too soon after the film started. I keep telling them not to bed him in the first reel or they’ll die, but they don’t listen.
Famke Janssen and Isabella Scorupco were the two female leads in GoldenEye.
When Pierce came along, the team took the decision to introduce a few more well-known actresses to the franchise, such as Teri Hatcher, Michelle Yeoh, Denise Richards and Halle Berry – who won her Oscar mid-production on Die Another Day for the movie Monster’s Ball. In a nod to Dr. No, Halle emerged from the ocean in a sexy bikini in the film’s only main location; the majority of filming was studio-bound. She proved such a popular character that producers felt a Jinx spin-off movie would be a sure-fire hit. Neil Purvis and Robert Wade were engaged to write a script; Stephen Frears was reportedly keen to direct and all looked set … until MGM got nervous about the budget, and felt they’d rather have another Bond film than risk launching a new franchise. MGM cited ‘creative differences’.
A more feisty Bond girl came in the shape of Pam Bouvier in Licence To Kill, played by Carey Lowell.
With Daniel Craig came Eva Green as Vesper Lynd. The character’s name, incidentally, is a pun on West Berlin, signifying Vesper’s divided loyalties as a double agent under Soviet control. Eva became the fifth French actress to be cast as a Bond girl. Following in her footsteps was Ukrainian-born Olga Kurylenko in Quantum Of Solace as Camille, with a backstory of child abuse akin to Ian Fleming’s original flawed heroines.
Maryam d’Abo was the only Bond girl in The Living Daylights, when worries about HIV/AIDS were at their height.
The twentieth Bond film, in the fortieth year, paid homage to some of the earlier films, most notable here with Halle Berry re-creating Ursula Andress’s famous scene in Dr. No.
Christmas Jones was played by Denise Williams, and in her case proved Christmas came more than once a year.
Moneypenny
The lovely Lois Maxwell was a Canadian actress whom I first met way back during my time at RADA. We often appeared in the same student plays.
In 1962 Lois contacted her old friend director Terence Young and asked if there might be a part for her in his next film, as her husband had recently suffered a heart attack and they desperately needed the income. Terence said there were two possible parts: Sylvia Trench, Bond’s love interest; or Miss Moneypenny. Lois read the script and didn’t much care for the Sylvia Trench role, as it featured a scantily dressed scene with 007, so she opted for Moneypenny and received £200 for two days’ work.
Alongside her role in the Bond movies, Lois appeared with me in an episode of The Saint and The Persuaders! before we resumed our on-stage association when I took on the role of Jimmy Bond.
It’s interesting to note that despite her worldwide fame, Lois’s total screen time as Moneypenny in her fourteen films was less than twenty minutes, and she spoke fewer than 200 words. That’s the power of Bond for you.
The one and only Lois Maxwell in the role she loved.
Samantha Bond (no relation) played Moneypenny in all the Pierce Brosnan films.
Pamela Salem was Sean Connery’s choice for the role in Never Say Never Again.
Caroline Bliss was a two-time Moneypenny for a two-time Bond, Timothy Dalton. She had a penchant for Barry Manilow records!
Two of a kind, Lois with Desmond Llewelyn – how I miss them both.
It was a huge shock to hear of Lois’s death in 2007. She was always fun, wonderful company to be in and was absolutely perfect casting. Towards the end of my tenure as Jimbo, Lois said to Cubby that she would like to see Moneypenny become the new M. Cubby smiled and said, ‘I don’t think we can have a female head of the Secret Service.’
It was a great pity that after I moved out of Bond they didn’t take her on to continue in the Timothy Dalton films, but I guess a younger Bond flirting with an older Moneypenny wasn’t to be.
Other Miss Moneypennys include Caroline Bliss, Samantha Bond and – in the unofficial Never Say Never Again – Pamela Salem. Call me old-fashioned if you will, but there’ll only ever be one Miss Moneypenny for me.