Honeychile Rider is a character in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel Dr No. In the 1962 Bond film of the same name, her name was shortened to Honey Ryder. In the film she is played by Swiss actress Ursula Andress and due to her heavy accent was dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl. In good Bond girl fashion, her name was a double entendre for the classic sexual position of a girl riding on top.

Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder.

In the film, Rider is widely regarded as the first Bond Girl, although she is not the first woman in the film to be with Bond (that distinction belongs to Sylvia Trench, while Miss Taro was Bond’s first mission-related “conquest”). Her entrance in the film, emerging from the ocean in a white bikini with two large sea shells, while the sun shines on her wet blonde hair, is considered a classic James Bond moment and is one of the most popular scenes in cinematic history. As an homage, Halle Berry enacted a similar scene in an orange bikini in the James Bond film, Die Another Day. Mariah Carey also refers to this scene in the music video for her song “Honey.”

The character was mentioned by name in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as a “beautiful movie star.” Andress is the first of only two entertainers who have actually starred in a Bond film to be mentioned by Fleming in his James Bond novels. The other is David Niven who co-starred as James Bond in the 1967 film adaptation of Casino Royale along with Andress.

In 2003, in a UK Survey by Channel 4, the character’s entrance in Dr No was voted #1 in “the 100 Greatest Sexy Moments” (BBC 2003). Andress referred to the Dr No bikini as the “secret of her success”.

Novel biography: Honeychile Rider is a Jamaican shell diver, descended from an old-established colonial family. She is orphaned at the age of five when her parents’ house is burned down. She then lives with her black nanny in a cellar until she is 15, when her nanny dies. Rider reveals that she is also raped as a young girl by the overseer of the property on which she lives.

Rider is an independent and very beautiful woman, with the minor imperfection of a broken nose. She becomes a shell diver near Crab Key in order to make enough money by selling them to American collectors, so that she can then have a nose operation.

While on Crab Key, she meets James Bond and is later captured by Dr Julius No, who attempts to kill her by tying her to some rocks and allowing crabs to eat her alive. However, she is aware that the crabs do not like human flesh and they won’t attack her. She manages to escape, meets with a badly injured Bond, and they leave the island.

It is implied that she and Bond later take a vacation to New York, where Bond plans to help her find work in a museum and also plans to get her nose fixed.

Rider is one with nature. She tells Bond that she has read the encyclopedia from A to the middle of T and she expresses great value for life, animals, and humans. In later novels, Bond divulges that Rider moved to Philadelphia, where she married a doctor by the name of Wilder and had two children from him.

Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder.

Film biography: As in the novel, Honey Ryder is an independent woman claiming to not need help from anyone. Resourceful and courageous, she states that she can defend herself against any hostile when she first meets Bond. Although she is at first wary of Bond, he is allowed to get closer when he says his actions are honourable.

Like Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, Honey doesn’t appear until half way through the film. She comes out of the ocean singing “Under the Mango Tree”, Bond scares her by joining in singing. She pulls her dagger out, wary of Bond’s position but grows to trust him. Honey shows Quarrel and Bond a way to evade No’s men when caught. After they escape, she tells Bond how her father died when on Crab Key, after which she was raped by a local landlord. Honey relates how she got her revenge by putting a black widow spider in his mosquito net and causing his lingering death. This shows a very deadly side to her, though she maintains a look of innocence and naivety.

When in a marshy region of the island, Quarrel, Bond, and Honey have a close encounter with No’s “dragon”. Quarrel dies and the other two are captured. No’s men wash away radiation that Honey and Bond got on their clothes and they get rooms of luxury. The next day, they meet Doctor No. When in conversation, No has Honey taken away. After Bond kills No later, he saves her from the island and they make love in a towed boat.

Ryder was voted the best Bond Girl by Entertainment Weekly.

See also:

• Bond girls