Veteran actress Joan Collins turned down the Bond girl role made famous by Shirley Eaton in Goldfinger.

The Dynasty star was approached to play the brief but iconic role of Jill Masterson, the woman Sean Connery's 007 finds dead and covered in gold paint in a hotel room, but snubbed the part because she was pregnant.

She tells Britain's Daily Mail, "I was asked to do the Shirley Eaton part in the Sean Connery Bond film Goldfinger - the classic role in which she is naked and sprayed from head to foot in gold paint.

"It's an amazing image and an amazing film but I turned it down. I was pregnant at the time with my son Sacha."

The legendary star admits she often ponders whether the 1964 movie would have changed her career path, adding, "Who knows? It could have altered the direction of my whole career and I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had done it.

"I have never talked about it before and it's not in my new book because I didn't want to be b**chy to Shirley."

Collins' husband at the time, Anthony Newley, co-wrote the film's eponymous theme tune, made famous by Dame Shirley Bassey.