Claudine Auger (born Claudine Oger; 26 April 1941 – 18 December 2019) was a French actress best known for her role as a

Bond girl A Bond girl is a character who is a love interest, female companion or (occasionally) an adversary of James Bond in a novel, film, or video game. Bond girls occasionally have names that are double entendres or sexual puns, such as Plenty O' ...

, Dominique "Domino" Derval, in the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

film '' Thunderball'' (1965). She earned the title of Miss France Monde 1958 (the French representative to the

Miss World Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Mi ...

beauty pageant) and went on to finish as the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest.

Career

Born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France, Auger began her career as a

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

and earned the title of Miss France Monde 1958 (the French representative to the

beauty pageant) and went on to finish as the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest.

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

cast Auger in an uncredited role as a tall

ballerina A ballet dancer is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet. They rely on years of extensive training and proper technique to become a part of a professional ballet company. Ballet dancer ...

in '' Testament of Orpheus'' (1960). When she was 18, she married the 43-year-old writer-director Pierre Gaspard-Huit, and he cast her in several films, including '' Le Masque de fer'' (1962) and '' Kali Yug: Goddess of Vengeance'' (1963). In 1965 she was cast in the 1965

film '' Thunderball'', directed by Terence Young. ''Thunderball'' launched Auger into a successful European movie career, but did little for her otherwise in the United States. Though she performed in the movie, her French accent was considered too strong and her voice was dubbed by another actress. She did, however, star in a

Danny Thomas Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz, (born January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991) known professionally as Danny Thomas, was an American comedian, actor, singer, producer, and philanthropist. He created and starred in ''The Danny Thomas Show''. In additio ...

special called ''The Road to Lebanon'' with

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian, entertainer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwi ...

, which was shown on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

on 20 April 1966. Le dolci signore Claudine Auger Marco Guglielmi

In 1966 she co-starred in the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

drama '' Triple Cross'' with

Yul Brynner Yuliy Borisovich Briner (; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985), known professionally as Yul Brynner (), was a Russian-born actor. He was known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical ''The King and I'' (19 ...

and

Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage and television. His accolades included an Academy Aw ...

, that reunited her with her James Bond director Terence Young. Auger co-starred with another

, Ursula Andress, in the Italian comedy '' Anyone Can Play'' (1968). She starred with two future Bond girls,

Barbara Bouchet Barbara Bouchet (born Bärbel Gutscher; 15 August 1943)
, glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com; ...

and

Barbara Bach Barbara Bach, Lady Starkey (née Goldbach; August 27, 1946) is an American actress and former model. She played the Bond girl Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me (film), ''The Spy Who Loved Me''. She is married to former The Beatles, Beatles ...

, in '' Black Belly of the Tarantula'' (1971), a

giallo In Italian cinema, (; : ; from , ) is a genre that often contains Slasher film, slasher, thriller (genre), thriller, psychological horror, psychological thriller, Sexploitation film, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural, supernat ...

mystery. She had major roles in films such as '' The Killing Game'' in 1967, '' Flic Story'' in 1972, and filmed scenes for '' The Eiger Sanction'' (1975), only to have her entire performance cut from the movie. On television, she made an appearance in 1972 on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

series '' Medical Center''. In the 1980s Auger starred '' The Man Who Married a French Wife'' which was broadcast on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and shown as part of the "Great Performances" series that was broadcast on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

in the United States. She also appeared in the 1994 British television series '' The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes''.

Personal life and death

In 1959, she married film director and screenwriter Pierre Gaspard-Huit. They later divorced in 1969. She married British businessman Peter Brent in 1984. He died in 2008. They had one child. Auger died in Paris on 18 December 2019 following a lengthy illness.

Filmography

References

External links

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Claudine Auger
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Claudine Auger
(Aveleyman) {{DEFAULTSORT:Auger, Claudine 1941 births 2019 deaths Actresses from Paris French female models Miss World 1958 delegates French film actresses 20th-century French actresses French beauty pageant winners French National Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni