Happy 80th to Bond Girl Ursula Andress (Honey Ryder in Dr. No)

By: Anders Frejdh

Published:
2016-03-19

Birthday for Ursula Andress, the most iconic of the 'James Bond Girls' (Honey Ryder in the first film, Dr. No (1962), directed by Terence Young).

With this special page, From Sweden With Love would like to extend our sincere best wishes to the gorgeous actress from Switzerland.

"Happy birthday Ursula, warm regards from Sweden. With love."

About Ursula Andress:
Ursula Andress was born 1936 in Ostermundigen, Canton of Bern, Switzerland, the daughter of Anna, who was Swiss, and Rolf Andress, a German diplomat who was expelled from Switzerland for political reasons. He disappeared during World War II. Andress has four sisters and one brother. She is fluent in English, French, Italian, German and her native Swiss German (Schwizertütsch).

Andress became famous as Honey Ryder, a shell diver and James Bond's object of desire in Dr. No. In a well-known scene, she rises out of the Caribbean Sea in a white bikini. 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 35,000 GBP 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".

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 who also sung the calypso "Under the Mango Tree" when she emerges from the beach in the film. In 1965, she posed nude for Playboy. When asked why she had agreed to do the Playboy shoot she replied coolly, "Because I'm beautiful."

Andress co-starred with Elvis Presley in the 1963 film, Fun in Acapulco, with Frank Sinatra in 4 for Texas (1963), opposite Marcello Mastroianni in The 10th Victim (1965), and as the countess in The Blue Max (1966). 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 1981's Clash of the Titans she co-starred with Laurence Olivier. In 1995, Andress was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars in film history."

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

After her son's birth, Andress scaled back her career, which focused mostly on European TV and films.

On 18 May 2006, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Swiss Consulate General in Scotland, Ursula Andress celebrated her 70th birthday on board the Royal Yacht Britannia in Edinburgh in the presence of an international crowd of celebrities. Her birthday cake was made by Anton Mosimann who also presented the cake to Ursula Andress. On top of the cake was a sculpture of Ursula Andress showing her in the iconic scene from Dr. No.

Photo above:
Ursula Andress and FSWL founder Anders Frejdh during a dinner in London 2005. © From Sweden With Love.

For more information about Ursula Andress, check out his profile on IMDB:

www.imdb.com/name/nm0000266/

Tags:

#birthdays

#bond_girls

#ursula_andress

Tag Cloud

Happy 80th to Bond Girl Ursula Andress (Honey Ryder in Dr. No)

Tag Cloud