Ursula Andress

Nude movie roles: XXX

Place of birth: Ostermundigen, Bern, Switzerland

Date of birth: 1936-03-19

Born in Switzerland to German parents and more curvy than the Swiss Alps, Ursula Andress first sought out film work while on a holiday in Rome, where she made a series of cheap films (cheap and hot, of course). It wasn't long before a producer brought Ursula to the U.S. and was billing her as the new Marlene Dietrich. In 1957 Andress married American actor John Derek, whose many romantic conquests suggest he may have been a true master of Jedi mind tricks. Derek supervised every aspect of Ursie's career in much the same way that he'd later mold Bo Derek. The marriage ended unhappily, but the couple remained friends. Ursula became an international sensation with her bikini-clad sashay out of the surf as Honey Rider in the first James Bond movie Dr. No (1962), a role for which she was paid $10,000. Within a year, Andress was sharing the screen with ring-a-ding-ding dongs Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in Four for Texas (1963) and the swiveling hips of Elvis Presley in Fun in Acapulco (1963). When Ursula posed for a nude layout in Playboy, it seemed to mark the high point of her career. She then began making lower-profile but more skineriffic flicks like Perfect Friday (1970) and The Sensuous Nurse (1976). Blonde goddess Ursula is her most divine in The Slave of the Cannibal God (1979), where her bronze bod is strapped to a stake, stripped completely naked, and painted orange. That's a good base coat, Ursula. Now let Mr. Skin finish the job.