Essays

After Sean Connery’s one film return, Diamonds are Forever, to keep the franchise alive, producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman needed to find a new leading man to keep the Bond saga alive.  Jeremy Brett, Julian Glover and Michael Billington were considered (Glover and Billington eventually showed up as Bond villains).

In the end the role went to The Saint star Roger Moore who had briefly been originally considered for the role before it was given to Connery.  Moore would go on to star in seven of the now 22 Bond films, the most of any actor to play the role in the series (discounting Connery’s late remake Never Say Never Again).  Fleming hardliners and die-hard Connery fans were upset with Moore’s lighter touch and more humorous and suave version of 007.  However the fans, and money, still rolled into the box office, and Moore found his own niche as a different, but still enjoyable, Bond.

…

Shaken, not StirredRead More »

When Sean Connery retired, the first time, from the role of James Bond after You Only Live Twice, a new face for the franchise was needed.  The role, like Connery before him, went to an unknown.

George Lazenby was offered a seven picture deal with the Bond franchise, and if he had accepted who knows where Bond would have ended up today.  Instead he took his agent’s advice to refuse the deal and his time as Bond was short-lived spanning only one film, On His Majesty’s Secret Service.

Fans reaction to Lazenby’s Bond were mixed, finding him physically able to perform the role but emotionally distant and lacking the charm of Connery.  The choice was purposeful to paint Lazenby’s Bond as different from Connery and to cast him more in the image of Fleming’s novels.  Although he only performed in a single film, he was, if only for a short time, Bond.  James Bond.

…

Bond: “The Other Fellow”Read More »