Trivia of Ursula Andress

 Trivia of Ursula Andress (19 March 1936)

*She was born in Ostermundigen, Switzerland and went to school in Bern until she was 16.Speaks several languages, including English, French, German, and Italian.Later, she studied art in Paris for a year, then went to Rome, where she held down jobs including being a children’s nanny.

*Andress was at a party when she met a film producer who offered her first screen test for a role in an Italian film. She was successful and was cast in walk-on parts in An American in Rome (1954).She was seen by a Hollywood executive who persuaded her to try her luck in Hollywood.Andress arrived in Hollywood in late 1955.That spring she was signed to a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures, starting at $287 a week. The contract brought no acting roles, owing to her reluctance to learn English.Paramount forced her to study the movies of Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, two of the steamiest actresses of their time, and sent her to (unsuccessfully) learn English from Audrey Hepburn’s mother.

*She dated Dennis Hopper and James Dean after moving to the US in 1955, and that same year began an affair with actor/director John Derek.On September 30, 1955, James Dean asked Andress to go with him to San Francisco in his Porsche 550 Spyder. But after talking to John Derek, he realized she fell in love with the latter, so Dean left Los Angeles without her.

*Although Ursula Andress was rumoured to have different partners in her career, she was legally married once. She was in her 20s when she married actor John Derek but divorced in 1966.Later, Andress lived with actor Harry Hamlin, who is 15 years her junior, after meeting on the set of Clash of the Titans in 1979 and gave birth to her only child named Dimitri Alexander Hamlin in 1980.

*In 1962, a photograph of Andress, taken by Derek, made its way into the producers of the now-famous Dr. No (1962), the first Bond film. Her smoldering-good looks caused the producers to immediately hand Andress the part of the seductive Honey Ryder, without even having met her in real life.She became internationally famous as Honey Ryder, a shell diver and James Bond's object of desire in Dr. No (1962), the first Bond film, even though her dialogue had to be dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl.

*Honey Ryder wear white bikini emerging from the sea is one of the most iconic scenes in the James Bond film franchise, and something that Ursula Andress is famed for to this day.After this movie's release, bikini swimwear sales skyrocketed.

*Andress followed it playing the female lead in an Elvis Presley musical, Fun in Acapulco (1963).Initially Ursula Andress was somewhat aloof with Elvis Presley, having read and believed some scurrilous newspaper stories about him. However, as filming progressed, they got to like each other and were even linked in gossip columns as being an item (which they weren't). Elvis has hoping to be reunited with his first love, Priscilla Presley, and was so nervous about succumbing to Andress's charms that he instructed his entourage to never leave him alone with her.Elvis was reportedly so intimidated by Ursula Andress' athletic physique, that he was reluctant to be filmed without his shirt on.