Ursula Andress was born on the 19th March 1936 in Ostermundigen, Bern, Switzerland, and is an actress, jet-set starlet and sex symbol, who is probably best recognized for starring in the role of Bond girl Honey Ryder in the first James Bond film “Dr. No” (1962), and playing Vesper Lynd in the Bond-parody “Casino Royale” (1967). She also starred in other titles such as “Fun In Acapulco” (1963), and “Clash Of The Titans” (1981). Her career was active for 50 years from 1954.
So, have you ever wondered how rich Ursula Andress is, as of early 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that the total size of Ursula’s net worth is over $25 million, accumulated through her successful career in the entertainment industry.
Ursula Andress Net Worth $25 Million
Ursula Andress was raised with five siblings by her mother, Anna, who worked as a gardener, and her father, Rolf Andress, who was a German diplomat. When she was only 17 years old, Ursula eloped to Rome with an Italian actor, where she started working as an art model and did walk-ons in three quickie Italian features. After a year, she moved to California in order to pursue further her career in the film industry.
Ursula’s acting career began in 1954, when she made her debut appearance as Astrid Sjöström in the film “An American In Rome”, after which she featured in “Sins Of Casanova”, and “La Catena Dell’odio”, both in 1955. In 1962, she gained enormous popularity, as she appeared in the first Bond film “Dr. No”, in the role of Honey Ryder, James Bond’s woman of desire, opposite Sean Connery. There is one scene in this movie where she comes out of the sea in a white bikini carrying a knife on her hip which became an iconic moment in both cinematic and fashion history. From then, her career only went upwards, as well as her net worth.
In the following years, Ursula made appearances in many other memorable film titles such as “Fun In Acapulco” (1963) playing Marguerita Dauphin alongside Elvis Presley, “4 for Texas” (1963) as Maxine Richter, opposite Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and “She” (1965), portraying Ayesha, which was directed by Robert Day. By the next decade, she also starred in “The Blue Max” (1966), the Bond satire “Casino Royale” (1967), and “Anyone Can Play” (1969). All of these roles added a considerable amount to her net worth. Furthermore, during the 1960s, she posed nude for Playboy magazine, after which she earned the nickname ‘Ursula Undress’, and appeared nude or semi-nude in coming titles.
In 1970s, Ursula continued to line up success after success, starring in the role of Michelle Nolton in “Stateline Motel” (1973), playing Joséphine De Beauharnais in “The Loves and Times of Scaramouche” (1976), as Princess Dell’Orso in “Double Murder” (1977), and portraying Louise de la Vallière in “The Fifth Musketeer” (1979), increasing further her net worth.
In 1980s, her first role was Aphrodite in the 1981 film “Clash Of The Titans”, after which Ursula was cast in several TV titles, including “The Love Boat” (1983), and “Falcon Crest” (1985). Most recently, she featured in the 2005 film “The Bird Preachers”, in the role of Madonna, directed by Clemens Klopfenstein. Her net worth was certainly rising.
Thanks to her accomplishments, Ursula was nominated for and won numerous awards, for example she was nominated for the Henrietta Award for World Film Favorite – Female and won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. Also, her entrance in “Dr. No” was voted No. 1 in the 100 Greatest Sexy Moments in film.
Regarding her personal life, Ursula Andress was married to actor/director John Derek from 1957 to 1966, after which she dated her colleague Harry Hamlin with whom she has a son. Other partners have included Jean-Paul Belmondo (1965-1972), Fabio Testi (1973-1976), and Fausto Fagone (1986–1991).
Golden Globe Award for Best New Star of the Year – Actress
Nominations
Golden Globe Henrietta Award for World Film Favorites
Movies
Dr. No, The Sensuous Nurse, Casino Royale, The 10th Victim, Red Sun, The Mountain of the Cannibal God, The Blue Max, 4 for Texas, Once Before I Die, Loaded Guns, Clash of the Titans, Fun in Acapulco, She, What's New Pussycat?, Stateline Motel, The Southern Star, Up to His Ears, Perfect Friday, Tiger...
The world has become so small today. It is so sad that everything is becoming the same, and different traditions and cultures are all disappearing. I want to see different cultures, and different traditions, and my favorite places are villages which do not have high-rise houses or cement-block flats, but villages that are confined in a wall with their traditions intact. (Nov. '08)
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I did enjoy London in the '60s. Everything was fun, it was a happy town, an English town, but now there are no English there!
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[her criteria for choosing a project] It has to be art or else I am not interested. There is no shortage of good actors, there is a shortage of good films because they are very costly, but I did my work, and now I only do things for art.
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I have always been a gypsy, dreaming about curiosity and dreaming about traveling.
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[self-description of her upbringing] Like medieval times. I wasn't allowed to talk at the table unless I was addressed. I was not allowed to see boys or go to dances until I was 17.
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[on Harry Hamlin] I wanted him, and I knew I could have him, but I had no idea it would last more than a night or two. You can never prejudge a man.
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Honestly, I feel so lucky I have had such a lucky life. Everything I've ever wanted, I've had. And now I have my own baby.
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I was unfaithful to my husband because of my love for Jean-Paul. It is the only time I have been unfaithful to the man I loved, and I wouldn't do it again.
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[People magazine, 12/29/80] I'm nearly having a nervous breakdown. I am Swiss, and I want everything precise, clean, perfect. Everybody is furious with me; I have no time for anybody. I cry every day, I'm so upset. A baby takes 24 hours out of every 24 hours -- I never imagined it would be so time-consuming. Never, never!
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What I look for in a man isn't printable! I wouldn't want to shatter my cool Swiss image.
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When I love a man, I live only for him. I become his slave.
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To me, it's much more moral to live with the man you love, without signing a piece of paper, than to live legally in an atmosphere of boredom which can eventually turn to hate.
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It's a mystery. All I did was wear this bikini in Dr. No (1962) - not even a small one - and whoosh! Overnight, I made it.
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I was under contract to Paramount. They wanted to make me into somebody which I was not. So I got so scared and rebelled, so they threw me out of the studio, because I never went to school. I never went to the diction of the English, to acting school, because I was so scared because I saw them ... and I couldn't live up to it. So I chose to run away.
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I have no problem with nudity. I can look at myself. I like walking around nude. It doesn't bother me. I see all the people walking around nude; it doesn't bother me.
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Fact
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Selling her Beverly Hills home for $2.5 million. [September 2016]
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An occasional photographer, some of her pictures have been featured in Elle and Paris Match.
Was the original choice for the role of Sophie in Sophie's Choice (1982) but Meryl Streep, who went on to receive a Best Actress Oscar for her performance, was cast instead.
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Developed reputation as a serial homewrecker after being named correspondent for the divorces between John Derek and Pati Behrs, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Elodie Constant, and Ryan O'Neal and Leigh Taylor-Young. (Fellow Bond girl Lana Wood had actually invaded the last marriage before Andress came along, but the press placed the blame on her nonetheless.) She unapologetically explained "When you are in love, you are in love. That's all that matters.".
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On September 30, 1955, shortly before his death, James Dean asked her to go with him to San Francisco in his Porsche 550 Spyder. But after talking to John Derek, he realized that she was having an affair with the latter, so Dean left Los Angeles without her.
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Grew up in Ostermundingen, a city in the district of Berne, like TV host Michelle Hunziker and Lauriane Gilliéron, a former Miss Switzerland, who both attended her 70th birthday party.
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Studied painting, sculpture and dance in Paris.
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Described her wedding to John Derek a nightmare, marrying him in a small Las Vegas chapel with a cab driver as their best man and a ring that did not fit.
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Linda Evans drove Ursula to the hospital the day she gave birth to hers and Harry Hamlin's son, Dimitri Hamlin, while Linda's personal assistant located Harry on the set of King of the Mountain (1981) and brought him there in time for the event.
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Born to Rolf Andress, a German diplomat who had disappeared during World War II, and his French wife Anna, a gardener.
On May 18, 2006, she celebrated her 70th birthday aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia in the company of an international crowd of celebrities in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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A contract she signed with Paramount Pictures in the mid-'50s resulted in no acting roles due to her lack of attendance in the speech class they had arranged for her.
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Her younger sister, Kàtey Andress, unsuccessfully attempted to start a modeling career.
Is fluent in English, French, German, Italian and Swiss-German.
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Is the only actress to appear in a canon Bond movie (Dr. No (1962)), an unofficial Bond film (Casino Royale (1967)) and also appear as a character in a Bond novel ("On Her Majesty's Secret Service").
$25 Million
