Nikki van der Zyl

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Count_Lippe
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Nikki van der Zyl

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Have we ever talked about this woman on the forum? She was a voice actress who provided the voice to many of the Bond girls all the years between Dr No and Moonraker.

The voices of many of the Bond-actresses were deemed not appealing or sexy enough, or in some cases they didn't speak english well enough, so they were dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl.

She provided the voices to Ursula Andress and Eunice Gayson in Dr No, Shirley Eaton in Goldfinger, Claudine Auger in Thunderball, Mie Hama in You Only Live Twice, Corinne Clery in Moonraker, to name but a few.

It wasn't considered controversial at the time to dub the leading actress because her voice wasn't good enough, and some of the men in the Bond films were dubbed as well for various reasons.

What do you think about Nikki van der Zyl's contribution to the Bond series?

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Re: Nikki van der Zyl

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I suspect she doesn't get talked about much because she's supposed to be inconspicuous. After all, if you notice her presence, it means she's not doing her job well.
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Re: Nikki van der Zyl

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Kristatos wrote:I suspect she doesn't get talked about much because she's supposed to be inconspicuous. After all, if you notice her presence, it means she's not doing her job well.
Regular viewers are probably not aware of her, but are you saying there are Bond fans who have never heard of Nikki van der Zyl and know nothing of the dubbing of Bond actresses?

Anyway it's amazing she did so many voices and yet they don't sound quite the same, and also the dubbing was very well made so you don't really notice it.

It was a very pleasant voice she could slightly modify whenever she dubbed a new actress.
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Re: Nikki van der Zyl

Post by Omega »

She'd be a star in today's Hollywood. But there were/are a ton of people dubbing movies , dubbing English speaking actors like they did Lazenby is very rare today. Connery got away with whatever his accent is for decades before he quit acting.





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Re: Nikki van der Zyl

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Omega wrote:She'd be a star in today's Hollywood. But there were/are a ton of people dubbing movies , dubbing English speaking actors like they did Lazenby is very rare today. Connery got away with whatever his accent is for decades before he quit acting.
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That Lazenby was dubbed as Sir Hilary Bray was just too stupid, one of the (many) cheesy aspects of OHMSS.

I don't think Connery had much of a Scottish accent when he played Bond or in his other 60s films, if that's what you mean?

His Scottish accent, as well as pronouncing "s" as "sh" came later in his career. :lol:
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Re: Nikki van der Zyl

Post by Omega »

I just meant Connery played arabs with the same every day Connery accent. Today English actors are flawlessly acting with American accents, Australians are all American Canadian heroes (Logan) (Batman, superman)
Connery was just Connery.

This woman who had excellent voice control in today's Hollywood would be a bigger star . Old Hollywood stars could just do their stick never needing to do any voice control or real costume work.



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Re: Nikki van der Zyl

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Omega wrote:I just meant Connery played arabs with the same every day Connery accent.

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Ah, ok.

Yes many old movie stars played more or less themselves in role after role.

But there were people like Robert De Niro who could play real characters already in the 1970s, like his portrayal in Raging Bull.
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Re: Nikki van der Zyl

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True .



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Re: Nikki van der Zyl

Post by Omega »

Was just thinking how talented Alec Guinness was, everyone remembers him as Obi Wan but he has such a variety of roles he was great at.
Craig is very limited at anything really even Brosnan is as well in a way.
Untouchables and red October were probably two of Connery's better none Bond roles. He kind of did like so many stars did, themselves in a new movie.
Probably why I'm not a huge old movie fan. It was a lot of "the rock" and Jason statham movies over and over.
Not hating on The rock or statham they recognized what they do well and keep with it.

Nikki was working in bond films until 1979 she retired in 1980. She is still alive be really cool if she'd get some kind of recognition before she dies



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Re: Nikki van der Zyl

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I just watched the 1965 movie She, where Ms Van Der Zyl once again dubbed Ursula Andress. Yet another Hammer/Bond connection.
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Re: Nikki van der Zyl

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She would be well-known in modern Hollywood. However, there were/are a tonne of people who dubbed films; today, it's quite uncommon to do so with English-speaking performers like Lazenby. Before Connery retired from acting, he was able to get away with any accent he had.
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Re: Nikki van der Zyl

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Ah yes, Sean Connery, the man of a thousand voices :D

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