Who was the cinema's first "Bond Girl"?

The classic “Bond girl” is the woman who aids, fights, and loves the British super-spy, James Bond (pictured). Sometimes she is the enemy who is persuaded over to Bond’s side, sometimes his accomplice, sometimes the competent “female James Bond.”

Bond aficionados will almost certainly know that the first Bond film was “Dr No” (1962); there was a 1955 screening of Bond, but that was a TV production, not cinema. Some of the aficionados when seeing the phrase “Bond Girl” may be thinking of shell diver Honey Ryder (played by Ursula Andress) in the same film: her introduction, in which she rises from the sea in a white bikini, is iconic; but she was the second Bond Girl, not the first.

Following on closely as Bond Girls were Tatiana Romanova, who featured in “From Russia with Love” (1963), and Jill Masterson, who appeared in “Goldfinger” (1964).

So, the first Bond girl ever? Sylvia Trench (played by Eunice Gayson) appears early in “Dr No” in a scene at the London club “Le Cercle.” After some tense moments at the Baccarat table the following unforgettable exchange occurs

Bond: “I admire your courage, Miss, er... ?”

Trench: “Trench, Sylvia Trench. I admire your luck, Mr... ?”

Bond: “Bond, James Bond.”