Before Christina Hendricks breakthrough role as Joan Holloway on Mad Men, she was a Bond girl. The James Bond movies were based on the bestselling novels by author Ian Fleming. Producers originally sought out a more recognizable name like Cary Grant or David Niven for the part but they ended up going for a little known Scottish actor named Sean Connery. Of course, the rest is history, with Dr. No making Connery an instant movie star and it launched a movie franchise that is still running over half a century later.

The fortunes of the James Bond franchise has gone up and down over the years, such as Connery quitting after five movies, which threatened to bring down the series. These fears would prove unfounded, with Roger Moore’s reign starting with 1973’s Live And Let Die proving the character had plenty of life. Daniel Craig made his debut as the character in 2006’s Casino Royale and is considered one of the best actors to have inherited the role. The currently untitled James Bond 25, directed by Cary Fukunaga (True Detective), is set to be Craig’s final outing as Bond.

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Many iconic actresses have appeared in the Bond series over the years, including Diana Rigg (Game Of Thrones), Michelle Yeoh, Honor Blackman, and Famke Janssen. Prior to her role as Joan Holloway on AMC’s Mad Men, Christina Hendricks was arguably best known for playing thief Saffron on Firefly. What some fans may not know about Christina Hendricks before she was famous is that she became a Bond girl in 1997.

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The franchise is no stranger to promotional tie-ins and endorsements, with Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond recruited to promote the Visa Check Card during the release of 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies. One such TV advert featured Brosnan’s Bond going through a lot of security checks just to get a cup of tea, where he’s served by a young Christina Hendricks. Hendricks dons a British accent during the clip and demands ID from Bond before serving him. That’s when Desmond Llewelyn’s Q advises Bond to get himself a Visa Check Card to save himself hassle in future, in typically grumpy Q fashion.

Naturally, being a promo from the late 1990s its all very tongue in cheek and silly, but its fun to see Christina Hendricks before she was famous putting Bond on the spot. It would be great to see Hendricks return in a future James Bond movie someday, and she most recently appeared in TV series Tin Star and voiced Gabby Gabby in Toy Story 4.

Key Release Dates
  • No Time to Die/James Bond 25 (2021)Release date: Oct 08, 2021
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About The Author


Padraig Cotter
(3485 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

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He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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