Eunice Gayson

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'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". 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 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, before settling in Edinburgh. There she attended the Edinburgh Academy and studied operatic singing. Career Gayson played a major role in the Hammer horror film The Revenge of Frankenstein and appeared on television in series such as The Saint (which starred a future James Bond, Roger Moore) and The Avengers. She played the Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the 1962 London stage production of The Sound of Music, 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 in the role of the grandmother.