To celebrate the upcoming Bond film Quantum of Solace, and the new bond girls Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton, here is a mini gallery of Ursula Andress who is undoubtedly the most memorable Gond girl of them all. Will Honey Rider every be unseated by another Bond Girl?

Barbara Broccoli, joint owner and producer of the 007 franchise has said that the women in the secret agent’’s early adventures were “progressive” role models. She also said that characters like Honey Rider, played by Ursula Andress in Dr No (1962), and Pussy Galore, played by Honor Blackman in Goldfinger (1964), were feminist icons.

“The women were unique for their time. Pussy Galore, for instance, was a female pilot. A lot of them were sexual predators who gave as good as they got. They had professional careers and did extraordinary things. I think the early women were very progressive,” Telegraph quoted her, as saying.

However, her comments elicited angry response from feminists.

According to her, there was a difference between the female characters who appeared alongside Sean Connery in 1960s and those who appeared opposite Sir Roger Moore in the 1970s.

Andress became famous as Honey Ryder, a shell diver and James Bond’s object of desire in Dr. No (1962), the first Bond movie (BBC January 2001). It is a moving sequence, as she rises out of the Caribbean Sea in a white bikini. The scene made Andress the “quintessential” Bond girl (Thomas 1999), and is now considered iconic (Westcott 2006).

Read more