Introduction
In part 4 of our ongoing Bond Girl series, we head back to the beginning of the Sean Connery era for biographies of Ursula Andress (Dr. No), Honor Blackman, and Margaret Nolan (Goldfinger). If you are just discovering this series of articles for the first time please Click Here for Part 1.
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman was born in Essex, England on August 22, 1925. At the age of 15, the teenage Blackman began to study acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. While studying there, she also worked as a clerical assistant at UK’s Home Office during World War II.
Upon graduating from Guildhall, Blackman worked in plays in the West End as an understudy but landed a role in The Blind Goddess, a play by Patrick Hastings, in 1947. That same year she got a role as an extra in her first movie, Fame is the Spur.
Blackman appeared in several films throughout the late 1940s through the 1950s including Diamond City (1949), So Long at the Fair (1950), and A Night to Remember (1958). She made the transition to television in 1959 with a recurring role as Nicole on the series The Four Just Men. In 1963 she appeared as Hera in the Ray Harryhausen classic Jason and the Argonauts.
Blackman began to study judo in the early 1960s, which had helped her land the role of Cathy Gale on The Avengers television show. Also, the Goldfinger (1964) script was changed to incorporate Blackman’s judo abilities.
Her character of Gale became a household name in England with both male and female audiences. This was in no small part to the fact that her dialogue in her 1962 episodes was written for John Steed’s (Patrick Macnee) original partner John Keel, played by Ian Hendry, who had left the show.
“(Blackman was cast in Goldfinger because) the Brits would love her because they knew her as Mrs. Gale, the Yanks would like her because she was so good, it was a perfect combination.”
– Albert R. Broccoli
Blackman’s Cathy Gale landed her the role of Pussy Galore in the James Bond movie Goldfinger. As a result, she left The Avengers to co-star with Sean Connery in this now iconic film. As a joke, the writers of The Avengers had Gale send Steed a postcard from Fort Knox. This was a little “Easter Egg” to tie the series to the climatic locale of the new 007 film.
Due to censorship concerns in America, the Bond producers considered changing the name of the character from “Pussy Galore” to “Kitty Galore.” However, the director of the movie, Guy Hamilton, fought to prevent this from happening. Blackman would often push the envelope in her promotional interviews for the movie by saying the name “Pussy Galore” as often as possible.
“If you were a ten-year-old boy and knew what the name meant, you weren’t a ten-year-old boy, you were a dirty little bitch. The American censor was concerned, but we got around that by inviting him and his wife out to dinner and (told him) we were big supporters of the Republican Party.”
– Guy Hamilton
After Goldfinger, Blackman appeared in several movies including Shalako (1968) with Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot as well as Something Big (1971) with Dean Martin. On television, she had guest spots on Doctor Who and Columbo. She also returned to the West End many ties over the years appearing in My Fair Lady, Cabaret, and The Sound of Music.
Honor Blackman was very outspoken politically and was an adamant believer that the British Monarchy should be abolished. She was offered a CBE award in 2002 but she refused to accept it since she didn’t want anything from a monarchy she didn’t believe should even exist.
In addition to living in England, Blackman had spent a great deal of time at her home in Maine. Blackman passed away on April 5, 2020, from natural causes at her home in Sussex at the age of 94.
Margaret Nolan
Margaret Nolan was born in Somerset, England on October 29, 1943, to an English mother and an Irish father. She primarily grew up in London.
Nolan began modeling in the early 1960s under the name Vicky Kennedy. When she was cast in an episode of The Saint in 1963 she reverted to her birth name, which she used for the remainder of her career.
1964 featured Nolan in her two most iconic movies: A Hard Day’s Night and Goldfinger. In the latter, she played the role of “Dink” and was also the girl who was painted gold in the title sequence and on the album cover. In 1965 she appeared in the November issue of Playboy for the James Bond Girl pictorial.
“I loved Sean Connery. He was actually more interested in my sister, who’s very much his type. I have a non-identical twin sister, but she’s quite petite with red hair, and she looks a bit like Diane Cilento, so he obviously likes these quite petite, high-cheekboned women. I remember he was very keen to dance with her! But no, he was nice – he used to give me a lift home in his Rolls Royce.”
– Margaret Nolan
Throughout the 1960s to early 1970s Nolan was a regular fixture on British television and movies with appearances on shows that included Steptoe and Son, The Persuaders, as well as Budgie.
Nolan also appeared in six Carry On movies, her largest role being in Carry On Girls, released in 1973.
“They (Carry On) were low budget films and we worked really hard in them. Most of the comedy was improvisation, the way we did it, and they have become multi-millionaires on compiling videos out of them, by selling them as videos and selling them to every single television channel in the world.
We could never get any royalties, because the deal was done in the days before films were shown on television, before videos even were invented. Equity and so many of the actors – most of whom have died now, the people who were keen on getting something done, like Bernard Bresslaw and Sidney James – we just couldn’t get anywhere, they were not interested in even just listening. Equity went to see them and they told them to fuck off.
If I had the energy I could pursue it, because somebody just recently has won a court case; it’s always to do with precedent, and on having the contract revoked because it was signed in a day when these showings didn’t happen. But you just need the energy, and I don’t know if I have it.
But it’s appalling to consider how popular they became and that no deal was made with the actors at all – so I don’t want anything to do with the Carry On stuff. They were good fun though, and I loved doing them. I want nothing to do with them. Absolutely nothing. I don’t even acknowledge…you know, there are people that have been writing to me over the years to put this in their book and that…they were such bastards, the ‘Carry On‘ people. They became multi-millionaires, both of them, Gerald Thomas the director and Peter Rogers the producer. The last time I saw them was the very last thing I did at Pinewood, where they acknowledged me; they were dripping with gold, and I thought ‘You bastards’”
– Margaret Nolan
During this period, Nolan married playwright Tom Kempinski with whom she had two sons. They divorced in 1972 after five years of marriage. In 1990, Nolan moved to Spain where she lived in a remote farmhouse in the mountains. In 2006, she returned to England.
Currently, she works as an artist making photo montages assembled from cut-outs of her early publicity photographs. They have been exhibited in London at the Brick Lane Gallery, The Misty Moon Gallery, and Gallery Different.
Nolan died on October 5, 2020, from cancer at the age of 76.
Ursula Andress
Ursula Andress was born in Bern, Switzerland on March 19, 1936. In 1952 she left school and worked as a model in Paris where she got involved with French actor Daniel Gellin. From there she went to Rome where she worked as a nanny.
While in Rome Andress attended a party that led to her getting some small roles in a few Italian movies: An American in Rome (1954) and The Sins of Cassanova (1955). A chance meeting with Marlon Brando led to her getting a contract with Paramount.
Andress arrived in Hollywood in December 1955. Due to her poor English and a lack of will to attend classes to improve she made no movies for Paramount. She bought herself out of the contract and signed with Columbia. She didn’t make any movies for them either. In 1957, she married John Derek and did not resume her acting career immediately.
Her next movie wouldn’t be until 1962 when she appeared in the TV series Thriller as well as the movie that launched her into stardom, Dr. No.
“As a result of starring in Dr. No as the first Bond girl, I was given the freedom to take my pick of future roles and to become financially independent.”
– Ursula Andress
The following year she starred opposite Elvis Presley in Fun in Acapulco and with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in 4 From Texas. In 1964 she made the movie Once Before I Die, where she had an affair with her co-star Ron Ely that ended her marriage to Derek.
In 1965 she earned the lead role in the Hammer movie She with studio stalwarts Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. She was signed on for the movie’s sequel but her contract expired before filming began.
“I was forced to do She. It was a very cheap Hammer film and the only thing I adored was the costumes. I was just lucky to look good in it because they photographed me beautifully.”
– Ursula Andress
In the mid-1960s Andress would appear in two huge hit comedies. The first, What’s New Pussycat? (1965) would co-star Peter Sellers and an up-and-coming comic, Woody Allen. The other comedy was a spoof on the James Bond series, Casino Royale (1967), which also featured Sellers and Allen but added David Niven and Orson Welles to its motley crew.
Andress acted steadily throughout the 1970s and 80s with Clash of the Titans (1981) being her most remembered role during this era. She had her only child, a son, with co-star Harry Hamlin who she began a relationship with during the filming of the film.
Since the 1990s Andress has been semi-retired from acting, only making sporadic appearances in public. She currently spends her time living in Rome as well as her native Switzerland.
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