Rise and fall of a Bond Girl

It’s not often we have a Bond Girl gracing our pages, but here is Tania Mallett working as a model in the 1960s posing for Eugene Vernier who was a premier photographer for Vogue magazine.

Mallett says she got the part of Tilly Masterson in Goldfinger (1964) after someone sent a picture of her in a bikini to Bond producer Cubby Broccoli. She might not have had any acting experience, but she gave a convincing performance in her ivory Ford Mustang chasing James Bond in his 1964 Aston Martin DB5 down the notorious Furka Pass in Switzerland.

Bond used his extending spinning blades to force her off the road and she met her end via Oddjob’s flying bowler hat. Despite the film's phenomenal success, Goldfinger would be Mallet's only major big screen appearance. Mallet cited two reasons for returning to modelling and turning down all further film offers: firstly she did not like the restrictions imposed on her personal freedom when she was under contract during the film, and secondly, she said the money was "dreadful". She was initially offered £50 a week, and managed to increase her fee to £150 a week after tough negotiations, a fee that she was easily earning a day as a model.

The car in the picture is Vernier’s Jaguar XK150 – the young photographer’s first sports car. Working for Vogue must have paid well, but to work with the lovely Tania Mallett, I’d have done it for free. She would look good with any car – even a Bond!

(Text Robin Batchelor, Picture courtesy Eugene Vernier.)

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