Claudine Auger

Claudine Auger
Auger alongside Adolfo Celi in Thunderball
Born	Claudine Oger (1941-04-26) 26 April 1941 Paris, France
Years active	1958–1997
Spouse(s)	Pierre Gaspard-Huit (1959-?) Peter Brent (?–2008) (his death) 1 child
Children	Jessica Claudine Brent (b. 1991}

Claudine Auger (born Claudine Oger on 26 April 1941) is a French actress best known for her role as Bond girl Dominique "Domino" Derval in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965). She earned the title of Miss France Monde and was also the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest.

Early life

She was born in Paris, France. She attended St. Joan of Arc College and later Paris Drama Conservatory, where she performed dramatic roles. She made her film debut when she was still at school.

Career

Jean Cocteau cast her in an uncredited role as a tall ballerina in The Testament of Orpheus (1960). When she was 18, she married the 41-year-old writer-director Pierre Gaspard-Huit, and he cast her in several films, including Le Masque de fer (1962) and The Vengeance of Kali (1963).

When she was on holiday in Nassau, writer-producer Kevin McClory saw her and recommended that she audition for his film Thunderball (1965). The role of Domino was originally to be an Italian woman: Dominetta Petacchi. Auger impressed the producers so much that they re-wrote the part to that of a French woman to better suit Auger. Although she took lessons to perfect her English, her voice was eventually dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl. Auger would claim that she related to her character Domino, as she and Domino were involved with older men. The most immediate byproduct of Claudine's stardom was a semi-nude Playboy spread and a guest shot on an American TV special starring Danny Thomas and Bob Hope.

Thunderball launched Auger into a successful European movie career, but did little for her otherwise in the United States.^[1]

In 1971, she starred with two other Bond girls, Barbara Bach and Barbara Bouchet, in Black Belly of the Tarantula, a giallo mystery. She had some roles in European films as Triple Cross (1966) (reuniting her with her James Bond director Terence Young) and The Killing Game (1967).^[2]

Personal life

At age 18 she married writer-director Pierre Gaspard-Huit. They would later divorce.

She married British businessman Peter Brent^[3] in the 1980s.^[1] Brent died in August 2008.

Selected Filmography

References

External links

• Claudine Auger at the Internet Movie Database
• Claudine Auger at AllRovi
• Claudine Auger at the TCM Movie Database