Britt Ekland was born in Sweden and grew up to be the poster girl for
beautiful, big-eyed Scandinavian blondes. She attended a drama school
and then joined a traveling theater group. With her looks as her
passport, Britt entered films and became a star in Italy. When
Peter Sellers met her in a hotel,
he fell hard for her and they soon married. 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). She appeared in several films with her husband, including
Jagt den Fuchs (1966),
written by Neil Simon, and the
forgettable Bobo ist der Größte (1967). Her claim
to fame would come as the young girl who invented the striptease in
Die Nacht, als Minsky aufflog (1968).
After that, she appeared in a string of movies that were built around
her looks and not much else. She did appear in some first-rate
productions over the years, though, two of them being
Jack rechnet ab (1971) and the cult classic
The Wicker Man (1973). The high
point in her career would be her role as Bond girl Mary Goodnight in
Der Mann mit dem goldenen Colt (1974).
After her much publicized breakup with rocker
Rod Stewart in 1977, Britt continued
to make movies--both features and made-for-TV films--and tried the
stage. By that time, the quality of her film projects had decreased
markedly, and she was reduced to appearing in things like
American Eiskrem (1985)
and Beverly Hills Vamp (1989).
