Born in
Paris, France, Auger began her career as a
model and earned the title of
Miss France Monde 1958 (the French representative to the
Miss World beauty pageant) and went on to finish as the first runner-up in the
1958 Miss World contest.
Jean Cocteau cast Auger in an uncredited role as a tall
ballerina in
Testament of Orpheus (1960). When she was 18, she married the 43-year-old writer-director
Pierre Gaspard-Huit, and he cast her in several films, including
Le Masque de fer (1962) and
Kali Yug: Goddess of Vengeance (1963). In 1965 she was cast in the 1965
James Bond film
Thunderball, directed by
Terence Young.
Thunderball launched Auger into a successful European movie career, but did little for her otherwise in the United States. Though she performed in the movie, her French accent was considered too strong and her voice was dubbed by another actress. in
Anyone Can Play (1967) In 1966 she co-starred in the
World War II drama
Triple Cross with
Yul Brynner and
Christopher Plummer, that reunited her with her James Bond director Terence Young. Auger co-starred with another
Bond girl,
Ursula Andress, in the Italian comedy
Anyone Can Play (1967). She starred with two future Bond girls,
Barbara Bouchet and
Barbara Bach, in
Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971), a
giallo mystery. She had major roles in films such as
The Killing Game in 1967,
Flic Story in 1972, and filmed scenes for
The Eiger Sanction (1975), only to have her entire performance cut from the movie. On television, she made an appearance in 1972 on the
CBS series
Medical Center. In the 1980s Auger starred
The Man Who Married a French Wife which was broadcast on the
BBC and shown as part of the "Great Performances" series that was broadcast on
PBS in the United States. She also appeared in the 1994 British television series
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. == Personal life and death ==