The Many Lives of James Bond

by Mark Edlitz

  102 Unidentified author, “Who Played James Bond: A Complete History,” 007 James, www.007james.com/articles/who_played_james_bond.php.

  103 Over the years, many brave stuntmen have left their mark on the franchise. That group, as reported by Jon Auty and Anders Frejdh, includes Bob Simmons (who doubled for Connery and Moore, Alf Joint (Connery), George Leech (Connery, Lazenby, and Moore), Vic Armstrong (Connery, Lazenby, and Moore), Martin Grace (Moore), B. J. Worth (Dalton and Brosnan), Simon Crane (Dalton and Brosnan), Wayne Michaels (Brosnan) and Ben Cooke (Craig). Jon Auty, “Stunt-men Who Have Played Ian Fleming’s James Bond on Film,” From Sweden with Love, https://jamesbond007.se/eng/artiklar/stuntman-som-james-bond.

  104 “James Bond: 50 Years of the Best 007-Related Records to Mark 50 Years on the Big Screen,” Guinness World Records, October 5, 2017, www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2012/10/james-bond-50-of-the-best-007-related-records-to-mark-50-years-on-the-big-screen-45200.

  DESIGNING 007

  1 The nature of the McGinnis/McCarthy collaboration is complicated and varies with the different posters on which they both worked. However, they worked separately and contributed different elements to the poster. To see a treasure trove of their Bond art, read James Bond: 50 Years of Movie Posters by DK Publishing, visit Peter Lorenz’s website, the Illustrated 007, and seek out the Nixdorf collection.

  2 Edward Biddulph, “The James Bond art of Robert McGinnis: The Sunday Times magazine 007 collectors’ issue,” James Bond Memes, May 10, 2015, http://jamesbondmemes.blogspot.com/2015/05/robert-mcginnis-james-bond-artwork-for.html.

  3 Peter Lorenz, Illustrated 007. http://illustrated007.blogspot.com/search/label/Artist%3A%20Robert%20McGinnis.

  4 In addition to the classic stance, McGinnis has also illustrated Bond in different positions. For a variety of reasons, several images, not just one, are used for marketing.

  5 Robert E. McGinnis: The Official Website, www.mcginnispaintings.com/about-robert-mcginnis.

  6 Bob Simmons with Kenneth Passingham, Nobody Does It Better, New York: Sterling Publishing, 1987, 31.

  7 Peter Lorenz, Illustrated 007, http://illustrated007.blogspot.com.

  8 The international poster by Italian artist Renato Casaro is closer to the look of a traditional Bond poster.

  9 RudyObrero.com.

  10 MI6, “Designing ‘Never Say Never Again’ – Rudy Obrero Interview, August 7, 2010 www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/interview_rudy_obrero.php3.

  11 Emovieposter.com.

  12 The unused images can be found on the Bond fan website, Illustrated 007, and in the Nixdorf collection.

  13 A teaser poster presents a strong graphic image that is intended to whet the audience’s appetite while being slightly enigmatic about the forthcoming movie. The teaser poster is usually meant to raise questions about the movie. The final poster provides the answers. The final poster is usually more descriptive and less mysterious than the teaser.

  14 Marcel Damen, “Dan Goozee Galactica.TV Interview,” Galactica.TV, www.galactica.tv/battlestar-galactica-1978-interviews/dan-goozee-galactica.tv-interview.html.

  15 Peter Lorenz, “Moonraker Artwork,” Illustrated 007, and the Thomas Nixdorf collection, http://illustrated007.blogspot.com/2015/01/moonraker-artwork.html.

  16 Although it’s not his normal practice, Bond briefly carried two guns during the finale of Tomorrow Never Dies. As in the video game, the second gun belonged to a fallen adversary.

  BOND WOMEN

  1 [Note: Dr. Lisa Funnell provided notes for her detailed answers.] For a detailed discussion of the lover literary tradition, see Harriet Hawkins, Classics and Trash: Traditions and Taboos in High Literature and Popular Modern Genres (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990).

  2 For a detailed discussion of sex and (hetero)sexuality in James Bond, see Jeremy Black, The Politics of James Bond: From Fleming’s Novels to the Big Screen (London: Praeger, 2001).

  3 Lisa Funnell, “From English Partner to American Action Hero: The Heroic Identity and Transnational Appeal of the Bond Girl,” Heroes and Heroines: Embodiment, Symbolism, Narratives and Identity, edited by Christopher Hart (Kingswin-ford, UK: Midrash, 2008), 63.

  4 For example, Catherine Haworth examines the influence of music on the depiction of Pussy Galore in Goldfinger (“Pussy Galore: Women and Music in Gold-finger,” in For His Eyes Only: The Women of James Bond, edited by Lisa Funnell [London: Wallflower, 2015], 157–66). Andrea Severson uses costume theory to explore the depiction of femininity and power of the Bond Girls featured in Dr. No and Casino Royale (“Designing Character: Costume, Bond Girls, and Negotiating Representation,” in For His Eyes Only, 176–84). Thomas Barrett explores how the depiction of Tatiana Romanova in From Russia with Love reflects the changing geopolitics of the time as the Soviet Union was opening up to the West (“Desiring the Soviet Woman: Tatiana Romanova and From Russia with Love,” in For His Eyes Only, 41–50). Marlisa Santos examines how On Her Majesty’s Secret Service fits the formula of the “woman’s film” by centralizing women in the narrative, especially Bond Girl Tracy di Vicenzo (“‘This Never Happened to the Other Fellow’: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service As a Bond Woman’s Film,” in For His Eyes Only, 101–9). Robert von Dassanowsky examines the depiction of Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd in the spoof Casino Royale (1967) and the ways in which her character intertexts with her previous role as Honey Ryder in Dr. No (“‘Never Trust a Rich Spy:’ Ursula Andress, Vesper Lynd, and Mythic Power in Casino Royale 1967,” in For His Eyes Only, 91–100). Finally, Jeffrey A. Brown discusses Angelina Jolie’s rejection of an offer to play a Bond Girl and how the action film Salt (2010) attempts to create a female Bond franchise (“‘Who Is Salt?’ The Difficulty of Constructing a Female James Bond and Reconstructing Gender Expectations,” in For His Eyes Only, 224–33).

  5 For instance, Alexander Sergeant explores the representation of Electra King in The World Is Not Enough and how the depiction of female desire in the film challenges Bond’s phallic authority (“Bond Is Not Enough: Elektra King and the Desiring Bond Girl,” in For His Eyes Only, 128–36).

  6 For example, Charles Burnetts explores the different narrative treatments of three categories of Bond women: Bond Girls, Bad Girls, and secondary female characters who he likens to “fluffers” in the porn industry (“Bond’s Bit on the Side: Race, Exoticism and the Bond ‘Fluffer’ Character,” in For His Eyes Only, 60–69). Travis Wagner discusses how race and colonialism influence Bond’s treatment of black women across the film series (“‘The Old Ways Are Best’: The Colonization of Women of Color in Bond Films,” in For His Eyes Only, 51–59). Dan Mills examines the differences between Bond Girls, Bad Girls, and Secondary Women to discuss the issue of female empowerment (“‘What Really Went on up There James?’ Bond’s Wife, Blofeld’s Patients, and Empowered Bond Women,” in For His Eyes Only, 110–18). Finally, Eileen Rositzka describes supportive female characters as “Secondary Girls” (a wordplay on the term “Bond Girls”) and explains their form and function in the narrative (“Random Access Mysteries: James Bond and the Matter of the Unknown Woman,” in For His Eyes Only, 148–56).

  7 For instance, Klaus Dodds discusses the various ways in which Eve Moneypenny in Skyfall is depicted differently from her predecessors and other figures who make up Bond’s (institutional) support system (“‘It’s Not for Everyone’: James Bond and Miss Moneypenny in Skyfall,” For His Eyes Only, 214–23).

  8 For example, Brian Patton explores the casting of Judi Dench as M and the depiction of female authority across the Brosnan and Craig eras (“M, 007, and the Challenge of Female Authority in the Bond Franchise,” in For His Eyes Only, 246–54).

  9 For a discussion of gender and communication, see Julia T. Wood, Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture, 9th ed (Boston: Wadsworth, 2011).

  10 Andrew Roberts, “Nikki van der Zyl: The Bond girl you’ve never seen who voiced some of the films’ best known heroines,” Independent, October 11 2015, https://www.independent.co.uk
/arts-entertainment/music/features/nikki-van-der-zyl-the-bond-girl-youve-never-seen-who-voiced-some-of-the-films-best-known-heroines-a6689701.html.

  11 Lisa Funnell, “From English Partner to American Action Hero,” 63–64.

  12 Funnell, “From English Partner to American Action Hero,” 69.

  13 Funnell, “From English Partner to American Action Hero,” 77–78.

  14 Christopher Holliday, “Mothering the Bond-M Relation in Skyfall and the Bond Girl Intervention,” in For His Eyes Only, 267–69.

  15 Lisa Funnell, “Objects of White Male Desire: (D)Evolving Representations of Asian Women in Bond Films,” in For His Eyes Only: The Women of James Bond, 86.

  16 Peter C. Kunze, “From Masculine Mastermind to Maternal Martyr: Judi Dench’s M, Skyfall, and the Patriarchal Logic of James Bond Films,” in For His Eyes Only, 242.

  17 Lori L. Parks, “‘M’(O)thering: Female Representation of Age and Power in James Bond,” in For His Eyes Only, 262.

  18 Michael W. Boyce, “Property of a Lady: (S)Mothering Judi Dench’s M,” in For His Eyes Only, 281.

  19 For example, in GoldenEye M dismisses criticism by stating, “If I want sarcasm, Mr. Tanner, I’ll talk to my children, thank you very much.”

  20 Lisa Funnell, “‘I Know Where You Keep Your Gun’: Daniel Craig As the Bond–Bond Girl Hybrid in Casino Royale,” Journal of Popular Culture (2011): 443.

  21 Funnell, “‘I Know Where You Keep Your Gun,’” 462.

  22 Funnell, “‘I Know Where You Keep Your Gun,’” 466–68.

  23 Funnell, “‘I Know Where You Keep Your Gun,’” 467.

  24 Ian Fleming, Diamonds Are Forever, Nevada: Thomas and Mercer, 2012, 200.

  25 Fleming, Diamonds Are Forever, 201.

  26 Stephen Nepa, “Secret Agent Nuptials: Marriage, Gender Roles, and the ‘Different Bond Woman’ in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” in For His Eyes Only, 195.

  27 Stephanie Jones, “‘Women Drivers’: The Changing Role of the Bond Girl in Vehicle Chases,” in For His Eyes Only, 212.

  APPENDIX: QUOTABLE BOND

  1 Cinema Retro, 2004, quoted in MI6, www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/obituary_nelson.php3.

  2 Lee Goldberg, “Barry Nelson: The First James Bond,” Starlog 75, 1983.

  3 New York Daily News, 1995, quoted by Dennis McLellan for the Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2007.

  4 Goldberg, “Barry Nelson: The First James Bond.”

  5 Lee Pfeiffer, “The Curious Legacy of Casino Royale,” MI6, October 22, 2004. www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/history_casino_royale.php3?id=0593.

  6 Robert Dex, “Quiz Host Bob Holness Dies,” Independent, January 6, 2012, www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/quiz-host-bob-holness-dies-6286014.html.

  7 Simmons and Passingham, Nobody Does It Better, 6.

  8 Simmons and Passingham, Nobody Does It Better, 62.

  9 Matthew Field, “Connery in His Own Words,” quoted in Cinema Retro’s “Celebrating 50 Years of James Bond in the Cinema,” 2012: 1323, which found it in the Observer, March 1, 1998.

  10 Matthew Field, “Connery in His Own Words,” which found it in Peter Haining’s James Bond: A Celebration (London: Planet 1987); the original source is unknown.

  11 Playboy, “Sean Connery, November 1965.”

  12 Newsday, 1963, quoted in Stuff Nobody Cares About, http://stuffnobodycaresabout.com/2015/11/12/sean-connery-on-james-bond.

  13 F. Lee Bailey, Good Company, 1967, www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZzbIIQ2OH4.

  14 Melvyn Bragg, The South Bank Show, October 2008.

  15 Bailey, Good Company.

  16 New York Times, 1964, quoted in Stuff Nobody Cares About, http://stuffnobodycaresabout.com/2015/11/12/sean-connery-on-james-bond.

  17 Bailey, Good Company.

  18 Bailey, Good Company.

  19 Richardson, The Making of Casino Royale (1967), quoting from The Blade, April 30, 1967.

  20 Richard Luck, “A Cocktail Recipe for Disaster: Peter Sellers and Orson Welles on the Making of Casino,” Sabotage Times, November 2, 2015; original source unknown.

  21 Michael Richardson, quoting from BBC’s Film Night, November 8, 1970; original source unknown.

  22 Karen Glahn, “Terence Cooper—The Forgotten Agent 007,” Morgenavisen Jyllands-Postens, May 21, 1996, quoted in “Casino Royale (1967): Terence Cooper—the Forgotten Agent 007 (1996),” Bond-O-Rama, February 15, 2017, www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/cr67-terence-cooper-1996-eng. Bragg, The South Bank Show.

  23 Paul Riddell, “The George Lazenby Interview,” 007 Magazine (9–10): 1981. www.007magazine.co.uk/archive/archive_01.htm.

  24 Becoming Bond, documentary, directed by Josh Greenbaum, 2017.

  25 Becoming Bond.

  26 Becoming Bond.

  27 Patrick Ryan, “‘Forgotten’ James Bond Actor Says He Had a Fan in Roger Moore,” USA Today, June 2, 2017, 2017, www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/06/02/becoming-bond-george-lazenby-hulu/102313230.

  28 Roger Moore, My Word Is My Bond, Sydney: HarperCollins, 2008, 248.

  29 The 007 Dossier quoting Lee Goldberg, “Roger Moore: His Name Is Bond,” Starlog, July 1985, www.the007dossier.com/post/2017/03/27/1985-Starlog-Interview-with-Roger-Moore.

  30 David Giammarco, “Roger—Over and Out!” originally published in 007 Magazine 16 (1985), www.007magazine.co.uk/archive/archive_05.htm.

  31 David Walliams, “Sir Roger Moore: ‘I’m a Lover, Sean Connery’s a Killer,’” GQ, May 2017, www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/roger-moore-dies-89.

  32 Kevin Perry, “Roger Moore on Bond, Brexit and Gin,” Short List, 2017, www.shortlist.com/entertainment/roger-moore-interview-james-bond-brexit-gin/104477.

  33 Will Harris, “Timothy Dalton on Penny Dreadful, Serenading Mae West, and Being James Bond,” AV Club, May 9, 2014, www.avclub.com/article/timothy-dalton-penny-dreadful-serenading-mae-west--204395.

  34 David Giammarco, For Your Eyes Only: Behind the Scenes of the James Bond Films, Toronto: ECW Press, 2002, 199.

  35 Richard Schenkman, “A Conversation with Timothy Dalton,” Bondage 15 (1987): 22.

  36 Raymond Benson, “Poetic Licence,”originally published 007 Magazine 21 (1989); www.007magazine.co.uk/archive/archive_06-1.htm.

  37 Christian Blauvelt, “Timothy Dalton Talks ‘Chuck,’ ‘The Tourist,’ and, of course, ‘Bond,’ Entertainment Weekly, November 1, 2010, http://ew.com/article/2010/11/01/timothy-dalton-chuck-the-tourist-bond.

  38 Benedict Nightingale, “007: A New Bond Meets the New Woman; Timothy Dalton Finds a Hero in the Hero,” New York Times, July 26, 1987, www.nytimes.com/1987/07/26/movies/007-a-new-bond-meets-the-new-woman-timothy-dalton-finds-a-hamlet-in-the-hero.html.

  39 Nightingale, “007.”

  40 Giammarco, “For Your Eyes Only,” 207.

  41 Harris, “Timothy Dalton on Penny Dreadful, Serenading Mae West, and Being James Bond.”

  42 Alex Simon, “Great Conversations: Pierce Brosnan,” Huffington Post, June 24, 2015, www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-simon/great-conversations-pierc_b_7656846. html.

  43 Simon, “Great Conversations: Pierce Brosnan.”

  44 Simon, “Great Conversations: Pierce Brosnan.”

  45 Horatia Harrod, “Pierce Brosnan: I Was Never Good Enough As Bond,” Telegraph, April 12, 2014, www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10755167/Pierce-Brosnan-I-was-never-good-enough-as-Bond.html.

  46 Stephen Rebello, “Playboy Interview: Pierce Brosnan, December 2005,” in 50 Years of the Playboy Interview: James Bond, Playboy Enterprises, Inc., 2012.

  47 James Inverne, “Villain with a Past,” Sunday Telegraph, December 2002.

  48 Benjamin Svetkey, “The Man Who Would Be Bond,” Entertainment Weekly, August 18, 2006, 46.

  49 David Sheff, “Playboy Interview: Daniel Craig, November 2008,” in The Playboy Interviews: James Bond, Playboy Enterprises, Inc., 2012.

  50 Svetkey, “The Man Who Would Be Bond,” 49.

  51 Sheff, “Playboy Interview: Daniel Craig, November 2008.”

  52 Dave Calhoun,
“Daniel Craig Interview: ‘My Advice to the Next James Bond? Don’t Be Shit!’” Time Out New York, October 7, 2015, www.timeout.com/london/film/daniel-craig-interview-my-advice-to-the-next-james-bond-dont-be-shit.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Mark Edlitz has worked as a writer and producer for ABC News, NBC-Uni, CNBC, Discovery ID, and for National Geographic Channel’s Brain Games.

  Edlitz’s writings about pop culture have appeared in The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times Hero Complex, Moviefone, and Empire magazine online.

  He wrote and directed the award-winning independent film The Eden Myth and directed Jedi Junkies, a documentary about extreme Star Wars fans.

  His book How to Be a Superhero includes interviews with actors who have played superheroes over the past seven decades.

  Edlitz lives in New York with his wife and two children.