'Goldfinger' Star Shirley Eaton Stuns At 85 — Look At Her Today

Aug 19, 2022 by apost team

James Bond awakes after having passed out on the floor in front of his refrigerator. He staggers up, bracing himself on a kitchen counter. Moving to the bedroom still mildly delirious, he calls out, "Jill?" Turning on the lights, he is shocked to see Jill lying face down on the bed, covered from head to toe in gold, dead from "skin suffocation." 

This was the iconic scene seared into the minds of cinema lovers from the third installment of the James Bond film series "Goldfinger," released in 1964. The film starred Scottish actor Sean Connery, reprising his role as the MI6 agent for the third time. While the plot of the film is the usual Bond run of espionage, secret dealings and shoot-outs, the famous image of Bond girl Jill Masterson covered in gold is so celebrated it even made it to the cover of Life magazine.

While there were myths that the actress who played the unfortunate Bond girl had herself died of "skin asphyxiation" from being painted gold, this is far from the truth.

Shirley Eaton is very much alive, and at 85 years of age, she still remembered the 24-carat-gold death scene like it was yesterday. 

"I had made twenty-one films before 'Goldfinger' and the producers just called my agent to have an interview with me, asking me if I minded being naked and painted gold, to which I replied, with a smile: 'Fine, if it is done tastefully,'" she had said in a 2014 interview.

Eaton's role as the aide-de-camp to Bond's nemesis Auric Goldfinger in the film sealed her bombshell status and place in the legion of most memorable Bond girls. Read on to find out her reaction to the role and what she's been up to since.

Eaton recalled that putting on the gold paint was "very uncomfortable" and worse still to take off.

"It didn't take long to get it on. About an hour I think. But getting it off was awful. I had to scrub it off with soap and water, then have several Turkish baths," she said in 2008.

Before donning the gold paint, Eaton had had a successful acting career. Born on Jan. 12, 1937, in Middlesex in the United Kingdom, Eaton started out as a singer before transitioning to acting. Among her roles was one in "The Saint" with would-be Bond Roger Moore. When asked to compare Connery and Moore to Bonds, for her, there was no competition.

"All the actors who've played James Bond have been good and they're all different. But I think Sean will always be the favorite," she told Daily Mail in 2015.

"Sean was the sexiest actor I've worked with," Eaton added. "We had wonderful chemistry together."

After her character's ill-fated turn in "Goldfinger," Eaton starred in a handful more films, including "The Naked Brigade," "Eight on the Lam," "The Million Eyes of Sumuru," "The Blood of Fu Manchu" and "The Girl from Rio." In 1969, Eaton retired from acting to take on her new role as a mother full-time. 

Only 32 at the time, she said she has never regretted her decision to step away from the spotlight.

"A career is a career, but you're a mother until you die. The most important thing for me was being a woman and having a family more than being a very famous glamorous actress," she said. 

On whether she had ever been tempted to return to the screen, she said, "absolutely not. I was enjoying life to the fullest just being Shirley, mother and a wife."

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Despite her retirement in 1969, the world has not been able to forget Eaton's star-making turn in the Bond series. In 2015 at the age of 78, Eaton even recreated her Life magazine cover, spending two hours being glazed in gold, to stunning effect. The photos are a testament to Eaton's timeless beauty, as she looked just as gorgeous at 78 as she did when she was 27.

"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," she said after the shoot.

So what's her secret? Eaton said she doesn't really do anything to keep fit, and it all boiled down mostly to good genes.

"I don't do anything to keep fit now, but staying in shape is in the genes," she explained, adding she has never gone on a diet.

"I have been nine stone (approximately 126 pounds) throughout my career and still am now (I'm 5'6"). When women are stressed, they either eat too much and get fat, or they eat not so much and get thin, and the latter is what happens to me. Apart from when I was having my two sons, I've always been nine stone. I eat what I want but in moderation."

She said while she does have some vices and arthritis in her legs has "slowed" her down, going sober at 40 may have contributed to her good health.

"My only vice is smoking ten cigarettes a day. I haven't switched to vaping. Oh, and I do like chocolate."

Do you remember Shirley Eaton's iconic death scene in "Goldfinger?" Is she among your favorite Bond girls? Let us know, and pass this on to all the spy fans out there.