Bond Girl And Rider Honor Blackman Dies

If you ride a Norton, you must be cool, right? (Ask EIC Hoyer for a definitive answer to that one.) And if you happened to have played probably the most notorious Bond girl ever, then doubly so. English actor Honor Blackman, best known for her role as Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, died this week. She was 94. The Londoner held a number of roles in her long career, including Cathy Gale in The Avengers (the hit British TV show, not the pulpy Marvel movies), but she made her greatest splash in that Bond film. And she rode motorcycles.

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Some might have objected to playing a character called Pussy Galore, but Blackman reportedly loved the notoriety of the role she played in 1964. Even though notoriously uptight US censors refused to allow the name “Pussy Galore” to appear on promotional materials (she would be billed as “Miss Galore”—lame), that didn’t stop the fun-loving Blackman from taking delight in embarrassing interviewers by repeating the character’s name over and over during a US promotional tour for the movie.

Before Bond, Blackman played motorcycle-riding, black-leather-clad Cathy Gale in the second season of British TV series The Avengers (she piloted a Triumph Speed 500 in an early episode). But even prior to The Avengers, it turns out Honor Blackman had an already developed adventurous streak; her working life began as a motorcycle dispatch rider for the Home Office during the Second World War while she was in her teens. Because men were being sent to battle Axis powers on the front lines, by 1940, nearly all dispatch riders were women. These riders played a crucial role in the war effort, delivering urgent messages and information between headquarters and remote field units.

In an MCN story years ago Blackman recalled: “It was pretty dangerous because we were in the midst of war and had to mask the headlights during the blackout. Bombs were falling, but the roar of the motorbike engine used to drown out the sound of the doodlebugs so we never heard them coming. It seemed terribly exciting to me."

In later years, Blackman continued embracing her joy of motorcycles; news reports show her taking delivery of a Honda CB200 in 1975 wearing her signature black leather suit.

Honor Blackman is survived by her children and grandchildren.