The Evolution of the Bond Girl: From Coy Coquette to Ball-Busting Badass

The Swiss-born beauty played Honey Ryder and donned the most famous bikini of all time: a white cotton number with bottoms outfitted with a British Army belt, brass knuckles, and a knife holder. The swimsuit was such a sensation it caused sales of bikinis to skyrocket.

The first runner up in 1960's Miss Universe pageant, she studied ballet for right years and was a professional model. In the film (Sean Connery's favorite of the series), she played a Bolshevik corporal sent to entrap James Bond.

English actress Shirley Eaton played Jill Masterson, who was killed by Auric Goldfinger himself after painting her body gold caused her to die of skin suffocation (which isn't a real thing). Unfortunately, it's considered one of the most sexist scenes in cinema history.

Blackman, who also starred in The Avengers, played Pussy Galore, who was a total badass and was said to be inspired by the love of James Bond writer Ian Fleming's life. "Pussy Galore was a career woman–a pilot who had her own air force, which was very impressive. She was never a bimbo," Blackman told the TV Times at 80-years-old.

Italian actress Paluzzi was famous for her portrayal of villainess Fiona Volpe, but originally went out for the lead Bond girl role Dominetta "Domino" Petacchi. However, she was pleased with the outcome as an evil assassin was just "more fun to play."

German beauty Dor was the redheaded, SPECTRE operative bombshell Helga Brandt and had one of the most horrifying deaths of the Bond series: getting eaten alive inside a piranha pool in under 30 seconds.

English actress and Avengers star Rigg isn't just the woman who got Mr. Bond to change his trifling ways—she play his wife, Countess Teresa di Vicenzo—but she also currently stars as the sharp-witted Olenna Tyrell, AKA Queen of Thorns, on Game of Thrones.

California-born St. John was the first American to play a Bond girl with her role as Tiffany Case—a wise-cracking diamond smuggler who was unknowingly working for Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Bond's arch nemesis and head of SPECTRE.

Seymour's role as tarot card-reading Solitaire (at the age of 20) brought her international fame—and it's all thanks to her long brown hair during an audition. "I was wearing a coat with a fur collar and a fur hat," Seymour says. "The idea being to keep my hair off my face and then when I took the hat off, my hair—which was very long and I sat on in those days — came tumbling down," she revealed in an interview with the My Big Break series.

Swedish blonde bombshell Ekland played Mary Goodnight, a 00-Section secretary who has a crush on James, but isn't afraid to call him out on his two-timing ways. On the topic of infidelity, Bond poses "Now, Goodnight, would I do that to you?" to which she responds, "Yes, James, you bloody well would!"

Queens-born Bach/Mrs. Ringo Starr played Anya Amasova, nicknamed Agent XXX, and became an international sex symbol with the release of the film. However, she doesn't mince words when it comes to her thoughts on Bond as a character calling him "a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield him against bullets."

Before becoming a Bond girl, Adams was one of the highest paid supermodels of her time, and had previously worked as an interpreter, seeing as she's fluent in five languages. After starring alongside Ekland in The Man with the Golden Gun, she was asked back by the series to play jewel smuggler named Octopussy—because her dad studied "octopi." Sigh.

Jones is unforgettable as May Day, the girlfriend of Bond's nemesis (played by Christopher Walken) who is also a henchwoman with superhuman strength. She leaves Bond shaking in his boots and we absolutely love it.

Both a cellist and a sniper, d'Abo's Czechoslovakian character Kara Milovy marked another different kind of Bond girl in that she didn't play the stereotypical Sex Kitten, plus she somehow manages to keep Bond monogamous throughout the entire film—which, unfortunately, is no easy feat.

Lowell's Pam Bouvier is another departure from the Bond girls of the past, from her more traditional name to her job description: a former army pilot, she still works for the CIA posing as a courier for a drug lord.

Polish-Swedish actress and model Scorupco totally passed as Russian playing Natalya Fyodorovna Simonova, a programmer at a GoldenEye space weapon facility. She, too, isn't afraid to give it to Bond straight. When asks him why he's so cold, he replies, "It's what keeps me alive," to which she responds, "No. It's what keeps you alone." Annnnd scene.

A spy for the Chinese People's External Security Force, Yeoh's Colonel Wai Lin is a master of martial arts. It comes as no surprise that in 2008, Fandomania ranked her as the second best Bond girl, stating that she was "the right type of Bond Girl at the right point in action cinema's evolution."

French actress Marceau's Elektra King is the daughter of oil tycoon Robert King and is the ultimate siren villainess. She flips the script on Bond, who falls in love with her while she completely manipulates him on her path to vengenace.

Berry stars as Giacinta 'Jinx' Johnson, an NSA operative who will make you seriously nostalgic for Honey Ryder. Costume designer Lindy Hemming insisted that Berry wear a bikini with a slot for a knife and emerge ever-so-sexily from the water as an homage to the original Bond girl.

Green is dangerously intriguing as Vesper Lynd (a pun for West Berlin), a foreign liaison agent assigned to ensure that Bond watches over funds when partaking in an all-or-nothing poker game. As the story wears on, he finds himself so in love with Green that he actually resigns as an agent. Naturally, they never get their happy ending...

Kurylenko's character Camille Rivera Montes is a Bolivian agent seeking vengeance for the murder of her family. Deemed the "hottest Bond girl ever," by Maxim, there's no denying that the Ukrainian actress is a stunner.

Marlohe's Sévérine is the ultimate femme fatale as a confidante to the film's villain Raoul Silva. The actress says she drew inspiration for the role from GoldenEye anti-heroine Xenia Onatopp describing her as "glamorous and enigmatic."

In the forthcoming Spectre film, Seydoux plays Dr. Madeleine Swann, a psychologist working at a medical clinic in the Australian Alps. " I don't consider myself a Bond girl. I think I'm not really the stereotyped Bond girl. I feel quite different. You can't be like, 'Oh, James.' You have to find something else. She's not a fighter, she's a doctor. She fights in another way," she said in an interview.

In the film, 51-year-old Bellucci plays mob widow Lucia Sciarra and says the film is "in some way revolutionary" in its treatment of women. Considering that the average age of Bond's love interest was around 29, we whole-heartedly agree.

Sigman, who plays the elusive Estrella is the first Mexican actress to play a Bond girl. "I'm a very proud Latina and a very proud Mexican, so it feels great," she told us when we chatted with her last month. "That's who I am. The fact that I get to show them my country, and that the whole world is going to see it and it looks absolutely beautiful feels amazing. There's no other way I could have done it.