Honor Blackman, perhaps best known as iconic Bond girl Pussy Galore, has died. She was 94.
Born in 1925 in east London, Blackman studied her craft at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama starting 1940, supplementing her education by working in the clerical office at the Home Office. After graduating, she started a theatre career as an understudy in the play The Guinea Pig in the West End. That led to more work, and then switching between treading the boards and the screen.
Blackman's film debut was as a nonspeaking extra in 1947's Fame Is The Spur, and she would go on to enjoy a decades-long career that encompassed films such as 1965's Life At The Top, Jason And The Argonauts, Shalako, Bridget Jones's Diary. Her cult TV role as Cathy Gale in The Avengers led to landing Goldfinger, and the debut of the smart, no-nonsense, and entirely memorable Pussy Galore.
"Honor was an actor of hugely prolific creative talent; with an extraordinary combination of beauty, brains and physical prowess, along with her unique voice and a dedicated work ethic, she achieved an unparalleled iconic status in the world of film and entertainment and with absolute commitment to her craft and total professionalism in all her endeavours she contributed to some of the great films and theatre productions of our times," Blackman's family said in a statement. "She will be greatly missed by her two children Barnaby and Lottie, and grandchildren Daisy, Oscar, Olive and Toby."