Ursula Andress

Ursula Andress (born 19 March, 1936) is a Golden Globe award winning Swiss actress and a major sex symbol of the 1960s. She is best known for her roles as Bond girls: Honey Ryder in Dr. No and Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale 1967 unofficial film.

Biography

Ursula Andress was born in Ostermundigen Bern, Switzerland, to a Swiss-German mother and a German father. Her father, Rolf Andress, was a German diplomat. He disappeared during World War II. Andress has four sisters and one brother. She is fluent in English, French, Italian, and German. Andress started her career as an art model in Rome, which led to her first roles in the Italian movie industry. She became famous as Honey Ryder, a shell diver and James Bond's object of desire in Dr. No (1962), the first Bond movie. Ursula Andress' voice in Dr. No was provided by Nikki van der Zyl while the famous calypso was sung by Diana Coupland. Ursula Andress has the singular distinction among Bond Girls of having actually appeared in the narrative of a Fleming novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, written after Fleming was present during filming of Dr. No. She is pointed out to Bond by Irma Bunt while they are dining at Piz Gloria. In 1963, she won a Golden Globe for Best Promising Newcomer (Female). Andress co-starred with the king of rock 'n' roll Elvis Presley in the 1963 film, Fun in Acapulco , with Frank Sinatra in 4 for Texas (1963) and opposite Marcello Mastroianni in The 10th Victim (1965). She also appeared in the Bond satire Casino Royale (1967) as Vesper Lynd, an occasional spy who persuades Evelyn Tremble, as played by Peter Sellers to carry out a mission. Her heavy accent was dubbed over in Dr. No, but she used her own voice in Casino Royale. In 1965, she posed nude for a picture for Playboy. In 1981's Clash of the Titans, she starred opposite legendary English actor Laurence Olivier

Personal life

She was married in 1957 to actor/director John Derek. The marriage ended in divorce in 1966 due to her well-publicized love affair with French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. Andress dated many of Hollywood's leading men including co-stars Sean Connery, Marlon Brando and James Dean. In 1981, she had a son, Dimitri, with American actor Harry Hamlin, her co-star in the film Clash of the Titans.

Tributes

In the 1963 James Bond novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, she is mentioned as a famous actress, reflecting the fact that Ian Fleming thought she did a good job (this was the first Bond book written after the first Bond movie). In 1995, Ursula Andress was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars in film history." In 2003, in a UK Survey by Channel 4, her entrance in Dr. No was voted #1 in "the 100 Greatest Sexy Moments." In 2007, Australian series 20 to 1 ranked her entrance in Dr. No as the #2 Sexiest Movie Moment

Filmography

External links

• Ursula Andress at the Internet Movie Database
• Ursula Andress at TV.com
• Ursula Andress webpage
• Ursula Andress on CultSirens.com