The “Bond girl” trope is one of the oldest traditions in the James Bond franchise. Going back to Ursula Andress’ iconic shell diver Honey Ryder from the first Bond movie Dr. No, love interests have been a prominent presence in these action-packed spy adventures since the very beginning. They’re as inextricably tied to the familiar formula as pre-title set-pieces and megalomaniacal villains and blood-soaked gun barrels.
Since these roles tend to be one-note and sexualized, the “Bond girl” archetype has been criticized over the years. But actors like Andress, Honor Blackman, and Eunice Gayson have done wonders with these typically one-dimensional romantic interests.
Domino, the secondary Bond girl in Thunderball, is the mistress of Emilio Largo who views him as a kind of guardian and mentor. In the original 1965 version of the movie, Domino was played by Claudine Auger, who gives a forgettable turn in the role.
The more memorable version of Domino was played by Kim Basinger in the unofficial 1983 remake of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again (also starring Connery).
Tiffany Case works for SPECTRE without even realizing it in Diamonds Are Forever. This makes her a subversive spin on the familiar femme fatale archetype – she’s only a femme fatale unwittingly – but that subversion takes all the tension and conflict out of the character.
Jill St. John is confined to a clichéd Bond girl role, acting as a sounding board for Bond’s wry wisecracks, like when she says she was named after her birthplace, Tiffany & Co., and he quips that she’s lucky she wasn’t born in Van Cleef & Arpels.
Aki is an agent working for the fictional Japanese Secret Intelligence Service who teams up with Bond in his quest to bring down SPECTRE in You Only Live Twice. She dies early on, but she helps 007 get closer to tracking down his arch-nemesis, Blofeld.
Akiko Wakabayashi doesn’t have an awful lot to do in this movie. She’s introduced as a promising sidekick, but she’s killed off before she really gets a chance to shine in the role.
The conventions of the Bond girl hadn’t been fully defined when Daniela Bianchi played Tatiana Romanova (with her voice dubbed in by Barbara Jefford) in 007’s second big-screen outing, From Russia with Love, but the character is conventional nonetheless.
At the time, she didn’t adhere to any clichés because the franchise hadn’t been around long enough for them to become clichés. But, in retrospect, she’s a pretty perfunctory love interest.
On the whole, Thunderball is one of the most negatively reviewed entries in the Connery era of the Bond franchise, but its duplicitous Bond girl Fiona Volpe, played by Luciana Paluzzi, is a highlight.
She’s a classic femme fatale who presents a grave threat to the hero – not only in the most obvious external sense; she threatens Bond’s well-established masculinity by insulting him. Paluzzi does a great job of playing both the character’s seductive streak and her incisive wit.
Kissy Suzuki is another agent who’s introduced in You Only Live Twice as soon as Aki is killed. She essentially takes her place in the story and picks up where she left off.
Played by Mie Hama, Kissy shares a more tangible romantic connection with Bond than Aki. She had a child with Bond in the novel (the only character on the page to bear one of 007’s children), but she remains a conventional love interest in the movie.
In the role of shell diver Honey Ryder in Dr. No, the first Bond movie ever made, Ursula Andress was the original icon that defined the trope. If Andress hadn’t captivated audiences so profoundly when she stepped out of the ocean in Dr. No, the Bond girl archetype might not exist (which might not be such a bad thing).
Andress’ turn in Dr. No made her a renowned sex symbol, but she gives a great performance, too. Like all the best subsequent Bond girls, Ryder gets in on the action and has Bond’s back in the finale.
Before Bond girls were traditionally known as one-off characters, Eunice Gayson appeared in both Dr. No and From Russia with Love as Bond’s sometime girlfriend, Sylvia Trench.
Trench shares a biting back-and-forth with 007 and Gayson deftly holds her own in quip-offs with the wryly funny gentleman spy. She’s not just a one-note archetype; she’s Bond’s equal.
Connery’s third Bond film, Goldfinger, defined all the hallmarks of the franchise’s formula. Auric Goldfinger is the quintessential megalomaniacal villain, the drug lab explosion is the quintessential opening, the climactic Fort Knox battle sequence is the quintessential finale – and Pussy Galore is the quintessential Bond girl.
Honor Blackman made a fun comic foil for Connery’s Bond and nailed all the quippy one-liners. Her character doesn’t have the shocking tragedy of Jill Masterson, but she still steals the show.
