Honey Rider played by Ursula Andress in Dr. No, 1962
Ursula Andress was the original, and remains the quintessential Bond
Girl, more than 45 years after she emerged from the ocean in Dr. No. In
the movie, she played shell diver Honey Rider to Sean Connery’s James
Bond and set the standard for future Bond Girls in terms of looks.
The scene in the movie in which she rises from the Caribbean seas
wearing a white bikini swiftly became legendary, and in 2003 was voted
number one in a “100 Greatest Sexy Moments,” survey in the UK by Channel
4. The bikini she wore was sold at auction in 2001 and fetched £35,000
($56,000 US).
In the movie, Bond travels to Jamaica to find out why weird energy
waves are interfering with missile launches. Like the many James Bond
flicks afterwards, he has to fight assassins, sexy, but dangerous women,
and in this case, a tarantula. With Honey Rider (and a CIA agent) he
tracks down the headquarters of Dr. No, a mad scientist intent on
achieving world domination.
Though Andress is widely considered to be the first “Bond Girl,” she
was actually preceded in Dr. No by two other female characters: Eunice
Gayson as “Sylvia Trench,” and Zena Marshall as “Miss Taro.” Andress was
awarded a Golden Globe in 1964 as “New Star of the Year” for her work in
Dr. No, despite the fact that her accent was so thick that her lines had
to be dubbed by actress Nikki van der Zyl.
Andress also appeared as Vesper Lynd in the 1967 James Bond spoof
called Casino Royale. Her voice was not overdubbed in that movie, and
she went from being the first in a long line of Bond Girls to acting in
numerous movies in Europe and America, including her role as Aphrodite
in 1981’s Clash of the Titans.
