Eunice Elizabeth Sargaison (17 March 1928 – 8 June 2018), known professionally as Eunice Gayson, was an English actress best known for playing Sylvia Trench,

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

's love interest in the first two Bond films ('' Dr. No'' and '' From Russia with Love'') and is thus considered to have been the first "

Bond girl A Bond girl is a character who is a love interest or female companion of James Bond in a novel, film or video game. Bond girls occasionally have names that are double entendres or puns, such as Pussy Galore, Plenty O'Toole, Xenia Onatopp, o ...

". Appearing in this capacity in two movies, she was unique in this regard until Lea Seydoux (as Madeleine Swann).

Early life

Gayson and her twin sister Patricia were born in 1928 in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

to John and Maria Sargaison (née Gammon). Her father was a civil servant. The family lived in Streatham, London and moved to Purley, Surrey and later

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, before settling in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. There she attended the

Edinburgh Academy The Edinburgh Academy is an independent day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in the city's New Town, is now part of the Senior School. The Junior School is located on Arboretum Ro ...

and studied operatic singing.

Career

Gayson played a major role in the

Hammer horror Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic fiction, Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of thes ...

film ''

The Revenge of Frankenstein ''The Revenge of Frankenstein'' is a 1958 Technicolor British horror film made by Hammer Film Productions. Directed by Terence Fisher, the film stars Peter Cushing, Francis Matthews, Michael Gwynn and Eunice Gayson. In the United States, it wa ...

'' and appeared on television in series such as '' The Saint'' (which starred a future

, Roger Moore) and '' The Avengers''. She played the Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the 1962 London stage production of ''

The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, ''The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. S ...

'', during which time she also filmed scenes for the first two Bond films, '' Dr. No'' (1962) and '' From Russia with Love'' (1963). She remained a regular in London theatre, appearing in, among other productions, the comedy ''The Grass Is Greener'' (1971). In the early 1990s, Gayson appeared in Stephen Sondheim's ''

Into the Woods ''Into the Woods'' is a 1987 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. T ...

'' in the role of the grandmother.

Bond films

In the first two James Bond films, ''Dr. No'' and ''From Russia with Love'', Gayson played James Bond's love interest in London, Sylvia Trench. In early scenes, Bond attempts to set up a liaison with her but gets called away on a mission before anything serious can develop. This was intended to be a running motif in multiple films, but the character was dropped after the second film. The character is responsible for Bond's iconic introductory catchphrase, "Bond, James Bond"; when Trench introduces herself to Bond as "Trench, Sylvia Trench" during a game of chemin de fer in ''Dr. No'', Bond replies in kind, mimicking Trench's own cadence, after she inquires of him "Mister?" Gayson had initially been cast in ''Dr. No'' as

Miss Moneypenny Miss Moneypenny, later assigned the first names of Eve or Jane, is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. She is secretary to M, who is Bond's superior officer and head of the British Secret Intelligence Service ( MI6). Al ...

, M's secretary, while the actress who played Moneypenny,

Lois Maxwell Lois Ruth Maxwell (born Lois Ruth Hooker; 14 February 1927 – 29 September 2007) was a Canadian actress who portrayed Miss Moneypenny in the first fourteen Eon-produced ''James Bond'' films (1962–1985). She was the first actress to play the ...

, had been cast as Sylvia Trench. However, Maxwell found the Trench character too immodest, and their roles were switched. Gayson is therefore considered the first "

Personal life

Gayson married the writer Leigh Vance in 1953, a marriage that was featured on the American daytime television series ''

Bride and Groom Bride and Groom may refer to: * ''Bride and Groom'' (radio program) (1945-1950), an old-time radio program * ''Bride and Groom'' (TV series) (1951-1958), based on the radio show * Bride and Groom (rock formation) * ''Bride and Groom'' (book), a ...

''. They divorced in 1959, and in 1968 she married the film and stage actor Brian Jackson. She and Jackson had a daughter before divorcing after ten years of marriage. Their daughter Kate would later appear in the casino scene in the 1995 Bond film ''

GoldenEye ''GoldenEye'' is a 1995 spy film, the seventeenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Martin Campbell, it was the first in the se ...

''. Gayson died on 8 June 2018, aged 90.

Filmography

References

External links

Eunice Gayson
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gayson, Eunice 1928 births 2018 deaths English film actresses Actresses from London 20th-century English actresses People from Streatham People from Purley, London Actresses from Glasgow Actresses from Edinburgh