The London Telegraph gives theirs. It’s four play-it-safe, obvious choices, and one total oddball.
My personal favorites:
Tatiana Romanova
Xenia Onatopp
Honey Ryder
Fiona Volpe
Aki
(Disclaimer: This list might be different the next time I’m asked.)
What are yours?
29 users commented in " Top 5 Bond Girls "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI like:
Vesper Lynd
Honey Ryder
Tatiana Romanova
Tracy de Vincenzo
Natalya Simoniva
I hope I spelled the names right…
Actually, I like Domino Derval (Thunderball) more than Tracy.
Anyone else like Domino? (Thunderball only, I dislike NSNA’s Domino)
I think she’s an interesting character, and very beautiful. She tends to come out way towards the top if the survey asks about the beauty of a Bond girl, but lower if the question is rephrased as “best.” The acting is weak.
OTOH, Dominal Petachi, the novel’s version, is one of my favorite Bond girls.
Personally, I think the acting is okay, and she has some very good lines.
What do you think of her dialog?
Good but not great. She’s an interesting woman, but the actress’s delivery flattens out some otherwise fine dialogue, and let’s face it, she’s totally overshadowed by Fiona.
What do you think about Natalya Simoniva? I have an autographed card from her. But thats not the reason I really like her. She has great chemestry with Brosnan.
Now that’s someone doing real acting, and I think she’s very good. Lovely, real, kind of down to earth.
Its off topic, but I didn’t know where to put it. I have an idea for the next edition of your book:
The amount of times Bond says ‘Bond, James Bond’
I added it on post-its in my copy.
I think it would be useful.
Interestingly, Goldfinger has 1.5 (He is interrupted with Tilly Masterson, saying “By the way, my name is Bond, J…” and is stopped.)
What do you think? I really like the idea!
It is doubtful I will ever add new sections to the book beyond new movie sections. Publishers tend not to go for these ideas.
How about: at the end of the book you put a new chapter saying how many “Bond, James Bond”s there are like this: (these are actual numbers form another site)
How Many Times Bond says: “Bond, James Bond” (In each movie)
DR. NO: 1
FRWL: 0 (or you could say ‘none’)
GOLDFINGER: 1.5
THUNDERBALL: 0
YOLT: 0
OHMSS: 2
DAF: 1
LALD: 1
TMWTGG: 2
TSWLM:1
MOONRAKER: 1
FYEO: 2
OCTOPUSSY: 1
AVTAK: 2
TLD: 1
LTK: 1
GOLDENEYE: 1
TND: 1
TWINE: 2
DAD: 1
CR: 1
QOS: 0
That’s a possibility…
What do you think about that? (I’m sorry about all of the comments, I just like to talk with other Bond fans.)
I certainly appreciate you doing the research for me, but book publishing is a business. I doubt I’ll get those changes in.
You’re not very nice. All I did was to suggest an idea to make you book better, and all you say is ” I doubt I’ll get those changes in.” All I wanted was a ” I like your idea.” or “It’s a good idea.” But all I got was you saying NO. From reading your book, I gathered that you were a light-hearted, nice person, but I was wrong.
I think it’s evidence of great personal wisdom for you to make decisions on my personality based upon this brief exchange. Most of us don’t have such insight.
Back to the Bond girl thing, its hard IMO to do a list b/c there are too many criteria, and types of girls. You have your bad girls (Xenia, Fiona, Grace Jones (yikes!), your allies (Jinx, Bond girl in DAD), and then you get into who is the “best looking”.
In retrospect I like the Roger Moore era movies the least, he was fortunate to have some great Bond girls. Barbara Bach was outstanding, as was the woman in FYEO (who acted mysterious as the role called for and was beautiful to boot). Octopussy has two great Bond girls, one good (Maude Adams) and one bad. LALT and MWTGG are average/solid (Jayne Seymour has this what am I doing in these clothes look most of the movie and Golden Gun was just so 70s). AVTAK is probably the biggest trainwreck with the scary GJ mentioned above. Dr Holly Goodhead could have been great, but is brought down by the overall bad second half of MR.
Brosnan had great girls across the board–GE is top 10, and yes I like Jinx although for some reason everyone else does not. I give DAD extra credit for Rosamund Pike’s “I know about you Mr Bond, its sex for dinner, death for breakfast” line. I just like TND across the board, what a fun movie, with a come hither Terry Hatcher and the mature yet attractive Wei Lee (sp?).
DR had one great BG in Vesper and one dud IMO in QoS where the actress was so sullen and pouty. Maybe I should try a list after all ha ha.
I’m not a fan of Holly Goodhead, but I know many people are. You’re right, Pierce has had great women to work with.
In my book, I categorize Grace Jones as a henchman. I think if you look at her as a Bond girl, she’s a disaster, but if you look at her as a henchman, an Oddjob type, she’s awesome.
Agreed about Barbara Bach!
Are you being sarcastic? As I said before, I think it’s a great idea. I loved your book so much, I wanted to improve it. I wanted to add more Bond movie info to an already packed book.
Why can’t you just say you like it, and we can be done with it.
THIS IS MY LAST POST ON THIS SUBJECT.
Fine, this is my last post:
Well? What do you think of it? As I have said many, many times, I like it.
I hoped that the author of one of favorite books would agree with me.
You know, I already said I appreciate the effort. And I do. If these lists didn’t interest me I wouldn’t have written the book in the first place.
Okay.
I’m glad we got the issue resolved.
BTW, I am 13 yrs old, and you shouldn’t take my comments as criticism, (like my Mom says you might have), but as ideas. I appreciate you talking to me. BTW, when I said I saw Thunderball as a kid, I saw it on DVD with my Dad.
Alex, like many young people, you are sometimes impatient. I run this blog and two others, and have a full-time job, and a home, and I volunteer. I go to the doctor, the grocery store, the vet. And sometimes before I have seen your first message I have a second one saying “well?”
So, yes, after a while I got sarcastic.
If you would agree to slow down and be more patient, I will agree to answer your questions more thoroughly.
If you want lots of people to chat with about Bond, you should visit the CommanderBond.net message boards. Those people are great.
Fine. I cannot tell you how obnoxious the whole “insight” thing was. All I wanted was a “I like it” or “I don’t like it”. And it WOULD be a better book.
>:(
I see the Grace Jones deal as a henchman rather than a BG–that’s the way to go.
THIS IS MY ONLY POST ON THIS SUBJECT
(Sorry, having the same first name as potential assistant made that impossible to pass up.)
First of all, I love your book. As a first-semester grad student with the eventual goal of being a professor in cultural studies, your book stands above the few other Bond books I’ve encountered by a long shot. I don’t agree 100% with your picks – and I feel you’re a bit harsh on Live And Let Die, but that’s okay; you nailed it in your intro saying every film/book/actor/girl is someone’s favorite, etc.
My favorite Bond girls, assuming this to mean the “main” girl, my own ranking centered on her assertiveness, beauty, and intelligence:
1. Tracy Bond (All of the above, I especially love her snap back at her Papa when he tells her to obey her husband and she says, “Of course, as well as I obeyed you!” My fiance threw her fist in the air and said, “Yeah!”)
2. Kara Milovy (Assertive? Not at first, but she practically matures in front of our eyes in the film. Beautiful? Goodness, yes! Intelligent? Mary Goodnight and Stacey Sutton she is not.)
3. Melina Havelock (Although she was young enough to be Sir Roger’s daughter, I think she fits into the story perfectly, seeking revenge against the same entity Bond is pursuing. She’s beautiful, deadly with a crossbow – seriously, how hardcore is a crossbow? – and a woman of adventure. Even if her car was a sardine can with wheels.)
4. Octopussy (Since Maud was damn near the only actress close to Roger’s age – and a pal of his in real life – they have a very visible chemistry. On top of that, she’s tough. Since I endorse the idea that each actor is a different man assuming the identity of James Bond 007, I like to imagine Roger’s Bond settled down with her and that A View To A Kill was little more than a hallucination brought on by some ergot-infested bread.)
5. Domino (Not a great actress, though most of that is due to the waif-like voice given to her in the dubbing room, but she establishes the role of “bad guy’s girl” perfectly. She’s quiet, insecure, tortured…and then finally kills the man who has been running her life. Throw in her jaw-dropping beauty queen good looks and you’ve got a wonderful Bond girl.)
Not unlike how you started your book, I’m introducing my fiance to Bond. We started with what was available to us at my undergrad school’s library – Thunderball, A View To A Kill (my logic being to get it out of the way, though it’s a piss-poor intro to Roger), Dr. No, Licence To Kill, and The Living Daylights – before going chronologically thanks to Netflix. We just watched OHMSS last night. She didn’t like George, but admitted she couldn’t see Sean in the movie, either.
Sorry this was so long; I saw your email listed on your personal site. I’ll be in touch.
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