For all his charm, James Bond has been upstaged more than once by the women sharing the screen. Here are 15 iconic Bond girls who completely stole the show from 007.
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15. Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana Romanova in From Russia with Love (1963)
Tatiana Romanova starts out as a pawn, a Russian clerk ordered to seduce Bond as bait for SPECTRE. What makes From Russia with Love work is watching her switch sides for real, not just for the plot. By the time she is pointing a gun at Rosa Klebb to save Bond's life, she has stopped being a honey trap and become someone with her own stake in the ending. Daniela Bianchi made that turn feel earned instead of convenient. | © United Artists
14. Maryam d'Abo as Kara Milovy in The Living Daylights (1987)
Kara Milovy was not supposed to be a cellist who moonlights as a sniper's decoy, and that mismatch is exactly what makes her stick. Maryam d'Abo plays her with a softness that never curdles into helplessness, especially once she is smuggling Bond across the Iron Curtain in a cello case. The Living Daylights lets her make mistakes and still matter to the mission's outcome. She earned her place at Bond's side instead of just being placed there. | © MGM
13. Barbara Bach as Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
"Anya Amasova doesn't wait for Bond to save the day, she brings her own gadgets and her own agenda." As a KGB agent teamed with 007 in The Spy Who Loved Me, Barbara Bach plays her as an equal partner who happens to be gunning for Bond's head over a dead lover. Their rivalry turns into something closer to mutual respect, ski chase and all. It is one of the rare Bond pairings where both sides walk away having earned the other's trust. | © United Artists
12. Diana Rigg as Teresa di Vicenzo in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Diana Rigg had already proven herself a formidable screen presence before she ever put on a wedding ring for James Bond. As Teresa di Vicenzo in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, she gave Bond someone worth settling down for, sharp-tongued and genuinely his match. Their marriage lasts about as long as the final scene, which is exactly why it still hits so hard. Rigg made sure Bond's one real loss would never be easy to shake off. | © United Artists
11. Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder in Dr. No (1962)
A woman in a white bikini walks out of the ocean holding a knife, and just like that, the entire Bond formula is born. Ursula Andress turned Honey Ryder into the blueprint every future entrance would be measured against. But there was more going on than the image suggests, since Honey survives on the island through her own grit long before Bond shows up to help. Dr. No gave the franchise its first icon, and it happened in under thirty seconds of screen time. | © United Artists
10. Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore in Goldfinger (1964)
An all-female flying squadron does not sound like a typical Bond setup, but that is exactly what Pussy Galore commanded in Goldfinger. Honor Blackman played her with a briskness that never once treated Bond as the smartest person in the room. She switches sides on her own terms, not because Bond charmed her into it. For 1964, that was a genuinely strange thing to put in a mainstream action movie. | © United Artists
9. Sophie Marceau as Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Elektra King spends most of The World Is Not Enough convincing everyone she is a victim. Sophie Marceau plays the reveal so calmly that the switch barely registers until it is too late. She is not a henchwoman or a distraction, she is the actual plot, running circles around MI6 and Bond both. Few Bond villains landed with that much patience. | © MGM
8. Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny in Skyfall (2012)
Moneypenny used to mean flirty banter across a desk and not much else. Naomie Harris rebuilt her from the ground up in Skyfall, opening the film in the middle of a car chase with a rifle in her hands. That opening sets up a reveal that recontextualizes everything, and it works because Harris plays the guilt and steadiness of it so quietly. She turned a footnote character into someone worth watching for two more movies. | © Sony Pictures Releasing
7. Grace Jones as May Day in A View to a Kill (1985)
May Day does not walk into a scene in A View to a Kill, she takes it over. Grace Jones plays her with a physicality that makes Bond look almost fragile by comparison, all sharp angles and total control. There is a stunt-driven energy to her that has nothing to do with seduction and everything to do with menace. She remains one of the strangest, boldest choices the franchise ever made. | © MGM/United Artists
6. Halle Berry as Jinx in Die Another Day (2002)
Jinx shows up in Die Another Day already mid-mission, climbing out of the ocean like she owns the beach. Halle Berry gave her the same swagger Bond usually gets, cracking jokes and taking shots without waiting for permission. The two spend the movie as equals trading one-liners rather than one rescuing the other. It is the rare Bond girl entrance that people still quote from memory. | © MGM
5. Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann in Spectre (2015)
Madeleine Swann was supposed to be a therapist Bond falls for and moves past, the way he always does. Spectre had other plans, and so did No Time to Die, which brought her back years later with a daughter in tow. She gave Craig's Bond something none of his other partners got, an actual future to lose. That continuity changed how the whole era was allowed to end. | © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
4. Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye (1995)
Xenia Onatopp kills men by crushing them between her thighs, and somehow that is not even the most unhinged part of her performance. Famke Janssen plays her like she is having the best day of her life in every single scene, laughing through car chases and strangling henchmen for fun. GoldenEye needed a villain who could match Bond's cool with pure chaos instead. She supplied it without ever blinking. | © MGM
3. Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Wai Lin does not need Bond to open a locked door, disarm a guard, or survive a collapsing building. Michelle Yeoh brought real martial arts training to Tomorrow Never Dies and the movie was smart enough to let her use it, handcuffing her to Bond and then having her do most of the actual escaping. The two of them work the mission side by side, trading rescues instead of one waiting on the other. It is still one of the only Bond partnerships that feels like an actual partnership. | © MGM
2. Ana de Armas as Paloma in No Time to Die (2021)
Ten minutes. That is roughly all Ana de Armas gets in No Time to Die, and she spends every second of it having more fun than anyone else in the movie. Paloma stumbles through a Cuban casino mission in a backless dress, nervous and undertrained, then starts dropping bad guys like she has done this her whole life. People walked out talking about a character who barely had time to get a last name. | © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
1. Eva Green as Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale (2006)
Vesper Lynd meets Bond on a train and immediately reads him better than he reads himself, sizing up his ego in one clipped conversation. Eva Green plays her as someone who never lets Bond get the upper hand emotionally, even while falling for him. Casino Royale needed her betrayal to actually hurt, and it does, years later, in every movie that follows. She is the reason Craig's Bond spent five films unable to fully move on. | © Sony Pictures ReleasingFor all his charm, James Bond has been upstaged more than once by the women sharing the screen. Here are 15 iconic Bond girls who completely stole the show from 007.
