Dutch postcard by Loeb Uitgevers BV, Amsterdam, 1985. Photo: Eon Productions / Gilrose Publications / Danjaq S.A. Roger Moore, Maud Adams and Britt Ekland in The Man with the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton, 1974).
Vintage postcard in the Bond Girls series. Britt Ekland in The Man With the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton, 1974).
The poster girl for beautiful, big-eyed Scandinavian blondes
Britt Ekland was born Britt-Marie Eklund in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1942. Her parents were Eva Maria Birgitta Löwgren, a secretary, and Sven Axel Tankred Eklund, who ran an upmarket clothing store in Stockholm and was captain of the Swedish national curling team, four-time national champion and one-time president of the World Curling Federation. She had a brother, Carl Eklund. Britt grew up to be the poster girl for beautiful, big-eyed Scandinavian blondes. She studied at the Calle Flygare Theatre School. After her studies, she was hired by Povel Ramel to participate in his travelling theatre group Knäppupprevyer. In Italy, she was spotted in a coffee shop by a talent agent who sent her to London to audition for films.
Ekland had small roles in the Swedish films Kort är sommaren / Summer is Short (Bjarne Henning-Jensen, 1962) with Jarl Kulle and Bibi Andersson, and Det är hos mig han har varit / It Is With Me That He Has Been (Arne Mattsson, 1963), before landing her a small part in the Western Advance to the Rear (George Marshall, 1964) starring Glenn Ford. When Peter Sellers met her in a hotel, he fell hard for her and they wed just 10 days after meeting. While on their honeymoon in Hollywood, Peter inhaled amyl nitrites during sex, causing a series of eight heart attacks. Sellers was rushed to the hospital but survived.
Tony Fontana at IMDb: "The combination of Sellers' stardom and her stunning beauty contributed to her fame (the fact that Sellers suffered a heart attack in bed on their wedding night did not hurt, either). " In 1965, the couple had a daughter, Victoria. Once the baby is born, their relationship becomes strained. Sellers and Ekland made three films together. In 1964 they appeared in the American Christmas television film A Carol for Another Christmas (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1964). They followed this with the enjoyable Italian farce Caccia alla volpe / After the Fox (Vittorio De Sica, 1966), written by Neil Simon. Their last film together was the British comedy The Bobo (Robert Parrish, 1967). The couple divorced as early as 1968.
Britt Ekland's claim to fame came as the young Amish girl who invented the striptease in the musical comedy The Night They Raided Minsky's (William Friedkin, 1968) with Jason Robards, which established her as a sex symbol. Throughout the 1960s she played major roles in The Double Man (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1967) opposite Yul Brynner, the Italian crime film Gli intoccabili / Machine Gun McCain (Giuliano Montaldo, 1969) with John Cassavetes, and the crime film Stiletto (Bernard L. Kowalski, 1969), based on a novel by Harold Robbins.
Britt Ekland had a son, Nicolai Adler (1973), with record and film producer Lou Adler. She had several other relationships with well-known figures such as pop singer Rod Stewart. They were introduced in 1975 by Joan Collins and lived together for more than two years, with Ekland giving up her career to focus on their relationship. In 1976 Ekland provided the French-spoken part at the end of Stewart's single 'Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)'. It was 1977's overall #1 song. From 1979 to 1981, she dated and became engaged to singer Phil Lewis of the groups Girl and L.A. Guns. In 1984, at age 42, she married a second time, this time to Slim Jim Phantom, drummer of the Stray Cats, who was 23. They had a son, Thomas Jefferson, in 1988. The couple divorced in 1992.
Vintage postcard.
Vintage postcard.
Mary Goodnight
Britt Ekland appeared opposite Michael Caine in the classic British crime film Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971). She also starred in several Horror films, including the cult classic The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973).
Ekland had already auditioned to play a Bond girl in the first Bond film Dr No (1962), but the role eventually went to Ursula Andress. She finally played Bond girl Mary Goodnight in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton, 1974), starring Roger Moore.
Ekland continued to act throughout the 1970s, with roles in films such as Royal Flash (Richard Lester, 1975) starring Malcolm McDowell, High Velocity (Remi Kramer, 1976) with Ben Gazzara, and King Solomon's Treasure (Alvin Rakoff, 1979).
During the 1980s, she acted in such films as the sex comedy Fraternity Vacation (James Frawley, 1985) and the Slasher movie Moon in Scorpio (Gary Graver, 1988). She played prostitute Mariella Novotny in Scandal (Michael Caton-Jones, 1989) about the Profumo Affair of 1963, an affair between an exotic dancer (Joanne Whalley) and the Minister of War (Ian Mc Kellen) that shook up the British government. Since the early 1990s, her acting work has mainly consisted of stage shows, one-off roles, cameos, and appearances on reality television. Her last feature films were The Children (Tony Palmer, 1990) starring Ben Kingsley and Kim Novak and the Swedish drama Sök / Search (Maria von Heland, 2006) starring Amanda Ooms.
Britt Ekland was very much into the fitness trend. She wrote a book on the subject, 'Sensual Beauty: How to Achieve It' (1984), and made a fitness video in 1992. She also wrote the tell-all autobiography 'True Britt' (1981) and the novel 'Det ljuva livet / Sweet Life' (1993/1994). In 2004, Charlize Theron portrayed Ekland in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (Stephen Hopkins, 2004). Ekland accompanied Theron to the Cannes Film Festival, where she became highly emotional when she saw the film. She is a long-time resident of Los Angeles, USA.
Dutch postcard by Loeb Uitgevers BV, Amsterdam, no. 5992805, 1985. Photo: Eon Productions / Gilrose Publications / Danjaq S.A. Publicity still for The Man with the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton, 1974).
American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, no. CL/Personality # 78. Photo: Douglas Kirkland, 1981.
Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), Wikipedia (Swedish, Dutch and English) and IMDb.
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