In Remembrance: Julie Ege

     Julie Ege, the Norwegian beauty queen and Bond girl who found herself typecast in numerous 1970s British sex farces, has passed away on April 29, 2008 in Oslo, Norway. She was 64.

     Born Julie Dzuli in Sandnes, a small town in the southwest of Norway on November 12, 1943, Ege would already have three years of professional modeling experience by the time she was crowned Miss Norway at the age of 18. She moved to England in 1967, following her graduation from the University of Oslo with a degree in English and history. After working for two months as an au pair, she was selected to model for Penthouse magazine.

     It was her appearance in the magazine that lead her to be picked to be a Bond girl in the 1969 James Bond adventure On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. In the film, she plays one of 10 lovely young women of different nationalities with whom the villainous Blofeld (Telly Savalas) decorates his luxurious alpine retreat.

     Although still being cast more for her beauty than her acting talents, Ege’s next film, Every Home Should Have One (1970), saw her being elevated from being a supporting player to one of the film’s leads opposite bug-eyed comic Marty Feldman. Ege quickly found herself in a string of low brow sex comedies that relied more on her appearing in her underwear than on her acting abilities- Up Pompeii (1971), the spy spoof Rentadick (1972), Not Now Darling (1973) and Percy’s Progress (1975). She did manage to breakout from her sex-bomb typecasting to find herself being menaced by the villains of the films Mutations (1972) and The Legend Of Seven Golden Vampires (1974). After a final sex comedy, 1975’s The Amorous Milkman, Ege quit the British film industry.

     Returning to Norway, she acted only intermittently, appearing in a couple of small Norwegian films before turning to nursing.