Bond-girl Britt Ekland on 007, Peter Sellers and why her latest role is far from glamorous

Former Bond girl Britt Ekland has a light-hearted warning about her latest acting role. “People who are expecting me to be glamorous might get a bit of shock,” she says. Now aged 77, Ekland is appearing in the murder mystery The Cat and the Canary at the Grand Opera House York, playing the housekeeper Mrs Pleasant.

“I am finding it extremely challenging,” admits the Swedish actress whose numerous films include The Man with The Golden Gun with Roger Moore, The Wicker Man with Christopher Lee, and Get Carter with Sir Michael Caine.

“Not because of the lack of glamour but because I am playing a part that is so far away from any of the roles I have played before. But I am relishing the challenge.”

Ekland is for many the ultimate Bond girl playing Mary Goodnight opposite Roger Moore’s Bond in The Man with the Golden Gun.

But it was her highly publicised marriage to Peter Sellers that saw the young Swedish actress thrown into the spotlight.

“As a child I wanted to be a vet,” says Ekland. “I hated school and when I realised that to become a vet I would have to spend another seven years studying I wasn’t going to do that.”

She landed a toothpaste commercial and then started acting before being spotted, signed by 20th Century Fox and moving to London in 1963 – she was 21.

“I was pretty naive for 21,” she admits. “I’d started my first movie with Sir Richard Attenborough.” But when Peter Sellers spotted her picture in a newspaper her life changed forever.

He was 17 years her senior and after a whirlwind romance they were married 10 days after meeting each other.

“The rest is very well documented,” says Ekland of her stormy marriage to the Pink Panther actor.

“From then on Peter decided everything for me. He didn’t want me to do the movie and pulled me out of the contract. But I don’t look back. It was showbusiness.” She stood by Sellers after he suffered a series of heart attacks after their marriage. She was step mother to his children Sarah and Michael and in January 1965 she gave birth to their daughter, Victoria.

On December 17, 1968, Lord Justice Orr granted Ekland a decree nisi for divorce in the High Court on the grounds of cruelty by Sellers, who did not contest the proceedings.

She also has a son, Nic Adler, with record producer Lou Adler.

In 1984, aged 42, she married Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom, who was 19 years younger than she, aged 23. They had a son, Thomas Jefferson (born in 1988).They divorced in 1992.

Ekland also had a much publicised romance with rock star 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 the relationship.

Family is clearly the driving factor in Ekland’s life. She believes a responsibility comes with her fame and wants to use her celebrity to raise awareness of causes close to her heart.

Her mother died of Alzheimer’s disease in the 1980s, which had a profound effect on her and she decided to use her fame to raise awareness of the devastating condition, publicly supporting the Alzheimer’s Society by becoming a patron.

“My mother had dementia and it is heartbreaking watching someone you love gradually lose their memories and skills. Once the doctors had diagnosed her we were told there is no cure, just go home and do the best you can. This was 1980 and very little was known about Alzheimer’s. I have spent the years since then trying to do the best I can, to take away the feeling of shame and bring awareness of this devastating illness.”

And when her grandson Lucas was diagnosed with ALD (Adrenoleukodystrophy) in America, she decided to leap into action, not just to help him but to help other children, particularly in the UK .

“At three months old, Lucas was diagnosed with ALD,” she says. “We found out from the newborn screening results in California. ALD was added only a few months before he was born. We are so lucky to know this information about my grandson, Lucas. He is going to be three years old in April and is doing well. He is monitored very closely with MRIs every six months and blood draws every three months and if needed, we can do something about it because we have this information.

“Babies are able to be monitored from birth and their lives saved because we can intervene with treatment, but not here in the UK.

“How is it that the UK does not have newborn screening for ALD? I am now campaigning for this, as I did to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s after my mother was diagnosed.”

You get the feeling that Britt Ekland is the type of woman who gets what she wants.

She may have become famous for her marriage to a film star and playing a Bond-girl but there is nothing weak about this woman.

“I’m old but I’m a very modern woman – I 
never look back,” she says. She defends the Bond-girl role.

“It was of an age and I loved doing Bond,” she adds. “You couldn’t probably do it now, but times were different then.” But while Bond may have evolved Ekland is definitely not in favour of seeing a female in the lead role.

“Bond is a man,” she says emphatically and who are we to argue?

Although she admits to having had cosmetic surgery in the past, she is worried about the growing trend. “I didn’t have anything until I was in my 50s, but nowadays women are having it in their 20s, when they are in their prime and it makes them look older. It is a worrying trend.”

As she tours with The Cat and the Canary, Ekland says she has no intention of giving up acting. “I am an actress, it is what I do. I am a very active and positive person, life is too short to be miserable. I love all forms of acting. It is six years since I was last on the stage and I am loving it, I love the audiences.

“I am very much looking forward to coming back to York. I love York and in particular the Grand Opera House – it is one of my favourite theatres.”

Britt Ekland appears in The Cat and the Canary alongside Mark Jordon (Heartbeat, Emmerdale), Tracy Shaw (Coronation Street)and Marti Webb (Evita, Tell Me on a Sunday) at the Grand Opera House, York from March 30 to April 4. Tickets from £13. Box Office: 0844 871 3024 www.atgtickets.com/york