Claudine Auger, the French actress who starred opposite Sean Connery as Domino Derval in the 1965 James Bond movieThunderball, has died. According to her talent agency, Time Art, Auger passed away on Wednesday in Paris following a “long period of illness.” The veteran actress was 78 years old.
Born in Paris, France, in 1941, Auger took an early interest in modeling work, earning the title of Miss France Monde and was also named the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest. At the age of 18, She later attended the Conservatoire de Paris where she began performing dramatic acting roles, making her film debut while she was still attending school. Her first role came as a ballerina in the 1958 movieChristine, and she followed this up with appearances in other ’60s movies likeLe Masque de fer,Kati Yug: Goddess of Vengeance, andTriple Cross.
Of course, Auger’s breakout role came in 1965 when she starred in theJames Bond movie Thunderball. Her acclaimed role in the movie came by pure chance when she was noticed by producer Kevin McClory while on vacation in Nassau, which was whereThunderballwas shooting at the time. Although the role of Domino was originally written as an Italian women, producers were so happy with Auger’s audition that the part was rewritten to be French in order to accommodate Auger. The actress also took English lessons for the role, though her voice was ultimately dubbed by actress Nikki van der Zyl.
Following the success ofThunderball, Auger continued to act primarily in Italian and French cinema for the next several decades. Coincidentally, she would star alongsideDr. NoBond girl Ursula Andress in the Italian comedy movieAnyone Can Playin 1968. In 1971, Auger would also interestingly enough appear in the giallo mystery movieBlack Belly of the Tarantula, which also starred future Bond girls Barbara Bouchet (Casino Royale) and Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me).
One of Auger’s final acting roles came in 1994 for the long-running British television seriesThe Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. The appearance saw her starring alongside Jeremy Brett as Isadora Klein in “The Three Gables,” which was also one of the final episodes of the show. Auger would then appear in a small handful of roles before capping out her career filled with dozens of performances with a part in the TV movieThe Red and the Black, which was released in 1997.
When it is released in theaters on April 8,No Time to Diewill officially be the 25th James Bond movie. We’ve obviously seen a lot of Bond girls appearing in the franchise as the decades have rolled on, but all these years later, Auger remains one of the most memorable of them all. Our thoughts are with Auger’s friends and family at this time, and may she rest in peace as her memory forever lives on. The news of Auger’s passing comes to us fromBBC News.
