Memorable Bond Girls

50+ and Fierce

Has James Bond finally learned to appreciate females of a certain age? In 2015's Spectre, Monica Bellucci, then 50, became history’s oldest “Bond woman” — her preferred term. Bellucci, at 52, played Lucia Sciarra, a mob widow and love interest of Daniel Craig, in his fourth outing as the roguish agent. Let’s see how she stacks up against her fellow stars.

Ursula Andress, 'Dr. No' (1962)

Sexy — dangerously sexy. That was the standard set for all Bond girls to come when shapely Honey Ryder rose from the sea, brandishing a pair of lethal weapons: a wide-belted bikini and a don’t-you-mess-with-me diving knife. Now 81, Andress went on to star with other movers, shakers and stirrers such as Elvis Presley, Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier.

Honor Blackman, 'Goldfinger' (1964)

Pussy Galore: The name was so titillating that no one noticed Blackman was 38 when she was cast as the title villain’s jet pilot. At 91, Blackman has lost none of the sass that landed her a roll in the hay with Sean Connery’s 33-year-old 007. She recently lashed out at aging male actors whose “pot bellies [put] their belts closer to their crotch than their waist.”

Diana Rigg, 'On Her Majesty’s Secret Service' (1969)

Like Blackman, Rigg was an alumna of Britain’s TV hit The Avengers, in which she played the lithe, leather-clad Emma Peel. As Tracy di Vicenzo, Rigg was the lone Bond girl to thoroughly win the heart of 007 — she was his only wife. The beloved stage veteran, 78, plays cunning Olenna Tyrell on TV’s Game of Thrones.

Jill St. John, 'Diamonds Are Forever' (1971)

After acting with Frank Sinatra in Tony Rome (1967), it must have been a breeze for St. John to portray diamond smuggler Tiffany Case. (The role made her the first American to play a Bond girl.) Last year St. John, 76, and hubby No. 4, Robert Wagner, made an unlikely Mr. and Mrs. Claus in the TV movie Northpole.

Jane Seymour, 'Live and Let Die' (1973)

The British-born star, 66, was 22 at the time of her breakout role as Solitaire, a tarot card reader seduced by Bond. Her movies have included the cult romance Somewhere in Time (1980) and The Wedding Crashers (2005), while on TV she anchored War and Remembrance and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Seymour became a U.S. citizen in 2005.

Britt Ekland, 'The Man With the Golden Gun' (1974)

Before Roger Moore’s James Bond locked her Mary Goodnight in a closet, the Swedish sex symbol had been divorced from Peter Sellers for six years and starred with Michael Caine in 1971’s Get Carter. At 74, she’s been doing reality TV overseas, notably a Swedish version of Real Housewives.

Maud Adams, 'The Man With the Golden Gun' (1974) & 'Octopussy' (1983)

A top model in the 1960s, the Swedish-born Adams, now 72, is the only Bond girl to appear in two official 007 films. (She also shows up, uncredited, in 1985’s A View to a Kill.) In Golden Gun she plays the tragic mistress of an assassin, while in Octopussy she’s a mysterious jewel smuggler.

Barbara Bach, 'The Spy Who Loved Me' (1977)

Born Barbara Goldbach in Queens, N.Y., the American model played Russian agent and Bond frenemy Anya Amasova. She earned no franchise points by calling 007 “a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield him against bullets.” Today the former Playboy pinup, 69, is best known as Ringo Starr’s wife. The two met while filming the 1981 comedy Caveman.

Grace Jones, 'A View to a Kill' (1985)

Having starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1984’s Conan the Destroyer, the fierce-faced Jamaican model, singer and actress made the ideal May Day, the villain’s bodyguard who routinely tries to bump off Bond. Jones, 69, last appeared in the 2016 film Gutterdammerung alongside rockers Henry Rollins and Iggy Pop.

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Carey Lowell, 'License to Kill' (1989)

The American model played ex-CIA agent Pam Bouvier, who helps Timothy Dalton’s Bond topple a drug baron. She went on to roles in Sleepless in Seattle, Leaving Las Vegas and TV’s Law & Order. Now 56, Lowell — who divorced third husband Richard Gere in 2016 — is a budding ceramist and documentary filmmaker.

Famke Janssen, 'GoldenEye' (1995)

Xenia Onatopp was an over-the-top name even for a Bond girl, but no one accused the Dutch fashion model of underplaying the sadistic femme fatale who crushed foes between her thighs. Today the 52-year-old Janssen has a thriving acting career (X-Men, Taken) and is currently on Netflix’s Hemlock Grove.

Teri Hatcher, 'Tomorrow Never Dies' (1997)

Before playing Paris Carver, the trophy wife of a diabolical media mogul, ex-NFL cheerleader Hatcher found fame on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. A staple on “sexiest women” lists, Hatcher, now 52, played Susan on Desperate Housewives from 2004 to 2012.

Michelle Yeoh, 'Tomorrow Never Dies' (1997)

Having starred in 1992’s Supercop with Jackie Chan, the former Miss Malaysia had the martial arts chops needed to play Wai Lin, a Chinese agent who joins forces with Pierce Brosnan’s Bond. Yeoh, 54, later starred in the Oscar winner Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
 

Denise Richards, 'The World Is Not Enough' (1999)

We may not have totally bought her role as an egghead, but as Dr. Christmas Jones, Richards looked better in shorts and a tank top than any nuclear physicist before. Her complicated relationship with ex-husband Charlie Sheen inspired a reality show in 2008. More recently, Richards, 46, starred in ABC’s Twisted.

Halle Berry, 'Die Another Day' (2002)

After becoming the first African American actress to win a best-actress Oscar (for 2001’s Monster’s Ball), Berry starred as Jinx Johnson — who famously reprised Ursula Andress’ bikini-clad emergence from the ocean. Now 50, Berry has played Storm in the X-Men franchise and will star in the thriller Kidnap next year.

Rosamund Pike, 'Die Another Day' (2002)

The British actress was 007’s perfect foil as Olympic fencer (and undercover MI6 agent) Miranda Frost. Twelve years later, she vied for an Oscar as scheming Amy Dunne in 2014’s Gone Girl. Pike, 38, is slated to don cloak and dagger once more in the Beirut-set political thriller High Wire Act, costarring Jon Hamm.

Eva Green, 'Casino Royale' (2006)

Before signing on as British Treasury agent Vesper Lynd — the second true love of Bond’s life — the Paris-born Green had made her debut in Bernardo Bertolucci’s explicit The Dreamers (2003). In addition to appearing in the 2014 sequels to 300 and Sin City, Green, 36, played the titular character in Tim Burton's 2016 fantasy film Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

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