It was a hard job, but someone had to do it. Shirley Eaton being painted gold.
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It could be said that Goldfinger was the first proper James Bond film, the first Bond blockbuster. It had a budget that was equal to Dr No and From Russia With Love put together (it recouped its budget in just two weeks – and was the fastest grossing pictures in history when it was released). It set the template that all the subsequent 007 films followed and is considered by more than a few to be the greatest Bond film of them all.
After attending Goldfinger’s Italian premiere in Rome, Federico Fellini was asked what he thought of the movie. His answer was “Questi sono i film che fanno andare avanti il cinema!” (“This is one of those films that make cinema move forward!”)
Shirley Bassey initially had problems recording the amazing climactic final note in Goldfinger and in the end, presumably to help with her breathing, she had to go behind a studio partition and remove her bra. During an interview with Jon Burlingame for his book ‘The Music of James Bond’ she recalled : “I was holding it and holding it. I was looking at John [Barry] and I was going blue in the face and he’s going, hold it just one more second. When it finished, I nearly passed out.”
Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore) meets Sean Connery (James Bond) for the first time before filming of the third Bond movie ‘Goldfinger’.
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First edition of Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger, published by Jonathan Cape in 1959.
During filming of the third Bond film ‘Goldfinger’ at Pinewood Studios, James Bond (Sean Connery) is thrown by Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) before romance takes over in the hayloft.
Shirley Eaton Goldfinger publicity still.
French soundtrack for Goldfinger
Eaton graced the cover of Life magazine in 1964 — covered in gold, of course! Of the scene where Bond finds her dead and naked, painted gold, she says: ‘I wasn’t entirely nude and I wasn’t completely painted gold — my scalp wasn’t painted and, as I was lying on my stomach, there was an area of my front, about 18 in, that wasn’t painted gold.’ Cover photograph by Loomis Dean.
Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) get’s a fit of giggles while pretending to submit to James Bond (Sean Connery) in this scene from ‘Goldfinger’, during filming at Pinewood Studios.
Goldfinger lobby card
Actor Sean Connery is flanked by “Bond Girls,” while on the set of the latest James Bond 007 thriller “Goldfinger,” at Pinewood Studios, near Iver Heath. Standing immediately next to him on the right is Shirley Easton, who plays the character Jill Masterson, others are unidentified.
Lobby card
Goldfinger US poster. Note the use of ‘Miss Galore’
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Pan edition of Goldfinger published in 1961
Publicity still of Sean and Shirley.
Honor Blackman, who plays Pussy Galore in the third Bond film ‘Goldfinger’, arrives at the world premiere in London’s Odeon, Leicester Square.
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