Ursula Andress was born in Ostermundigen, Berne, Switzerland, to a Swiss-Italian mother and a German father. Her father, Rolf Andress, was a German diplomat. He disappeared during World War II. Andress has four sisters and one brother. She is fluent in English, French, Italian, and German.
She became famous as Honey Ryder, a shell diver and James Bond's object of desire in Dr. No (1962), the first Bond movie.
Ursula Andress' voice in Dr. No was provided by Nikki van der Zyl while the famous calypso song was sung by Diana Coupland.
Ursula Andress has the singular distinction among Bond Girls of having actually appeared in the narrative of a Fleming novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, written after Fleming was present during filming of Dr. No. She is pointed out to Bond by Irma Bunt while they are dining at Piz Gloria.
Andress co-starred with the king of rock 'n' roll Elvis Presley in the 1963 film, Fun in Acapulco , with Frank Sinatra in 4 for Texas (1963) and opposite Marcello Mastroianni in The 10th Victim (1965). 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.
She was married in 1957 to actor/director John Derek. The marriage ended in divorce in 1966 due to her well-publicized love affair with French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. Andress dated many of Hollywood's leading men including co-stars Sean Connery, Marlon Brando and James Dean. In 1981, she had a son, Dimitri, with American actor Harry Hamlin, her co-star in the film Clash of the Titans.
In the 1963 James Bond novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, she is mentioned as a famous actress, reflecting the fact that Ian Fleming thought she did a good job (this was the first Bond book written after the first Bond movie).
In 1995, Ursula Andress was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars in film history."
In 2003, in a UK Survey by Channel 4, her entrance in Dr. No was voted #1 in "the 100 Greatest Sexy Moments."
Many eons ago, Ursula Andress was a sexy Bond girl. Like many women who were gorgeous in their youth, she is attempting to stop time and failing miserably. What is the end result? A rubbery face that looks like a Halloween mask. Her eyes have the requisite overly pulled open look and her lips look stretched by either implant or injection; neither procedure roll back the years to a more youthful look.
1. I take care of my flowers and my cats. And enjoy food. And that's living.
2. I have no problem with nudity. I can look at myself. I like walking around nude. It doesn't bother me. I see all the people walking around nude; it doesn't bother me.
3. Collecting is my joy; it gives me great satisfaction.
4. Collecting is my passion.
5. Don't take anything from me because I'll track it down.
6. Elvis and I continued to be friends and I saw him once or twice a year. But he was a troubled person.
7. Even if you have $20,000 to buy an item, you still try to get a good price at antique stores. I collect furniture, rugs, paintings, frames. It's my hobby to go around to shops and markets.
8. Everything is a piece of me, a moment of my life.
9. I couldn't live up to it. So I chose to run away.
10. I didn't see Dr. No for a year, but I liked it when I saw it. It was a fun movie. I don't like the Bond movies now. I hate special effects.
11. I don't use my body to seduce, no. I just stand there.
12. I don't have time to think about age. There are so many things to do.
13. I hate the word sexy.
14. I fell from the sky. I'm a parachutist and I missed my mark.
15. I hate to look at myself in a mirror and I never go and see films.
16. I live in Italy. I visit my family in Switzerland.
17. I love everything that's beautiful. A lot of things.
18. I mostly gave away what I had from the James Bond movie.
19. I never went to school. I never went to acting school because I was so scared.
20. I suddenly find out that I'm 60 and I get shocked by the number, because I feel like I'm 20.
21. I wanted to be a decorator. I wanted to interior design homes and do everything myself.
22. I was under contract to Paramount. They wanted to make me into somebody which I was not. So I got so scared and rebelled, so they threw me out of the studio.
23. I'm always shocked when I see myself because I don't recognize myself.
24. If I don't have room for an item, I put it in warehouses.
25. It's going to be over soon, so I don't really have time to get busy.
26. They offered me one cover about 10 years ago, and I said: "no, I can't do it". I'm happy to cover up now.
27. This bikini made me a success.
28. When I go to a country, I go to flea markets, antique stores. I am always looking for something.
29. If the role calls for it, naturally I will take my clothes off.
30. I don't have any movies planned. It's hard to make movies today. They have all changed to action and violence. That's not my style.
31. I'm waiting to have a big castle or country home to put all of my collection in. I have an attic full of stuff in my friend's house in Virginia.
