What Happened To “Goldfinger’s Girl”? …. YIKES!

Goldfinger's Girl
BobLee
October25/ 2015

Shirley EatonShe was on-screen for less than 10 minutes…. but those less than 10 “golden” minutes are forever carved in the adolescent fantasies of every Baby Boomer “who identifies as ‘male’.”

 

…. She is Shirley Eaton a/k/a “the girl Auric Goldfinger painted gold because she “got it on” with James Bond”.  

Now 78 …. Uh Oh …. Shirley recently recreated her Andy Warhol’s moment of cinema-celebrity.

It’s stuff like this that we never had to worry about with Marilyn Monroe…. or James Dean.… or Janis Joplin.   Imagine a 79 y/o Janis Joplin !!!  Nooooo.

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Still gleaming! Half a century on, Goldfinger Bond girl Shirley Eaton recreates her most famous look for MailOnline – at 78

  • Shirley Eaton spent two hours having gold paint applied so she could recreate her famous 1964 Goldfinger pose
  • The original pose was used to promote the film, featuring Sean Connery, on the front of US magazine Life 
  • Now aged 78, Miss Eaton, said: ‘If you are young in spirit as I am, age is just a number. I have a few more wrinkles’
  • She said she decided to pose as ‘it was fun – and a challenge. I like challenges. And I did it for the older ladies’

 

 

Half a century has passed since Bond girl Shirley Eaton was memorably covered in gold paint for her role in Goldfinger.

Now, in a shining example of how age need not dim glamour, she has repeated the experience for the first time in an exclusive photo shoot for the Mail.

Miss Eaton, 78, spent two hours having gold pigment powder applied to her face, arms and torso so she could recreate the smouldering pose she struck for the front cover of US magazine Life, taken during the making of the film in 1964 when she was 27.

The original iconic image, taken more than half a century ago

Shirley Eaton, reprised her famous pose, left, for the 1964 film Goldfinger, more than half a century after the original iconic image, right

Miss Eaton who is approaching her 79th birthday, said it would be fun and a challenge to pose like her 27-year-old self, pictured

Miss Eaton, pictured, who is approaching her 79th birthday, said it would be fun and a challenge to pose like her 27-year-old self

Miss Eaton, left, who is approaching her 79th birthday, said it would be fun and a challenge to pose like her 27-year-old self, right

Of daring to peel off her clothes and be painted again, she said: ‘It was fun – and a challenge. I like challenges. And I did it for the older ladies.

‘Over the last fifty years I have been asked twice before by major magazines to do it but I said no. I always said I could only do this once in a lifetime.

‘But as I will be 79 on my next birthday in January, I thought, Oh, you only live once.

‘If you are young in spirit as I am, age is just a number. I have a few more wrinkles, of course, but there you go.’

In Goldfinger, she played Jill Masterson, the villain Auric Goldfinger’s doomed secretary who is murdered by him by being painted gold. At the time it was still widely believed we ‘breathe’ through our skin and that closing off all the pores in the body would result in a quick death.

Miss Eaton said: ‘It took about the same amount of time to paint me then as it did this time. The original body paint was an almost clear gel full of gold particles. ‘They had to leave a gap down my tummy because of the breathing thing. Everyone always says the gap was on my back for some reason, but it wasn’t.’

Her decision to relive the performance which made her famous comes days before the premiere of the new Bond film Spectre and in the week when fellow Bond actress Honor Blackman criticised men’s ‘obsession’ with the age of women and said: ‘Stop calling us Bond girls, we are women and actresses.’

Miss Eaton, pictured, said Sean Connery, who played Bond in Goldfinger was her favourite incarnation of 007 following her role in the film

Miss Eaton, pictured, said Sean Connery, who played Bond in Goldfinger was her favourite incarnation of 007 following her role in the film

According to the movie, Auric Goldfinger killed his secretary by covering her in gold paint, pictured, after she was seduced by Bond

According to the movie, Auric Goldfinger killed his secretary by covering her in gold paint, pictured, after she was seduced by Bond

At the time, it was widely believed that people 'breathed' through their skin and if if was completely covered they would die, Miss Eaton said they took the threat seriously, as they did not paint a section of her front for the famous scene where Bond finds her body, pictured

At the time, it was widely believed that people ‘breathed’ through their skin and if if was completely covered they would die, Miss Eaton said they took the threat seriously, as they did not paint a section of her front for the famous scene where Bond finds her body, pictured

Miss Eaton said she agreed with Miss Blackman, who appeared with her in Goldfinger as Pussy Galore alongside Sean Connery as 007, on the age issue but added: ‘I’ve always been called a Golden Girl anyway.’

Of the new film, she added: ‘I wish it luck. All the actors who’ve played James Bond have been good and they’re all different. But I think Sean will always be the favourite.’

Before Goldfinger, Miss Eaton’s acting work had included appearances in several Carry On movies. She largely retired from acting in 1969 after deciding to devote her time to her husband and children.

She said: ‘Being painted gold was an extraordinary thing to do when I did it all those years ago. Nowadays lots of people do that sort of thing.

‘I love to be with the make-up girls and the cameraman. When I gave up acting I didn’t miss the fame but I missed all the backroom boys who put us where we are.’

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