If it was the first “Bond Girl” in the history of cinema: the French actress Claudine Auger died Wednesday in Paris, as announced on Thursday by her agency Time Art. Auger was 78 years old. In the 1960s, she starred alongside Sean Connery in the James Bond film “Thunderball”.
In the leading roles, Auger was seen alongside Romy Schneider and Alain Delon in the 1958 film “Christine”. However, she only gained international renown in 1965 with her role as Dominique “Domino” Derval in “Thunderball”, which was filmed in the Bahamas – and therefore offered many opportunities for bikini scenes.
Auger was born in Paris in 1941 and began her career as a model. In 1958, she participated in the “Miss World” competition for France.
In a 1965 television interview, Auger said that the role in the film Bond hardly differs from the other roles she played in Molière productions: in both cases, it was “a game, it’s the same thing, “Auger said at the time.