Gayson was 90 when she passed on Friday, having starred as Sylvia Trench in 1962’s Dr No and 1963’s From Russia With Love alongside Sean Connery.
A post on her official Twitter account stated:“We are very sad to learn that our dear Eunice passed away on June 8th.
“An amazing lady who left a lasting impression on everyone she met. She will be very much missed.”
The official James Bond Twitter feed shared a message from Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli: “We are so sad to learn that Eunice Gayson, our very first ‘Bond girl’ who played Sylvia Trench in Dr. No and From Russia With Love has passed away.
“Our sincere thoughts are with her family.”
Her daughter Kate Gayson appeared fleetingly in 1995’s GoldenEye, following in her mother’s footsteps.
It’s her only screen credit, according to IMDb, although Bondstars.com claims she continued a stage career back in the US.
No footage is freely available online of Kate’s cameo, but it was a fitting full-circle moment for when Pierce Brosnan took over the role of the iconic spy.
Eunice had said in an interview in 2012 that she had to be the one to help Connery with his nerves ahead of his Bond debut.
“He came to see me the night before the first day of the shoot. He was terribly nervous,” she told the Daily Record.
“I said, ‘Sean, believe in yourself because everybody else does’. He had done a wonderful test and that’s how he got it so there was no need for him to be nervous. Next day, when we got on set, I could see the nerves were very much up.
“It came to take one, which was the first shot of the first day of the first film of the Bond series. I asked him who he was and he looked at me and I thought, ‘Oh no, is he going to dry?’”
She added: “He said, ‘The name is James Conn…eh.. cut!’ Well, my goodness me, you can imagine the turmoil on the set.
“We had quite a few takes. I had never seen Sean as nervous. We had already had a drama with my dress which had held up shooting for most of the morning and now this.
“The producers were standing on the side of the set almost biting their nails.
“After a while, Terence said he was going to call for an early lunch. He said to me, ‘I want you to give him a good stiff drink to relax him. Give him one drink and no more.’ Those were his orders.”
