James Bond stands by himself as a character of any genre.  It’s been said over and over that he’s the man every man wants to be, and the man every woman wants to be with.   What makes Bond Bond is simple: the best British secret agent, he likes only the best of everything, dresses fashionably, prefers the best quality of drink including his signature shaken martini, he drives the best car, often an Aston Martin, and carries as his weapon a Walther PPK.   And yes, he finds himself surrounded with beautiful women.  Dubbed “Bond girls” over the past 50 years, the on-screen Bond girls sometimes match–and sometimes don’t–the character the role is based on from the original novel.  Not only a representation of beauty from the time of filming each Bond movie–at least in the eyes of the Broccoli family that produces and carefully selects who will be in each new Bond film–Bond girls don’t always serve as merely the film’s eye candy.  Bond girls have served as Bond’s love interests sure, but also can be double agents or villains, as partner or antagonist, driving the plot forward.  Often smart and tough, always glamorous, sexy, and sophisticated, often touting suggestive names they straddle the line between what some feminists might hate (after all, they are Bond girls, not Bond women), and the ultimate in femininity to aspire to.  Sometimes international models and sometimes international movie stars, they are as much as part of our popular culture as Mickey Mouse, Superman, and Uncle Sam.

So if you had to select one as your favorite, who would you choose?

Edit: With more than 350 participants, this is a pretty good cross-section of views.  The poll itself missed a lot of candidates to keep it small–we would run it much differently 10 years later.  Also, one guy “gamed” Caroline Munro voting from several accounts so that explains that anomaly in the vote spread.

Although you can argue that any woman Bond ogles in a Bond movie could be called a Bond girl, we’re excluding two characters here.  Judi Dench’s M is hard to categorize since a female M is new to the franchise and is not, as yet, the eye of Bond’s affection. Despite the real or feigned sexual tension, the five actresses playing Bond’s secretary Miss Moneypenny probably aren’t in the same category either (but some would justifiably include them).  In this poll we have selected only the lead Bond girls in each Bond film for your consideration.  We held back Queen Elizabeth II despite her role with Bond in the opening film to this year’s Olympic Games because we just know she’d skew the voting.  And we’ve even added the two new Bond girls from the new movie Skyfall.

Select your choice from these iconic images in the below poll and see if others agree.  If you think we’re missing your favorite, let us know by posting a comment.

And make sure you go through these photos first before voting–you may have forgotten all the actresses who have been in Bond movies over the past five decades.

*All images and Bond related trademarks © 2012 Danjaq, LLC, United Artists Corporation, Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. 007 Gun Logo and related James Bond Trademarks © 1962 – 2012 Danjaq, LLC  and United Artists Corporation.