Biography of Ursula Andress

Ursula Andress is a Golden Globe award-winning Swiss actress and a major sex symbol of the 1960s. She is best known for her roles as two Bond girls: Honey Ryder in Dr. No and Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, the 1967 James Bond spoof.

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 , the first Bond movie . The scene made Andress the "quintessential" Bond girl, and is now considered iconic. "My entrance in the film wearing the bikini on that beautiful beach made me world-famous as 'the Bond girl'", she said, and the bikini from this "classic moment in cinema and Bond history" sold for Â£35,000 at auction in 2001. 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.

Andress won a 1964 Golden Globe award for New Star of the Year for her performance in Dr. No. Her voice was provided by Nikki van der Zyl while the famous calypso music was sung by Diana Coupland.

She has the singular distinction among Bond girl actresses 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.

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 and opposite Marcello Mastroianni in The 10th Victim . She also appeared in the Bond satire Casino Royale 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.

In 1995, Ursula Andress was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars in film history."

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 Marlon Brando and James Dean. In 1980, she had a son, Dimitri, with American actor Harry Hamlin, her co-star in the film Clash of the Titans.

On the occasion of the inauguration of the Swiss Consulate General in Scotland on May 18, 2006, Andress celebrated her 70th birthday on board the Royal Yacht Britannia in Edinburgh. Among the guests were her former partner Harry Hamlin, their son Dimitri, Miss Switzerland Lauriane GilliÃ©ron and Swiss model, actress and singer Michelle Hunziker who like Ursula Andress grew up in Ostermundigen. Furthermore The Rt. Hon. George Reid, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Woodard, former Commander of the Royal Yacht Britannia, and Lesley Hinds, Lord Provost of Edinburgh. Earlier that day Swiss Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin presented Ursula Andress with a bouquet of flowers and the best wishes for her birthday at the Signet Library in Edinburgh. Ursula Andress arrived at the Royal Yacht Britannia in the original Aston Martin DB5 once driven by her film partner Sean Connery in the James Bond films Goldfinger and Thunderball. The car was bought by a Swiss gentleman at auction in 2006.