Israeli actress, singer and model Daliah Lavi arrives at London Airport, UK, 15th November 1967. (Photo by Michael Stroud/Daily Express/Getty Images)
Daliah Lavi, the Israeli beauty who starred in popular 1960s spy spoof comedies Casino Royale and The Silencers has passed away. She was 74.
Daliah Lavi Cause of Death
Her family announced that she died Wednesday at her home in Asheville, North Carolina, of natural causes.
Lavi played the femme-fatale Tina Batori in The Silencers (1966), the first of the four Matt Helm movies that featured Dean Martin as the American spy.
Lavi, who became a popular sex symbol thanks to her striking good looks, returned to the spy parody genre with Casino Royale (1967) in which she played one of the “James Bonds” opposite David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress and Woody Allen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEnoKqiGJFI
Her other roles include The Spy With a Cold Nose (1966), starring Lawrence Harvey, and Some Girls Do (1969).
At her 10th birthday party, Lavi met Kirk Douglas, who was filming The Juggler in her town in what is now Israel, and arranged for her to study ballet. A decade later, they worked together in Vincente Minnelli’s Two Weeks in Another Town (1962), and she received a Golden Globe for most promising newcomer (female) for her work.
Lavi (her stage name that means “lioness” in Hebrew) also appeared in a handful of European productions including The Return of Dr. Mabuse (1961), The Demon (1963) and The Whip and the Body (1963) before attracting attention as The Girl in writer-director Richard Brooks’ Lord Jim (1965), starring Peter O’Toole.
She appeared as the pretentious actress Ilona Bergen in the Agatha Christie remake Ten Little Indians (1965) and also had roles in Those Fantastic Flying Fools (1967), Nobody Runs Forever (1968) and Catlow (1971).
Lavi, fluent in five languages, lived in Asheville with her husband, Charles, since 1992.
She is survived by her children Kathy, Rouben, Alexander and Stephen, grandchildren Sophie, Ben, Emma and Hannah and Levi; and sister Michal.
