Lavi (that’s her stage name it means “lioness” in Hebrew) had appeared in such European fare as The Return of Dr. 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. Her other work in the comic genre included The Spy With a Cold Nose (1966), starring Lawrence Harvey, and Some Girls Do (1969).Īt 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. The dark-haired, dark-eyed sex symbol then returned for another spy spoof, playing one of the “James Bonds,” aka The Detainer, in Casino Royale (1967) opposite David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress and Woody Allen.Ĭan SAG-AFTRA's Success Inspire Actors Unions Worldwide? In The Silencers (1966), the first of the four Matt Helm movies that starred Dean Martin as the American superspy, Lavi played the femme-fatale Tina Batori she saves the hero from getting a dagger in the back while he is in the embrace of a gorgeous female enemy agent. Lavi died Wednesday at her home in Asheville, N.C., her family announced. Daliah Lavi, the exotic beauty who starred in the swinging 1960s spy spoofs Casino Royale and The Silencers, has died.
