Claudine Auger: Thunderball Bond Girl dies

Claudine Auger, who played Bond Girl Domino in the 1965 movie Thunderball, has died aged 78.

Her death in Paris, following a long illness, was announced by her agency Time Art.

The model turned actress was the first French woman to play James Bond‘s female side-kick.

The role was originally written to be played by an Italian actress, but was changed after Auger impressed in auditions.

Her voice was however dubbed in the film by a German voice over artist.

A Miss World runner up and former Miss France, Auger took acting classes while modelling.

A small role in 1962 film The Iron Mask followed, but it was her role alongside Sean Connery in the fourth in the Bond franchise that made her a global star.

Unusually, her Bond girl character killed the villain of the movie herself, rather than 007.

Eye-patch wearing smuggler Emilio Largo meets his end after Domino shoots him in the back with a speargun.

Shot on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, the movie also offered plenty of scope for swimsuit scenes, a more usual Bond girl duty.

Auger went on to act throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including in 1966 World War II drama Triple Cross with Yul Brynner and Christopher Plummer.

She married, aged 18, French director Pierre Gaspard-Huit, appearing in several of his films. The pair later divorced.

One of her last appearances was in British TV series The Memoirs Of Sherlock Holmes, opposite Jeremy Brett.

Auger leaves behind one daughter, from her second marriage.