Asking someone who their favourite Bond Girl is a bit like asking what's their favourite song by The Beatles, everyone has an opinion and no answer can be wrong, unless of course you were to say "Denise Richards playing Dr. Christmas Jones", in which case you're failing at life. The following are, in my opinion, the BEST Bond Girls to have shared the screen with 007 in the last 50 years; not the hottest (although they are that, too) or the most iconic (although they are that, too), but the best for their individual reason. Come October 26th, this list may need to be re-jigged with the arrival of SkyFall's femme fatales - Naomie Harris's "Eve" and Berenice Marlohe's "Severine" - but until then, here come the girls…
10 - CAMILLE (Olga Kurylenko), Quantum Of Solace
She didn't end up in bed with Bond, in fact they barely had time for a single snog. She didn't have a funny double entendre name, in fact as far as we know she had no surname to speak of. Plus QoS itself wasn't much to write home about. But Camille was a diamond in the rough, all killer intensity and moral ambiguity, her lust for murderous revenge going head-to-head with Bond's. The stunningly beautiful Ukrainian Kurylenko nailed the Bolivian accent, as well as the pre-requisite smouldering nature of the character.
9 - ELEKTRA KING (Sophie Marceau), The World Is Not Enough
The only proper female Big Bad in all of the Bond movies, when the curtain gets pulled aside and Bond discovers it was King pulling the strings all along, it comes as quite a shock. One of the most psychologically complicated characters 007 has ever faced, Marceau did a fantastic job of making her Stockholm Syndrome-suffering super-villain both human and, more importantly, irresistible.
8 - MELINA HAVELOCK (Carole Bouquet), For Your Eyes Only
Those legs. Those haunting eyes. That… crossbow?? Yes, Havelock was another of woman out for revenge, this time getting payback against those who killed her parents. While not exactly a barrel of laughs to be around - she never smiles, and doesn't really have an awful lot to say - the sight of Havelock running around the woods armed with a crossbow is one for the ages.
7 - XENIA ONATOPP (Famke Janssen), GoldenEye
The Dalton Era had quite a dull set of Bond Girls overall, but with Pierce Brosnan's first outing as 007 we get the fantastically named Onatopp who enjoys nothing more than doing in her victims whilst, ye know, doing it. Famke Janssen and her has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed thighs brought a killer double whammy of outrageous sexuality and completely unhinged psychopathy, and made being a Bond Girl fun again!
6- ANYA AMASOVA (Barbara Bach), The Spy Who Loved Me
Sited as the point in the series when Bond Girls were no longer just play things for 007 to seduce (and, if necessary, destroy), Amasova was a Russian spy of equal rank to Bond himself, and was entirely capable of taking care of herself, thank you very much! Despite being an American - and the future Mrs. Ringo Starr - Bach totally convinces as a KGB agent torn between killing and falling in love with Bond.
5 - WAI LIN (Michelle Yeoh), Tomorrow Never Dies
An action star in her own right, Michelle Yeoh is probably the only Bond Girl who can kick ass better than Bond himself. Playing a Chinese agent trying to help Bond stop World War III, Yeoh choreographed some of her own stunts and fights, and brought her own stunt crew in to bring them to life. Plus she kissed 007 while he was handcuffed to a shower, so she's not all business.
4 - PUSSY GALORE (Honor Blackman), Goldfinger
That name alone would secure automatic entry on this list, but it helps that she stared in the best Bond movie (so far), as well as having Blackman's natural beauty, intelligence and sexiness. Combined, this makes Galore one of the most memorable Bond Girls in the 50 years of movies, playing Goldfinger's right-hand man, and the leader of the kick-ass, all-female Flying Squad; truly Galore was the first Bond Woman.
3- TRACY DI VICENZO (Diana Rigg), On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Despite staring in what is perceived as the worst Bond movie, alongside with what is perceived as the worst Bond (George Lazenby), Diana Rigg still left a lasting impression as the hopelessly-in-love Mafia daughter, giving genuine emotion to her character, as the only Bond Girl that 007 has ever married. And when Louis Armstrong's "We Have All The Time In The World" begins to play over the heart-breaking climax, we dare you not to shed a tear for poor Tracy.
2- HONEY RYDER (Ursula Andress), Dr. No
This is where it all began, with Honey Ryder and that bikini and those massive, eh, seashells. So defining that every Bond Girl has been compared to her since, and she iconic that Halle Berry recreated her famous scene in Die Another Day, Andress was the whole package - except for the voice; due to Andress' thick Swiss accent, all of her dialogue was provided for by another actress. Not that that bothered Bond, or us for that matter.
1- VESPER LYND (Eva Green), Casino Royale
Just as Daniel Craig's new era Bond was given depth and complexity, so was his female counterpart. Vesper Lynd was Bond's first love, and Eva Green played her to perfection. Not just a hollow character for Bond to bounce one-liners off, Lynd was incredibly smart and supernaturally sexy, and it was all too easy to see why Bond completely fell for her; so much so he even named a cocktail after her ("Because once you've tasted it, that's all you'll want to drink."). Eva Green has set a modern benchmark for Bond Girls, and to Naomie Harris and Berenice Marlohe, I wish you both good luck. You're going to need it.
