Claudine Auger
Claudine Auger was a French actress best known for her role as a Bond girl, Dominique "Domino" Derval, in the James Bond film Thunderball. She earned the title of Miss France Monde 1958 and went on to finish as the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest.
Career
Born in Paris, France, Auger began her career as a model and earned the title of Miss France Monde 1958 and went on to finish as the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest. Jean Cocteau cast Auger in an uncredited role as a tall ballerina in Testament of Orpheus. 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 and Kali Yug: Goddess of Vengeance.In 1965 she was cast in the 1965 James Bond 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 special called The Road to Lebanon with Bing Crosby, which was shown on NBC on 20 April 1966.
In 1966 she co-starred in the World War II drama Triple Cross with Yul Brynner and Christopher Plummer, that reunited her with her James Bond director Terence Young. Auger co-starred with another Bond girl, Ursula Andress, in the Italian comedy Anyone Can Play. She starred with two future Bond girls, Barbara Bouchet and Barbara Bach, in Black Belly of the Tarantula, a giallo 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, only to have her entire performance cut from the movie.
On television, she made an appearance in 1972 on the CBS series Medical Center. In the 1980s Auger starred The Man Who Married a French Wife which was broadcast on the BBC and shown as part of the "Great Performances" series that was broadcast on PBS 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 French 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.