60th anniversary of the Ford Mustang

A damaged Ford Mustang after getting the Ben-Hur treatment from Bond’s Aston-Martin DB5 in Goldfinger

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the introduction of the Ford Mustang at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

The model’s first cinema appearance took place during the filming of 1964’s Goldfinger.

James Bond (Sean Connery) was driving the soon-to-be-iconic Aston Martin DB5 while following Auric Goldfinger. Suddenly, a woman (Tania Mallet) driving the Mustang initially passes the DB5 on the roads of Switzerland. After Bond seems to have been targeted for a killing attempt, the British agent passes the Mustang.

Bond uses the DB5’s gadgets to pull a Ben-Hur maneuver to tear apart the Mustang and run it to the side of the road.

Things turn out to be more complicated and the Mallet character ends up as one of the movie’s sacrificial lambs. Regardless, in Goldfinger, the Mustang is almost as iconic as the DB5.

The Mustang would also be seen in 1965’s Thunderball, driven by SPECTRE killer Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi). In 1971, a muscle car version of the Mustang was seen in Diamonds Are Forever, with Sean Connery dodging law-enforcement cars in Las Vegas.

As the Mustang’s design evolved, it would also be featured prominently in 1968’s Bullitt, driven by Steve McQueen as the film’s title character. What’s more, the Mustang would be featured on American television shows such as The FBI (1965-74). In the first four seasons of that series, star Efrem Zimbalist Jr. drove Mustangs in the end titles.