If you’re an actress, pretty much the kiss of death is to become a Bond Babe. Think about it. How many people who’ve played Bond heroines can you name off the top of your head?
Ursula Andress. Honor Blackman. Diana Rigg. Jane Seymour. They more or less disappeared from the face of the earth. Latterly Eva Green, the astonishingly attractive Vesper Lind from Casino Royale, still seems to be earning a living, but she’s not exactly an A lister. As for any of the other 19 or so, vanished off the face of the earth, pretty much, as soon as the film hit the screen.
Anybody yelling that Honor Blackman went on to do The Avengers, as did Diana Rigg, think again. The Avengers first screened in 1961. Honor Blackman cropped up in Goldfinger in 1964. Diana Rigg was in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969, way after her rise to fame opposite Patrick MacNee. I see she’s cropped up again in Game of Thrones. Good for her.
Seriously, the Bond heroines’ careers are pretty much scuppered when they accept the role. I bet even Jennifer Lawrence lies awake of a night, dreading the phonecall from her agent.
Things are just as ill fated for the bad guys, if not actually worse. Gert Frobe? What happened to him after he got sucked out of an aircraft porthole? Quite a lot, but you have to rack your brains.
Donald Pleasence. After The Great Escape, the world was pretty much his oyster. Starring role in Fantastic Voyage. Then things went to hell in a handcart with his role as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in You Only Live Twice. Couple of appearances in the Halloween franchise, then not a lot at all.
Can you even remember who played the baddy Le Chiffre in Casino Royale? Or Mathis from the same film?
So if your agent gives you a call inviting you to Pinewood for a readthrough, don’t say you weren’t warned. You may get a lot of foreign travel, but make the most of it.
nobodysreadingme 
I always get mixed up between Donald Pleasence and Donald Sutherland.
I know what you mean about the actresses though. Teri Hatcher was doing quite well for herself until she killed her career in Tomorrow Never Dies. As I said on Facebook, Halley Berry, but she is one of the few. She went on to do Storm and Extant. Honor Blackman is one of the few that remained a household name, but that could well be because of the name Pussy Galore. Lois Maxwell did Moneypenny, and that’s about it. Samantha Bond after her stint as Moneypenny, she went on to do Downton Abbey.
Only a couple of actors carried on to have a successful career from bad boy Bond. Or Bond Bad Boy. Jonathan Price and Christopher Walken. without checking IMDB, I am pretty sure Walken was a bad guy.
Thankfully the actors who played Bond did well for themselves, although I think it funny that Roger Moore played James Bond years before he took the mantle from Connery. It was in a sketch show. Although I don’t think Moore did much after his go at the superspy. Connery just takes everywhere he goes, from The rock to Red October and a Scot playing an Egyptian opposite a Dutchman playing a Scot opposite an American playing a Russian. Dalton, who I personally think is the worse Bond, he still had – has – a successful career with notable roles in Doctor Who and Hot Fuzz. Brosnan, who I thought was good until Craig came along, can still turn his had to anything and is not typecast thankfully, with roles like Mama Mia and Danté’s Peak. I just hope that Craig goes on to stay successful now that he has hung up the Walther PPK.
Brosnan sucked badly. https://nobodysreadingme.wordpress.com/2014/08/13/how-not-to-have-an-argument-in-the-pub/
Christopher Walkern was in View To A Kill back in 1985, but really got moving when he played the demented Koontz in Pulp Fiction, then a whole slew of deranged baddies. He’s a bit like Gary Oldman, a jobbing villain to the gentry.
It was when I saw Craig that I realised how bad Brosnan was. He rarely moved his facial muscles. it was like he was talking with a face full of botox.
I had a soft spot for George Lazenby
He had some difficult shoes to fill.
Good thing I only took on one role in Jr. High… I can’t memorize lines. And almost missed a cue, well I guess I did miss it. Even so not everyone is cut out to entertain on stage or screen.
I don’t know or see enough movies anymore to enjoy any of the umity umpteen awards shows. Occasionally I’ll see a commercial for some awards show and I’ll be lucky if I can recognize one name of the honoree list. I don’t always know who or what the host did either. Just gimme a book… please.
Oh, I did find ‘You’ in my mailbox…I was just …not looking with both eyes. Sorry about that. Glad though that you got to travel. I’m looking forward to that …someday.
Last summer I spent sometime in Kentucky. But not quite like visiting Europe.
Not like visiting the 39 countries I’ve been to, I guess. But be realistic. You live in the US, you can go to the Arctic Circle, visit the hottest place on earth, go to the Everglades… All in the same country.
Well, yes I have driven through the Everglades. And was on top of the mountain in Maui… but not to the Arctic Circle. I guess the states are like mini counties as diverse as their cultural backgrounds are. 🙂
Wasn’t Halle Berry a Bond girl?
Al already pointed this out. 😀
And she made quite some movies after this.
NRM,
If you invert the intrigue a bit…Judi Dench is a Bond Girl. All in all, I do agree with you though, aside from a few exceptions being with James is a career cooler. Now if an Academy Award winning actress could loosely play herself as an actress that Bond beds while chasing a villain in LA and…during their romp Bond sees her Oscar across the room mocking his performance…maybe the whole franchise would fold.
RR