I have always disliked the term “Bond girl” for female actors who either are for, with or go to bed with the famous British spy “James Bond.” You know, “007.” I disliked it not necessarily for its sexism (which can be explained, but not excused, because it was rampant back in the day in such films, right on through the first at least three decades spanned by the franchise), but more for accuracy. Now, at the death of an early, so-called “Bond girl,” I’ll take a moment to honor … Honor Blackman, who was certainly a mature woman – and absolutely no “girl” – who first opposed and then allied herself with the internationally famous hero.
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Blackman, who died at 94 on April 6, 2020, in her native England, arrived in the 007 world as a character with a great double entendre name: “Pussy Galore” in the classic “Goldfinger” with that best-ever “Bond,” Sean Connery (click here for my review). That’s Honor in “Goldfinger” in the big photo at the top of this posting.
Not only was she not just some vapid person attracted to 007, her character was a pilot and headed up an all-female stunt-flying team (a big step up for women in cinema at the release of “Goldfinger” in the mid-1960s). Further, she ultimately joined the good guys and was a key to saving the day.
So, a “girl?”
No.
Honor Blackman, both on- and off-screen (click here for her biography on Wiki … or click here for her official Twitter feed), was first and foremost an actor, not someone who had a place in the movie simply because of her beauty.
Blackman was beautiful and she was 39 at the premiere of “Goldfinger,” a bit older than Jill St. John’s 30 for “Diamonds are Forever” (click here for my review) and ahead of that original “Bond girl” Ursula Andress, who was 26 at the U.S. premiere of “Dr. No” (click here for my review).
However, Honor Blackman should absolutely never be remembered as a “Bond girl” or for a give-a-snicker name. Blackman was an actor. She had an impressive resume of 115 acting credits spanning an incredible eight decades from her first (an uncredited role in 1947’s “Fame is the Spur”) to her second (Blackman’s first official credit as “Julie Tallent” in 1948’s “Daughter of Darkness”). Her final credit was in 2015 for “The Other Mother” episode of “You, Me & Them.”
As for other works, Blackman was most likely best known to American audiences for “The Avengers” and she was in films such as “The Secret of My Success” with Shirley Jones and Stella Stevens, with Renée Zellweger in “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and I enjoyed her work in the original “Jason and the Argonauts” (click here for my look at that one).
Blackman earned a Special Award from BAFTA (think the British Oscars-Emmys) for her TV work with TV’s “The Avengers” and shared it with Joanna Lumley, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorsen. Rigg was “Emma Peel” in the original series and Thorsen was “Tara King.” Blackman played “Catherine Gale” for 43 episodes of the show from 1962-1964. Lumley portrayed “Purdey” in the remade “The New Avengers” in the 1970s.
So, no “girl” here. Just a solid actor who was a woman.
Many other “Bond girls” would follow – both as co-stars such as Barbara Bach, who turned 30 in the month of the premiere of “The Spy Who Loved Me” (click here for my review), or in support as more of the “true” Bond girl, such as international-class ice skater-turned-actor Lynn-Holly Johnson, who was 23 at the premiere of “For Your Eyes Only”).
In the end, the label “Bond girl” is mostly unfounded and usually inaccurate, but it is in the lexicon of cinema and understandable given the context of the time the phrase was coined. I’ve used an actor’s age here as context for the premise behind those who were so-called “Bond girls.”
No matter, though, for all the talk or written word(s). Honor Blackman made her mark on the big screen. Thanks, Honor! RIP.
PS – Here’s the link to her obit in The Guardian and is the source of the photo of Blackman from “Goldfinger” that I’ve used on this blog post.
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