‘This bikini made me into a success’
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An 18-year-old Andress (left) with US actor Mel Ferrer and Italian painter Novella Parigini in Rome, July 1954. (Keystone) Keystone -
Andress with James Dean in 1954. The two were reportedly a couple shortly before his death in 1955. (The Kobal Collection/AFP) AFP -
The cinematic entrance that started it all. A publicity photo from Dr. No in 1962, with Andress as Jamaican shell diver Honey Ryder. (Keystone) Keystone -
Holding on to Elvis in Fun in Acapulco in 1963. Elvis was being distracted by Elsa Cardenas. (Paramount/ The Kobal Collection/AFP) AFP -
With former boyfriend French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo in 1965. (Roger Violett/AFP) AFP -
Lounging with Dean Martin on the set of Four for Texas in 1963. (Warner Bros./ The Kobal Collection/AFP) AFP -
With a peroxide Marcello Mastroianni in The 10th Victim in 1965. (Embassy/The Kobal Collection/AFP) AFP -
Dressed up in First World War drama The Blue Max in 1966. (20th Century Fox/The Kobal Collection/AFP) AFP -
With Peter Sellers in James Bond spoof Casino Royale in 1967. Andress played Vesper Lynd. (Columbia/Famous Artists/The Kobal Collection/AFP) AFP -
Armed in The Southern Star from 1969. (Columbia/The Kobal Collection/AFP) AFP -
With David Warner in Perfect Friday, from 1970. (Archives du 7eme Art/AFP) AFP -
She - that's what the film was called - from 1965. Not for the first time, Andress's Swiss-German accent was dubbed. (Hammer/The Kobal Collection/AFP) AFP -
With Charles Bronson in the 1971 Western Red Sun. (Corona/Oceania/Balcazar/The Kobal Collection/AFP) AFP -
In controversial Italian film The Mountain of the Cannibal God from 1978. The film involved gratuitous sex and animal violence. (Photo12.com/AFP) AFP -
In Africa Express, 1975. (Archives du 7eme Art/AFP) AFP -
With Ruedi Walter and Anne-Marie Blanc in Klassezämekunft in 1988. (Keystone) Keystone -
Andress makes a dramatic entrance - not for the first time - in Bern in 2012 to mark the 50th anniversary of Dr. No, the first James Bond film, in which she starred. (Keystone) Keystone
Swiss film star Ursula Andress, who on Saturday is celebrating her 80th birthday, is well aware of how a small piece of white cotton changed her life and shaped her career.
This content was published on March 19, 2016 - 11:00
- Deutsch "Dieser Bikini brachte mir den Erfolg"
- Español El bikini que la catapultó al éxito
- Português "Esse biquíni fez de mim um sucesso"
- 中文 比基尼让我声名鹊起
- عربي "هذه القطعة القصيرة هي سبب نجاحي وتفوّقي"
- Pусский Юбилей первой «девушки Бонда» Урсулы Андресс
- 日本語 初代ボンドガールはスイス人、「このビキニが私を有名にした」
- Italiano Tutto iniziò da un bikini
“As a result of starring in Dr. No as the first Bond girl, I was given the freedom to take my pick of future roles and to become financially independent,” Andress said in 2001, before the bikini she wore in the 1962 film was auctioned for £41,125 (CHF98,700 at the time).
Andress, who now lives in Italy, was born in Ostermundigen, a suburb of Bern, to a Swiss mother and German father. She had appeared in a handful of forgettable films, mostly Italian, before being cast in Dr. No as Honey Ryder, a Jamaican shell diver, opposite Sean Connery’s James Bond.
Her heavy Swiss-German accent meant her character’s voice was dubbed, but audiences didn’t care. Emerging glistening from the sea like Botticelli’s Venus, holding two large seashells and an unsheathed knife, Andress became an overnight star and, although she didn’t know it, had reached the peak of her career at 26.
She won a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year for her performance in Dr. No and was given star billing in 1965’s What’s New Pussycat?, but she appeared uninterested by more challenging acting roles.
The 1970s saw her appear in either softcore fare such as The Sensuous Nurse and Sex with a Smile II or gratuitously violent films such as Slave of the Cannibal God. In the 1980s Andress tried her hand at television, appearing in primetime soap opera Falcon Crest.
When asked why she had posed nude for Playboy in 1965, Andress replied: “Because I’m beautiful.” Generations of James Bond fans, who have frequently voted her the “quintessential Bond girl”, will no doubt agree.
Happy Birthday, Ursula!
(Text: Thomas Stephens, picture editor: Ester Unterfinger)
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