Top 10 Best Bond Girls

There’s no better way to kick off this list than with the original Bond girl herself, Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress).

Dr. No was the first James Bond movie to be released, and it starred Sean Connery in the 007 role. When Honey came out of the water in her iconic white bikini, audiences were immediately transfixed. Despite all of the women that came after her, it’s Honey and that swimsuit that many fans think about when they hear the term “Bond girl.”

Honey is an independent woman who is used to taking care of herself. She makes a living collecting seashells and then sells them in Miami. Initially wary of Bond, she ends up becoming increasingly close to him as the movie goes on. Like most of the Bond girls that would follow, she’s absolutely smitten with him by the end of the film!

The ill-fated Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) is memorable for a very different reason. Indeed, her downfall in the first few minutes of the movie Goldfinger is something that no viewer will ever be able to forget.

Jill is the kept woman of Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe), the villain of this movie. Bond comes upon Jill when she’s helping Goldfinger win at cards, and 007 wastes no time in seducing her.

Unfortunately for Jill, this quite literally turns out to be a kiss of death for her. Angered by her betrayal, Goldfinger has his henchman Oddjob (Harold Sakata) knock out Bond before painting Jill’s entire body in gold paint. This causes the young Bond girl to die from skin asphyxiation.

The image of Jill’s body painted entirely in gold is one of the most memorable images in James Bond history. It also sets the tone early in the film that Goldfinger is one villain that is not to be messed with!

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In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Tracy (Diana Rigg) is the first Bond girl to completely steal Bond’s heart. While he had passionate connections with the previous Bond girls, Tracy was the first one to cause him to fall head over heals in love.

It’s easy to see why this happened. Tracy is a charming and strong woman who gives Bond a run for his money in a variety of ways. When Bond, who is played by George Lazenby in this movie, finally asks Tracy to marry him, it truly feels like he is ready to settle down and start a new life with the woman he loves.

Of course, things don’t end for Bond and Tracy the way that they hoped. The final scene in which Tracy’s fate is revealed is one of the saddest of the entire series. This certainly is the most tragic of the early movies.

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The Roger Moore James Bond movies are known for being the fun ones of the franchise. Live And Let Die kicks off his tenure as Bond, and it’s quite a wild ride!

The lead Bond girl of the film is the beautiful Solitaire (Jane Seymour), a voodoo psychic medium who is employed by the villainous Dr. Kananga (Yaphet Kotto). Solitaire’s psychic abilities depend on her staying a virgin. As you can imagine, this turns into a bit of a problem when she catches Bond’s eye.

Let’s just say that by the end of the movie, Solitaire’s psychic abilities are no more. Judging by how happy she appears to be with Bond, however, she doesn’t seem to miss them one bit!

In the very next James Bond movie The Man With The Golden Gun, Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland) steals the show. She’s a ditzy and inexperienced Secret Service staffer who assists Bond on his mission in Hong Kong.

Though Mary has quite a bit of courage, she’s also clumsy and insecure about her own skills. Unlike the previous Bond girls on this list, Mary is more of a comedic character. This makes her mix well with Moore’s lighthearted Bond.

Needless to say, Mary is also a gorgeous woman who has the viewer charmed in more ways than one by the end of the movie. They really don’t make Bond girls like Mary Goodnight anymore!

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Not all Bond girls have hearts of gold. It’s important to remember that femme fatales in James Bond movies are Bond girls too!

Few Bond villainesses are more memorable than May Day (Grace Jones) in A View To A Kill. May Day is the bodyguard and lover of the movie’s villain Max Zorin (Christopher Walken). She ends up being more formidable than many men, and she can more than hold her own against Bond.

May Day is a striking presence throughout the movie. Even when she is seducing Bond, there is something highly intimidating about her, making her one of the most unforgettable villains in any Bond movie.

By the end of the movie, May Day has a change of heart, and she makes the ultimate sacrifice to save the world. No Bond girl list would be complete without this incredible character!

The late 1990s were Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond era. Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) from Tomorrow Never Dies is the perfect first representative from his four Bond movies.

Wai Lin is a Chinese agent who has achieved the rank of colonel and is highly skilled at martial arts. She initially meets Bond when she’s working undercover as a reporter. They soon join forces to take on the evil media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), who is trying to start a war between China and the United Kingdom.

Wai Lin keeps things professional with Bond for much of the movie. By the end of the film, however, she’s fallen for him just as Bond girls tend to do.

In portraying Wai Lin, Yeoh performed her own martial arts stunts. This only adds to how impressive the character comes across onscreen!

In Die Another Day, fans are introduced to Jinx (Halle Berry) in a way that pays homage to the Dr. No Bond girl Honey Ryder. Forty years after Honey came out of the water in her stunning bikini, Jinx does the very same thing in her first scene!

As soon as Jinx meets Bond, the chemistry the two of them have with one another is palpable. She’s an NSA operative who teams up with James Bond to spy on the rogue North Korean agent Zao (Rick Yune).

Berry later described Jinx as being “fashion-forward modern and the next step in the evolution of women in the Bond movies.”

Audiences agreed with this assessment. In fact, Jinx was so popular that there were talks for her to be given her own spinoff movie. Sadly, this film never came to fruition, but the fact that it came close to happening is a testament to how iconic Jinx really is.

Casino Royale was the first movie of Daniel Craig’s tenure playing James Bond, and it did not disappoint. One of the highlights of the film was Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), a foreign liaison agent from the HM Treasury’s Financial Action Task Force.

Vesper is assigned to make sure that Bond adequately manages the funds that are given to him by MI6 for the high-stakes poker game at the Casino Royale. What Bond doesn’t know is that she is an unwilling double agent working for Quantum, the terrorist organization that MI6 is trying to stop.

Bond and Vesper quickly fall in love, and she ultimately makes him question his entire career as a spy. Vesper’s tragic fate changes Bond forever in a way that is felt for the rest of Craig’s movies in this franchise.

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Finally, there’s Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), who appears in both Spectre and No Time To Die.

Madeleine is a French psychiatrist who is originally affiliated to the Austrian Hoffler Klinik organization. She is also the daughter of the mysterious Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), a member of the terrorist organization Spectre.

Madeleine is a strong, rebellious and resourceful woman. This endears her to Bond immediately, and the two soon fall for one another. Madeleine goes on to have Bond’s only child, a daughter named Mathilde.

Madeleine epitomizes what it means to be a modern Bond girl. While she’s beautiful, she’s also fiercely intelligent. In the end, she belongs on the list of the best Bond girls ever!