Honor Blackman Dies at 94

British actress Honor Blackman, who played one of James Bond's more memorable love interests, has died at 94. Family members in England say she died at her home of natural causes unrelated to the coronavirus and was surrounded by family, the Guardian reports. Relatives say she was an "adored mother and grandmother" who had "an extraordinary combination of beauty, brains, and physical prowess." Blackman appeared in more than 100 movies over her long career and starred as Cathy Gale in the British TV show The Avengers. But she was best known for playing Pussy Galore in Goldfinger opposite Sean Connery's James Bond, the New York Post reports.

Blackman—who was 39, five years older than Connery, when she appeared in Goldfinger—described her character as an early feminist and very different from the usual "Bond girls," the AP reports. She was given the part because of the martial arts skills she had acquired in earlier roles. "In so many of the films, the girls just looked at James and fell flat on their backs," Blackman told TV Times in 2014. "Yet Pussy Galore was a career woman—a pilot who had her own air force, which was very impressive. She was never a bimbo." (More obituary stories.)