Britt Ekland

Britt Ekland (born Britt-Marie Eklund; 6 October 1942) is a Swedish actress. She appeared in numerous films in her heyday throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including roles in The Double Man (1967), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968), Machine Gun McCain (1969), Stiletto (1969), and the British crime film Get Carter (1971), which established her as a sex symbol. She also starred in several horror films, including The Wicker Man (1973), and she appeared as a Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).

Ekland continued to act throughout the 1970s, with roles in films such as The Ultimate Thrill (1974), Royal Flash (1975), High Velocity (1976), and King Solomon's Treasure (1979), and into the 1980s, starring in the likes of Fraternity Vacation (1985), Moon in Scorpio (1987), and Scandal (1989). Since the early 1990s her acting work has mainly consisted of stage shows, one-off roles, cameos, and appearances on reality television.

Her high-profile social life, her 1964 marriage to actor Peter Sellers, and her relationship with singer Rod Stewart attracted considerable press attention, making her one of the world's most photographed celebrities during the 1970s.

Ekland was born Britt-Marie Eklund in Stockholm, Sweden to Maj Britt, a secretary, and Sven Eklund, who ran an upmarket clothing store in Stockholm and was captain of the Swedish national curling team, four-time national champion and one-time president of the World Curling Federation. Ekland's mother died of Alzheimer's disease in the 1980s, which had a profound effect on her.

Ekland grew up with three younger brothers, and has said that she was overweight for much of her childhood: "I was very heavy. God, I was brutal-looking. I always tried to be funny to make up for the fact that I was fat and ugly". As a teenager, Ekland left school to travel with a theatre company and was spotted in a coffee shop in Italy by a talent agent who sent her to London to audition for films.

Ekland had small roles in the Swedish films Kort är sommaren (1962) and Det är hos mig han har varit (1963), before landing her first major supporting part in the George Marshall Western Advance to the Rear (1964).

In the same year Ekland was originally cast in the dramatic role of Karen Eriksson in the British film Guns at Batasi starring Richard Attenborough, Jack Hawkins, Flora Robson, and sixties heartthrob actor/singer John Leyton. However she left the Pinewood production after only three weeks into filming due to tension with her new husband Peter Sellers, who was apparently so paranoid about Ekland having an affair with Leyton he secretly asked his old acting friends, David Lodge and Graham Stark who were co-starring in the picture, to keep an eye on her. After being quizzed nightly on the telephone by Sellers about her scenes and who she was with, Ekland left the shoot to join Sellers in Los Angeles. Ekland has said that Sellers insisted that she leave the set, come to America, then claim that an illness prevented her from returning. Her role was quickly recast and completed by Mia Farrow. In response 20th Century Fox sued Ekland for $1.5 million; Sellers counter-sued for $4 million claiming the Fox suit caused him "mental distress and injury to his health".

In 1964 she appeared in the Christmas television film A Carol for Another Christmas with her husband Peter Sellers. She followed this with After the Fox (1966), also starring Sellers; she made one more film with Sellers, The Bobo (1967). This was followed with a lead role as an Amish girl turned New York City burlesque dancer in William Friedkin's musical The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968), which earned Ekland critical acclaim. Next came Stiletto (1969), a crime drama, based on a novel by Harold Robbins, co-starring Alex Cord. She then starred in a string of Italian films, Machine Gun McCain (1969), The Conspirators (1969), and as Antigone in The Year of the Cannibals (1970).