Yet another Bond girl has left us all too soon. Claudine Auger, the French actress who portrayed the innocent but striking Bond heroine Domino Derval in Thunderball (1965) has died at the age of 78.
Besides the James Bond franchise, Claudine Auger starred in numerous Spanish, French, German, and Italian films like The Bermuda Triangle (1977), Bloody Sun (1974), L’associé (1979), and Desire (1992), along with television appearances like The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1994), The Red and the Black (1997), and Great Performances (1971-)).
Claudine Auger won the lucky toss of being the one out of three Bond girls who lives to see the finale and ride off into the sunset with 007, played by none other than the original Sean Connery. Eventually the producers and writers of the Bond films had a three Bond girl formula that usually went in this way: one would be at Bond’s aid but sadly perished, one who was a villain, and one who also was at Bond’s disposal, maybe infatuated and lived to tell about it. Thunderball was the follow-up to the immensely successful and widely praised Goldfinger (1964), and was again a blockbuster smash and is still often regarded one of the best James Bond films ever made, especially one of Connery’s best. It is most known for being the underwater 007 adventure, and rightly so as a large chunk of it is, but that doesn’t make it any less enthralling to watch.
While her French accent prompted the need to be dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl (Jesus of Nazareth (1977)), who already had done work in some of the previous Bond films and would go on to do several more, Claudine Auger’s performance still added considerable zeal and appeal for the filmgoing audiences. She certainly played one of the most memorable 007 women as Domino, maybe because she surprised audiences by being the one who killed the villain Largo (Adolfo Celi) in the end, with a crossbow nonetheless, seeking revenge for the death of her brother, and saving Bond’s life. She could hold her own, in dialogue and in action up with Bond, and she is certainly one of the most beautiful actresses to play alongside the famous British spy. Connery’s James Bond and Auger’s Domino sharing a dance together under the stars with the mysterious yet tranquil instrumental “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” by John Barry in the background is arguably one of the most romantic scenes in any Bond film.
We’ll miss you Claudine.
Domino: “What sharp little eyes you’ve got.”
Bond: “Wait ’til you get to my teeth.”
