Biggest Age Gaps Between A James Bond Actor And A Bond Girl

There are a few things that everyone thinks about in relation to James Bond – fancy cars, impossible gadgets, the way he likes his martinis prepared, and the fact that he frequently romances much younger women. Each era of 007 has seen its fair share of changes, but one thing that has held true from Sean Connery through Daniel Craig is that "James Bond" movies almost always feature actresses that are at least a decade younger than the man playing Bond. 

In fact, it remained so prevalent that as recently as the release of 2015's "Spectre," it made headlines that Monica Bellucci was to play a rare "older" Bond girl that would be charming the superspy — to which the always outspoken Craig told an interviewer (via NME), "I think you mean the charms of a woman his own age." Of course, Craig's Bond also played opposite several women over 15 years his junior, but he doesn't cast the movies so he can hardly be blamed for that.

The fact of the matter is that every single Bond portrayer has had a significant age gap between himself and one or more of the women who have played one of his beautiful and deadly allies or enemies — or most often, a combination of the two — across the decades-long franchise. As a note, just to keep things consistent, all ages mentioned in this feature were at the time of each movie's release, rather than when it was in production.

Roger Moore holds the distinction of being the oldest of all the James Bond actors at the start of his tenure in the role — the actor was already 45 years old when he made his debut with "Live and Let Die" in 1973. Given that his time as the MI6 agent was in the much less progressive '70s and '80s, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Bond girls of Moore's era were still mostly 20-somethings. 

When considering all of the Bond girls from Moore's run of movies, the 18 years that separated him and Maud Adams actually isn't all that bad by comparison. Adams made her 007 film debut at age 29 in 1974's "The Man with the Golden Gun" where she played Andrea Anders, the mistress of that movie's main antagonist, while Moore was 47. 

Adams is another actor that got to play a Bond girl in multiple movies, only she played a different character — the titular role in 1983's "Octopussy" — for her follow-up performance. By that time, Adams was 38 and Moore was 56. Remarkably, it wasn't even his last time playing Bond, which we'll be getting to later on. 

After the divisive Timothy Dalton era that saw the actor only get to star in two "James Bond" films, the franchise took a little time off before relaunching with the hugely successful "Goldeneye" and the beginning of Pierce Brosnan's time in the role. Though it's debatable whether that movie's main Bond girl is Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) or Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco), Janssen was a bit closer in age to Brosnan at the time with only 13 years between them. 

On the other hand, Brosnan was 43 years old for his Bond debut while Scorupco was only 25, making their age gap 18 years. All of the main "Goldeneye" actors have the unique distinction of having been immortalized in the beloved 1997 video game adaption of the film for the Nintendo 64, which saw a remastered version released in 2023. Since the remaster uses both actors' faces from the original movie, it gave the 43-year-old Brosnan and the 25-year-old Scorupco the chance to live again in digital form nearly 30 years after they first played their respective roles.

While it was both the highest-grossing Roger Moore Bond film as well as the top-grossing "James Bond" movie overall at the time, 1979's "Moonraker" is often cited as the prime example of the franchise's campiness going a little too far over the top. An attempt to capitalize on "Star Wars" hysteria by taking Bond into space, "Moonraker" was also noteworthy in that it marked the final appearance of actor Bernard Lee as M. Lee, along with Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny, who were the only two actors that had been with the franchise since the release of "Dr. No" in 1962.

Getting back to "Moonraker" seeing Bond traditions taken to extreme levels, the main girl has the absurd name of Holly Goodhead. At least the actor who played her, Lois Chiles, was an "older" love interest for the Moore era at 32 — but she was still 19 years younger than the 51-year-old Moore. And given some of the age gaps we've yet to address between Moore and some of his other Bond girls, 19 years doesn't even seem all that big a deal. 

Now we're getting into the age gaps that can be described as multiple decades long. The first time Roger Moore suited up as James Bond was in 1973's "Live and Let Die," which is arguably as well-known for its masterpiece Paul McCartney theme song of the same name as the movie itself. That isn't necessarily a knock on the movie, though — it just happens to have an amazing theme song. 

But in all seriousness, "Live and Let Die" was a bit divisive at the time of release for feeling more like a blaxploitation movie than a "James Bond" sequel, though that fact is also why a lot of people love it. The movie also has a fairly unique Bond girl in that it wasn't necessarily her best-known role, which has been the case for the vast majority of the actors who have taken on the gig.

While definitely the breakthrough performance for Jane Seymour, the actor would go on to have a long career that would include multiple roles that she is now arguably more well known for than playing one-named Bond girl, Solitaire. As previously mentioned, Moore was already 45 years old at the beginning of his "Bond" career, which put him 23 years ahead of the then-22-year-old Seymour.

Capitalizing on the fact that it was released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the "James Bond" film franchise, 2002's "Die Another Day" included references and Easter eggs to all 19 of the previous 007 movies released up to that point. Some were obvious, such as characters literally speaking the titles of movies, while others were a bit more subtle and required an eagle eye and a well-timed press of the pause button. Unfortunately, all the fun of placing and looking for those references was wasted on what is often called the worst 007 movie of all time. 

It's too bad that Pierce Brosnan had to end his era with such a disappointing entry, and also not fair to the very talented Rosamund Pike that she got stuck being a Bond girl in it. Even worse is that Pike would later reveal in an Amazon Audible Sessions interview (via IndieWire) that she was told she'd have to strip down to her underwear for her audition. Though she was only 23 years old and it was her very first film role, she refused that request but landed the role anyway — where she played double agent Miranda Frost opposite Brosnan who was 49 at the time. That separated them by 26 years, more years than Pike had been alive at that point.

It's almost as if the people behind the "James Bond" movies wanted to really outdo themselves when it came to wrapping up Roger Moore's then-unprecedented 12-year run playing the secret agent. And one of the ways they did that was to cast a literal teenager in the role of Jenny Flex, which would've already been pushing the envelope anyway, but it was especially so when the actor playing opposite the teenager was, by that point, a 58-year-old actor.

In 1985's "A View to a Kill," Jenny Flex was played by Alison Doody, who would appear alongside Sean Connery — also as a love interest of sorts — a few years later when she starred as Dr. Elsa Schneider in 1989's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," but she was at least 23 years old by that point, and only 33 years apart from Connery. The 38 years between Doody and Moore, however, is definitely one for the books. Luckily, despite frequently being considered — and definitely having a name worthy of — a Bond girl, Jenny Flex barely even flirts with Bond, let alone engages in any sort of real intimacy with him. So that's something at least.