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A Bond Girl is a character or actress portraying a love interest or sex object of James Bond in a film, novel or video game. They often have names that are double entendres, such as "Pussy Galore."

Bond Girls are often victims rescued by Bond, fellow agents or allies, villainesses or members of an enemy organisation; sometimes they are mere eye candy and have no direct involvement in Bond's mission, other Bond Girls play a pivotal role in the success of the mission. Other female characters such as Judi Dench's M and Miss Moneypenny are not typically thought of as Bond Girls.

The role of a Bond Girl is typically a high-profile part that can give a major boost to the career of unestablished actresses, although there have been a number of Bond girls that were well-established prior to gaining their role. For instance, Diana Rigg and Honor Blackman were both Bond Girls after becoming major stars for their roles in the television series, The Avengers. Additionally, Halle Berry won an Academy Award in 2002 - the award was presented to her while she was filming Die Another Day.

History

Ursula Andress often is considered the first and quintessential Bond Girl, Honey Ryder, in Dr. No (1962), although Eunice Gayson, as 'Sylvia Trench', and Zena Marshall as 'Miss Taro' are seen in that film before her and therefore preceded her as Bond Girls. The character of Sylvia Trench is the only Bond Girl character who recurs in a film, (Dr. No and From Russia with Love (1963)) - she was meant to be Bond's regular girlfriend but was dropped after her appearance in the second film.

To date, only two Bond Girls have captured James Bond's heart. The first, Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg) was married by Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), though she is shot dead by Ernst Stavro Blofeld at story's end. Initially, her death was to have begun Diamonds Are Forever (1971); but that idea was dropped during filming of On Her Majesty's Secret Service when George Lazenby renounced the James Bond role.

The second was Vesper Lynd, (Eva Green), in Casino Royale (2006). James Bond professes his love to her and resigns from MI6 to live a normal life with her, yet later he learns that she used him to free her true lover who is imprisoned in Algeria; she drowns in a canal in Venice.

In the series of films, Maud Adams is the only actress to play two different Bond girls; 'Andrea' in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) and the title character in Octopussy (1983); she also is an extra in A View to a Kill (1985).

Two other actresses, Martine Beswick (Thunderball) and Nadja Regin (Goldfinger) appear in a second adventure, having first appeared in From Russia with Love. Including the unofficial James Bond films, Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again, several actresses also have been a Bond Girl more than once; Ursula Andress in Casino Royale (1967); Angela Scoular, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) and Casino Royale (1967); Valerie Leon in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Never Say Never Again (1983).

Often Bond Girls who have trysts with James Bond are later discovered as villainesses, e.g. Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera) in Never Say Never Again (1983), Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) in The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) in Die Another Day (2002).

Criticisms

Since the series began in the early 1960s, Bond Girls have been criticized by feminists, and others, who feel that such characters objectify women as either bimbos or damsels in distress. Through the years, the Bond Girl has evolved from girl to woman, someone of strong character with the resourcefulness and skills Bond needs to complete the mission or, in some instances, rescue Bond. In Moonraker (1979), scientist Holly Goodhead is a trained space shuttle astronaut, (long before NASA allowed the real thing); in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Wai Lin is a People's Republic of China secret agent counterpart to Bond; in The World Is Not Enough (1999), Christmas Jones is nuclear scientist; in Goldfinger (1964), Pussy Galore leads a women's stunt flying team; Thunderball (1965) features assassin Fiona Volpe, the first villain-Bond Girl; and You Only Live Twice (1967) features two Japanese SIS women agents 'Aki' and 'Kissy', and assassin Helga Brandt, SPECTRE Number 11.

Nevertheless, movie critics note that that none of these characters are realistic and comment that the Bond Girl, heroine or villainess, remains a sex object when compared with other portrayals of cinematic women. Harsher critics have labeled such attempts inadequate pandering to the masses.

Films

In addition to those actresses mentioned above, the Bond films traditionally have groups of women in the background whose general purpose is nothing more than eye candy: they include the sunbathing Miami beauties in Goldfinger, the Thai girls at the kung fu school in The Man With the Golden Gun, Tiger Tananka's bathing beauties in You Only Live Twice, and Sheik Hossein's harem in The Spy Who Loved Me. However, in Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, and The Living Daylights these women were also referred to in the media as fully- fledged Bond girls to provide added publicity for the film through eye-catching magazine and newspaper appearances. In Moonraker this included members of Drax's "master race" and a group of women encountered by Bond in the jungles of Brazil In For Your Eyes Only, the women were seen frolicking around a villain's pool, while in Octopussy they served mainly as the title character's underlings. In A View to A Kill, they adorned Max Zorin's outdoor reception and in The Living Daylights, they served as decorations at the villain's swimming pool. One "Bond girl" in For Your Eyes Only was later revealed to be a post-operative transsexual (Tula). Although the Bond films have never stopped making use of feminine "eye candy", such large "Bond girl groups" were not featured after The Living Daylights.

Unofficial films

EON Productions is considered the official producer of the James Bond film series, having produced 21 films between 1962 and 2006 as listed above. However, other James Bond productions have been made over the years by other producers and studios. These productions are considered "unofficial" and as such, so are the Bond girls featured therein.

Novels

Ian Fleming

Mary Goodnight was a supporting character in several Bond novels before graduating to full Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun. The short stories "Quantum of Solace", "The Living Daylights" and "The Property of a Lady" feature female characters in prominent roles, but none of these women interact with Bond in a romantic way.

Kingsley Amis (also known as Robert Markham)

John Gardner

Raymond Benson

Playboy Playmate Lisa Dergan is, to date, the only real-life person to be featured as a Bond girl in any literary Bond story.

Charlie Higson

Video games

Trivia

• Official Bond girls by country of origin: USA - 12; UK - 8; France - 5; Sweden, Italy - 3; Japan - 2; Switzerland, Jamaica, Poland, Netherlands, Malaysia - 1.
• Vesper Lynd, the Bond girl from Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, is believed to be based on Christine Granville, a real-life SOE agent.
• In 2002, former Bond girl Maryam d'Abo co-wrote the book Bond Girls Are Forever: The Women of James Bond. This book later became a DVD exclusive documentary featuring d'Abo and other Bond girls, including Ursula Andress. In some locations, the documentary was released as a gift with the purchase of Die Another Day on DVD. The featurette was included on the DVD release of Casino Royale (2006) with an updated segment referencing the newest film.
• Maryam d'Abo is also the last blonde Bond Girl to date, all subsequent leading Bond girls being brunettes.
• Halle Berry and Kim Basinger are the only Oscar winners to play a Bond girl. Basinger won her Oscar a number of years after her Bond film appearance, while Berry received hers during production of Die Another Day.
• After the release of Die Another Day, MGM and EON Productions considered creating a spinoff series featuring Halle Berry's Jinx character. Plans for this were cancelled in 2003.
• Early drafts of Die Another Day included an appearance by Wai Lin, but Michelle Yeoh was unavailable.
• Media reports for The World Is Not Enough indicated the producers planned to include cameo appearances by every surviving Bond girl actress, ranging from Ursula Andress to Michelle Yeoh, but that did not occur; however, one "eye-candy" Bond girl was played by Eunice Gayson's daughter.
• Ursula Andress has the singular distinction among movie Bond Girls of having actually appeared in the narrative of a Fleming novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, written after Fleming was present during filming of Dr. No. She is pointed out to Bond by Irma Bunt while they are dining at Piz Gloria.
• Maud Adams, who played Francisco Scaramanga's girlfriend in The Man With the Golden Gun also played the title character in Octopussy
• Pierce Brosnan said in an interview for Maxim magazine, "A Bond girl has to be the most mind-blowingly beautiful woman you've ever seen, and you just want to fuck her brains out."
• Both Halle Barry and Famke Janssen are the only Bond girls who are also in the comic book-based movie X-Men.

External links

• Cult Sirens: Bond Girls
• Complete list of Bond girls on the ultimate James bond Community
• Bond Girl Tribute Section
• What happens to Bond Girls? Article on the fate of the actresses that played the iconic Bond Girls

• Articles lacking sources from April 2007
• James Bond