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Thank you so much for posting these.
The summer of 1988 afforded a 22-year old 007 fan the chance-of-a-lifetime: to visit the private set of a James Bond film. With a camera. That fan was me. My name is Erik, and I thought I'd finally share some of my memories of that experience 27 years ago.
Being a Jacksonville, Florida resident at the time with ties to the city's film commission, I stayed keenly aware of productions that came to the state. In 1986–two years prior–I had worked briefly as a PA on the set of Brenda Starr which was shooting in my hometown. It starred Brooke Shields – and that dashing British actor from Flash Gordon, Timothy Dalton.
That was when I had my first brush with Bond.
Like any rabid 007 fan, I had been eagerly awaiting the news of who was to replace Roger Moore as the world's most famous secret agent. So imagine my excitement when within one hour of spotting the announcement of Dalton's casting for The Living Daylights in USA Today, I was standing feet away from the man himself. Right there, within a 20-minute drive from my neighborhood, the newly-knighted 007 stood posing for a single local news photographer outside the production office... and there was me – his first official Bond fan; just the three of us on a portico beside the St. John's River. The news of his casting was so fresh, hardly any local press knew it yet. It was an extraordinary day for me to say the least.
As a fledgling artist, I used to enjoy pencil sketching as a hobby. One day, I drew a portrait of Timothy Dalton from Flash Gordon, drove down to the production office and presented him with it. He seemed a bit taken aback at the gesture, but was very gracious and friendly. After a few weeks, and a couple other brief encounters with Mr. Dalton, he left Brenda Starr to begin shooting on Gibraltar for what would become one of my favorite Bond pre-title sequences (in The Living Daylights).
I could never have guessed that would be just the beginning of my Dalton-Bond experience.
Fast forward to 1988. An actor friend of mine named Victor Jones–also a Bond fan–informed me he was planning to be an extra in the new Bond film “License Revoked” set to shoot in Key West in the summer. Of course I wanted in, so I somehow tracked down the number for the EON production office in Key West and called. To my great shock and delight, the person who answered actually recognized my voice as I stammered my request for relevant info and asked “Is this Erik?” It turned out, a friend who I had worked with before was hired by EON, and knew me to be a crazy Bond fan. I was invited to come on down and sign up for an extra position. Victor, his wife Amy, and I packed his car and the three of us traveled to the southern tip of Florida to experience four days of up-close and personal James Bond surreality.
Upon arrival late Thursday afternoon, we were met by my production office friend and granted a tour of the place. As we came to a locked door, I was told not to take ANY pictures of what we were about to see. It was the publicity dept office. The walls were covered with black and white stills from several scenes already shot. Wow. I could have stayed for hours scrutinizing these amazing stills. Our excitement was already in maximum overdrive, and we'd only been there 15 minutes. Upon leaving the building, We ran into Albert R. Broccoli and Michael Wilson who were arriving. They were casual and friendly. We were starstruck and gobsmacked.
Friday, we awakened at our motel to a deluge of rain which lasted until late morning. Frustrated, we thought the whole day would be a loss, but the sun soon emerged and when I phoned the production office, my friend said shooting was back on. We were given a blank sheet of official LICENSE REVOKED letterhead to place on our dashboard – in the hopes it would be enough to get us past the security checkpoint. Promptly, we went looking for the set, rehearsing what we might say if interrogated by security. Following posted signs, we drove down a gravel road which led eventually to an open grassy area to our left. Suddenly, we were flagged to stop by a PA with a walkie-talkie as they were in the middle of a shot just beyond our eye line. Busted for sure, we thought. Upon the sound of “CUT!” we were waived through. (The letterhead worked).
Looking out the left window as we rolled forward, we could see a gray-tuxedoed Timothy Dalton preparing for another take of assisting Talisa Soto out of a crashed jeep. We parked in front of the house where the sleeping guard was garroted by Sanchez's men on the stairs – which had been filmed the previous day. I grabbed my Canon, some extra rolls of film, and the three of us confidently strode to the scene set in front of us (as if we belonged there). About 20 feet away, we were told to stop again, as the set was locked down for another take. Standing there with a perfect view of the shot, I remember the thrill I felt, thinking “Here is a scene from the next Bond film – being committed forever into the series canon – and I am seeing it happen with my own eyes!” It was the over-Talisa's-shoulder shot of Dalton saying “You need help?” to which she shrugs him off. Then someone yells off-camera to which Dalton turns and runs. Talk about getting an advanced “sneak peek”of the new Bond film!!
After the scene was shot, I took an opportunity to speak with Timothy Dalton between setups, and ask if he happened to remember me from our encounter two years earlier in Jacksonville. At first, he didn't recall, saying “I meet a lot of people...” Then I mentioned the sketch I gave him in Jacksonville. He suddenly registered a smile, and said “Ah, yes, I do remember you.” Hearing that made my day. After a few more minutes with him, I walked over to my friends who were striking up a conversation with Robert Davi who had arrived on set wearing a flamingo shirt (obviously not a work day for him). We must have spent close to an hour chatting with him on the stretch of road where he had been filmed jumping from the jeep the day before. He was very friendly and engaging; asking us lots of presumably constructive questions about what we, as Bond fans, liked about the Bond films, villains, etc. We also talked at length with actor Grand L. Bush, who played one of the DEA agents. (Also known as “Agent Johnson”– partner to Robert Davi's “Agent Johnson” in the original Die Hard)
We spent the rest of the day at that location, Sugarloaf Key, where there was a small airstrip called Cray Cay. As the sweltering Florida day progressed, Victor, Amy and I soaked it all in, snapping pictures at every opportunity. Among the shots lensed before us were the confrontation of Bond with Lupe at the jeep, David Hedison as Felix shouting “Hey observer! You trying to get yourself killed?” with Dalton responding “If I don't get you to the wedding, I'm a dead man for sure!” There were various shots of the the three henchmen running into the brush with the DEA in pursuit, culminating in the arrival of the Coast Guard helicopter and boarding of Bond and the team. To cap off the day in true Bond movie style, as the crew began breaking down the set, the Coast Guard Helicopter made a surprise 360 degree loop-the-loop over the set, swooping dangerously low and causing everyone to duck. It was awesome! Everyone applauded. Then brushed the gravelly sand out of their hair.
The following afternoon (Saturday), we watched the filming of Dalton and Frank McRae arriving at Milton Krest's warehouse, followed by night scenes of Bond and Sharkey sneaking into the hideout under the docks which went on into the wee hours of morning.
Sunday was a day off for the production and we spent the day sightseeing in Key West. When evening came, we drove to the club where the Florida location wrap party was beginning. (we were told it would be held a couple days earlier than the actual wrap, due to some of the actors needing to leave Florida on Monday.) My friend in the production office had given us a private invitation on our first day there, and we took our chances that no one would ask who we were with... No one did, and what transpired over the next couple of hours was what I can best describe as Bond fan nirvana. There were the three of us mingling with the cast and crew of License Revoked. Turning to the left, there was John Glen, Robert Davi, Talisa Soto, and Benicio Del Toro; to the right, Timothy Dalton, Albert and Dana Broccoli, Michael Wilson, David Hedison – partying. What began as a nervous, fish-out-of-water experience soon became a relaxed, exhilarating evening my friends and I would never forget. There was a wet bar, live band, dancing, a spectacular buffet and James Bond people everywhere. We chatted with every one of the key figures there at some point during the evening, and I had to wonder if this were some dream from which I was bound to awaken from at any moment.
The next day, we awoke early to report to the Key West International Airport for our stint as background extras. My friend Victor and I made nice with the background coordinator, which I presume led her to choose us for relatively close-up positions in the shot. There must have been fifty extras used for the scene – most of whom were scattered across the airport parking lot. Victor, myself, and the governor of Florida, Bob Martinez were picked to appear in the immediate background crossing the street and dodging police vehicles behind Dalton as he emerges from his rental car to retrieve his bags. We then watched as they filmed interiors at the ticket counter where Bond is told that “some big drug dealer just escaped.” It was so hot inside the terminal that Dalton had to change his shirt after each take due to the sweat. I kept clicking away, as no one seemed to mind my having a camera on set. When filming was done, we said goodbye to Key West, and drove back to Jacksonville, recounting our amazing good-fortune.
It has been over 26 years since my experiences on the set of Licence to Kill. There are many more memorable moments from that trip, but this account highlights some of my favorite ones. While a few of my photographs were published in Steven J Rubin's The Complete James Bond Encyclopedia back in 1989, most of them have remained sealed in a box ever since, never seen publicly. While recently digitizing the original negatives, I thought I should eventually share these pictures with the Bond fan community. Bond enthusiasm never dies, and now with the commencement of production on SPECTRE, What better time than the present?
It's kind of hard to not look at yourself in a Bond flick to be honest. Especially when you share the frame ever so briefly with 007. It is hard, in fact, to watch any of the scenes I was there for in an objective way - as a story, even after 27 years. The experience is so burned into me that I cannot see it like everyone else can. Probably common with these types of experiences.
My pleasure Mr. Silva. - Second to last raaaat standing.
Thanks for your kind words. Fun stuff. It is barely possible to believe this happened more than half my lifetime ago... seems like yesterday.
Can you watch TLD as a regular Bond fan? Or is just seeing Tim enough to distract you with thoughts of actually having worked with him on his 2nd film?
Actually, TLD is one of my favorite Bonds to this day. And that was after having met him in Jacksonville. He nailed Fleming's Bond after Roger Moore had become a cartoon version of Bond. It's just the first part of LTK that I can't separate from my first-hand memories...
Change of gears a bit... Funny story...
Don't know why I seem to have been fated to have ties to Dalton's Bonds, but by sheer coincidence, in later life I found myself working on some productions with a woman who was a mutual friend of one of my author clients (I am a graphic designer for book covers).
I did not recognize - until our third meeting - that she was the actress who played "Linda" on the yacht in the pre-title sequence of TLD. (You know, "nothing but playboys and tennis pros...") Her name is Belle Avery (credited as Kell Tyler in the film) I about fell over when she, almost reluctantly, told me one day. We ended up becoming very close friends over the years, even to this day.
One time, she stayed at my house for a week. It was Oscar night, as I was designing some graphics for one of her projects in my home office. She had turned down an invitation to go to the Oscars with her friends, Director Ron Howard and his family, since her project was very pressing. Well, there she was at MY house in Nashville, literally folding my laundry while I worked on graphics for her website. I remember thinking "how surreal is this? Just another day in my home office... except there's a Bond girl from my favorite Bond Pre-title sequence sleeping here (in the guest room) who has turned down Ron Howard and the Oscars in favor of folding my laundry instead...LOL.... and it's JUST Belle. What the...?" We stayed up and watched the Oscars on my TV while we worked.
Life can be crazy ironic sometimes. LOL.
When do you appear in LTK ?
Ha! I suppose so.
I actually asked her, for the fun of it, to pose for a few pictures like she did in the film - with my dog - in front of my big screen TV while the DVD was paused on her shot. She did it but then made me swear NOT to ever show or post the pictures anywhere. I have honored her request and will continue to do so... but it really was cute.
In the shot where Bond gets out of his car at the Key West airport right after the scene where Felix is eaten by the shark.
:)>-
Truly love the behind the scenes and rare Bond photos. So this is a real treat. Also the stories that you have shared, and I'm sure there are more that you can share with us.
Look forward to seeing and hearing more about your experience on LTK.
:-c
I understand we can see you at the Airport scene? Also driving "that" Jeep? Talisa Soto looks stunning! Were you the three days making photos? How could you if you were "just an extra"?
Thanks again!!
LTK is one of my all-time favourite Bond flicks, and maybe its just me then, but I always thought Dalton had quite a cool hairstyle in LTK - better than Craig's in SF anyway. His sideburns gave him a Lazenby look.
I bet you had a great few days on the set. Would you ever consider being an extra again, or have you been an extra on other films too since then...?
So jealous. ;)
I know fans will ask thousands of Dollars for this particular image. But please, ALWAYS keep it with you... Ok??
:D
Or, better, ask her to meet us here!! :-c 8->