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."