Roger Moore’s Top 5 Bond Girls
By David Pegram
We’ll continue our list of moments in honor of Roger Moore, with this look at his top 5 Bond girls. In other words, this is the best of the best. To make this list, each woman needed the following: 1. beauty; 2. wit; 3. daring or bravery; 4. a great name; and 5. a heart in the right place (in other words, be one of the “good guys,” at least by the end of story).
But first, to whet your appetite, here’s a look at some of those that didn’t make the cut:
- Octavia Smythe (Octopussy) and Andrea Anders (The Man with the Golden Gun), both played by Maud Adams
- Stacey Sutton (A View to a Kill) played by Tanya Roberts
- Rosie Carver (Live and Let Die) played by Gloria Hendry
- Mary Goodnight (The Man with the Golden Gun) played by Britt Eckland
- Corinne Dufour* (Moonraker) played by Corinne Clery
- Bibi Dahl (For Your Eyes Only) played by Lynn-Holly Johnson
*Note: Corinne may be one of the most underrated Bond girls of all time. She didn’t make the list, but another, just as underrated, did make it. Read more to find out who.
5. Dr. Holly Goodhead (Moonraker) played by Lois Chiles
Beautiful? Check. Smart? She’s a doctor, so check. Daring? Heck, she’s an astronaut. Check. Great name? What do you think? And to boot: Holly is a CIA agent. With a conservative style and sarcastic wit (as evidenced in her first meeting with Bond), Chiles portrays Goodhead as the “thinking man’s girl.” She is cool-headed but soft-hearted.
4. Melina Havelock (For Your Eyes Only) played by Carole Bouquet
Given that Melina is the daughter of secret agents, it makes sense that she acts out of revenge when they are killed. In many ways, she acts as the assassin in the film. At one point, she uses a crossbow as her weapon of choice. Impressive, indeed.
3. Miss Magda (Octopussy) played by Kristina Wayborn
Many Bond fans may forget the character’s name, as well as the actress’s, but there is no forgetting the piercing blue eyes of this underrated (and underappreciated) Bond girl from Octopussy. Her introduction at the auction, as Kamal Khan’s mistress, catches Bond’s attention…and ours. But most impressive is her bold acrobatic exit from the balcony of Bond’s room and martial arts prowess in taking out Khan’s armed guards. It is too bad that Bond was too fixated on Octavia (Octopussy) to realize that Magda was the real catch.
2. Anya Amasova, or Agent XXX (The Spy Who Loved Me) played by Barbara Bach
Anya’s relationship begins as cold as the war it is set against. Bond had killed her lover during an earlier mission. Bach is the perfect choice to play this cold-blooded Russian agent, at first attempting to undermine Bond. But she can’t resist him, either. We understand this in the film’s most tender scene, when she rests her head against his shoulder as they sail down the Nile in a Felucca.
1. Solitaire (Live and Let Die) played by Jane Seymour
You can’t talk about Roger Moore’s Bond girls without Solitaire immediately coming to mind. And for good reason. A psychic and tarot card reader, Solitaire loses her powers after losing her virginity to Bond, a courageous step to escape the life she’d been living. Her name, and use of cards, are both symbolic for the life she had always been living: alone, played with, and dealt out. Audiences can’t escape the implication that Bond saved Solitaire in more ways than one.
