Life and career

Lavi was born in Shavei Zion, British Mandate of Palestine, to Jewish parents from Germany and Russia.

She studied ballet in Stockholm, Sweden, where she appeared in her first film Hemsöborna (1955). Returning to Israel, her career took off in 1960, when she started appearing in a large number of European and American productions. Fluent in several languages, she has also been in German-, French-, Italian-, Spanish- and English-language films.

Lavi's film appearances include Vincente Minnelli's Two Weeks in Another Town (1962), Mario Bava's gothic classic La Frusta e il corpo, or The Whip and the Body (1963), the role of The Girl in Lord Jim and the first Matt Helm film, The Silencers (1966), opposite Dean Martin.

However, her best-known role is probably as 'The Detainer/007' in Casino Royale (1967). With the decline of her film career, Lavi began a successful schlager singing career in Germany, with hits such as "Oh, wann kommst du?", "Willst du mit mir gehn?" and "C'est ça, la vie (So ist das Leben)". She recorded German-language covers of Melanie Safka's Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma and Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read My Mind.

Filmography

• The People of Hemso (1955)
• Burning Sands (1960)
• Candide ou l'optimisme au XXe siècle (1960)
• Violent Summer (1961) aka Un soir sur la plage
• La Fête espagnole (fr) (1961)
• The Return of Doctor Mabuse (1961)
• Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)
• Das schwarz-weiß-rote Himmelbett (de) (1962)
• The Whip and the Body (1963)
• Das große Liebesspiel (de) (1963)
• Il demonio (1963)
• Old Shatterhand (1964)
• Cyrano et d'Artagnan (1964)
• DM-Killer (de) (1965)
• Lord Jim (1965)
• Ten Little Indians (1965)
• The Silencers (1966)
• The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966)
• Casino Royale (1967)
• Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon (1967)
• Nobody Runs Forever (1968)
• Some Girls Do (1969)
• Catlow (1971)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]