Honor Blackman (born 22 August 1925) is an English actress, widely known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers (1962–64), Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger (1964), Julia Daggett in Shalako (1968) and Hera in Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

Biography

Blackman married twice. She was married to Bill Sankey from 1948–56. After their divorce, she married British actor Maurice Kaufmann (1961–75). They appeared together in the slasher film Fright (1971). They adopted two children, Lottie (1967) and Barnaby (1968).

She has not remarried and has stated she prefers being single. She enjoys watching football.


Politics
Blackman is a member of the Liberal Democrats and previously the Liberal Party, campaigning for the party in the 1964 general election. She is a signed supporter of Republic, The Campaign for an Elected Head of State, the UK campaign to replace the monarchy with a republic. She declined a CBE in 2002, as she felt it would be hypocritical to accept the award as a republican. She has publicly supported changing the British electoral system from first-past-the-post to alternative vote for electing members to the House of Commons in the Alternative Vote referendum in 2011.

In 2012 Blackman publicly criticised actor Sean Connery, her Bond co-star in the 1960s, for his status as a tax exile. She said,


"I disapprove of him strongly now. Because I don't think you should accept a title from a country and then pay absolutely no tax towards it. He wants it both ways. I don't think his principles are very high."
Following the death of Margaret Thatcher in April 2013, when asked about her thoughts on Thatcher, Blackman responded:"She's not my idea of Heaven I have to say. Although she did some good things in her time, she was merciless about the unions. I'm not too happy about the Falklands either. We lost men, we took injuries and we blew up a ship. I suppose we need it for a base, but my common sense tells me that it does belong more to Argentina than it does to us. Lots of people may throw things at me for saying that about Thatcher, but hopefully not during the performance. She was a powerful figure, but she did damn all for empowering women. She didn’t surround herself with any women whatsoever or encourage women to come into politics or do anything in particular. She could have been a quite wonderful role model."
In 2014, Blackman explained her reasons for declining a CBE, and her criticisms of Sean Connery:"They ring you beforehand to ask if you’d like to accept, and I think they were quite shocked when I declined," she says. "But since I'm a republican I thought it would be somewhat hypocritical to pop up to the Palace ... Not like Sean (Connery), who accepts a knighthood but never comes here, doesn't pay tax here and supported a yes vote in the referendum." A sigh. "But I don't think he thinks deeply about politics.

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