On This Day

RichardTheBruce

April 24th

1946: Virginia North is born--London, England. (She dies 5 June 2004 at age 58--West Sussex, England.)

Virginia North
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_North

Born 24 April 1946 | London, England, United Kingdom
Died 5 June 2004 (aged 58) | East Sussex, England, United Kingdom
Nationality British | Occupation Actress | Years active 1967–1971]

Virginia North, Lady White (24 April 1946 – 5 June 2004) was an Anglo-American actress who appeared in small roles in five films and one TV programme between 1967 and 1971.

Life and career

Born Virginia Anne Northrop in London to a British mother and a U.S. Army father, North spent her early years in Britain, France, Southeast Asia and finally Washington, following her father's military postings. By the mid-1960s she had returned to Britain, where she worked as a model, specialising in swim wear. In 1968 she joined the newly established London agency Models 1, which has since gone on to become one of the major modelling agencies in Europe.

North began her brief film career with small parts in the Bulldog Drummond film Deadlier Than the Male (1967) and the Yul Brynner vehicle The Long Duel (1967). She returned to film two years later as Robot Number Nine in Some Girls Do (1969), the second in the Bulldog Drummond franchise, and as Olympe in two short scenes in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), thus becoming a "Bond girl".

The 1969 Department S episode "The Mysterious Man in the Flying Machine" marked her only television appearance.

Her last and perhaps best-known role was as Vincent Price's silent assistant, the delectably deadly Vulnavia, in the horror comedy The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971).

Personal life

In 1974 North married the wealthy industrialist Gordon White. Later that year she gave birth to her only child, Lucas, who would later become a well-regarded polo player and one of the richest young men in the United Kingdom.[citation needed]

When her husband was awarded a KBE in 1979 for services to British industry, becoming Sir Gordon White, Virginia White became Virginia, Lady White. She and White were divorced in 1991. She never remarried and died at her home in West Sussex, England, in June 2004 after a two-year battle with cancer. She was 58.

Filmography

1967 Deadlier Than the Male (Brenda)
1967 The Long Duel (Champa)
1969 Some Girls Do (Robot No. 9)
1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Olympe)
1971 The Abominable Dr. Phibes (Vulnavia, final film role)

2008: BOND 22 stops filming when Aris Cominos crashes an Alfa Romeo near Lake Garda, Limone sul Garda, northern Italy.

Stuntman injured on James Bond set
https://thestar.com/entertainment/2008/04/24/stuntman_injured_on_james_bond_set.html

2011: The inaugural Boscobel Jamaica Air Show celebrates the recent opening of Ian Fleming International Airport, Boscobel, St. Mary.

jis.gov.jm/hundreds-at-ian-fleming-airport-air-show-2/

RichardTheBruce

April 25th

1964: From Russia With Love released in Japan.

1969 [actual date unknown]: Bond on holiday is taken for a ride in Draco's Rolls Royce across Ponte 25 de Abril (25 April Bridge) near Lisbon, Portugal.

James Bond Locations
https://jamesbondlocations.blogspot.com/2016/05/ponte-25-de-abril-lisbon.html
18 May 2016
Ponte 25 de Abril - Lisbon



In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond is holidaying on the Portuguese riviera, in Estoril. As Bond is abducted by Draco's men at the Hotel Palacio and taken to Draco, Draco's Rolls Royce is seen driving across the famous Ponte 25 de Abril (25 April Bridge) just outside of Lisbon. The action is likely supposed to be set on the French Riviera, but all action was shot on location in Portugal. Not much is made to get the audience to believe that you are in France.


Ponte 25 de abril with the Cristo Rei statue in the bcakground



The bridge is called Ponte 25 de Abril, and is connecting the city of Lisbon to the municipality of Almada on the south bank of the Tejo river. Tejo river forms the large bay which banks Lisbon is situated on. The city is vaguely visible in the background as Bond is driven across the bridge.

Driving across this bridge, coming from Lisbon, is a great experience and definitely a must see location if you are visiting Lisbon.


The city of Lisbon seen in the background

"-And where is the party this time?
-You have an appointment...
-Business or pleasure?"

Another landmark that gives away this location in the film, is the statue of Christ that can be seen in the far background, as the Rolls Royce is driving out on the bridge. This monument, known as Cristo Rei in Portuguese, was inspired by the more famous statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro and was inaugurated in 1959 following the approval of Salazar. You have a magnificent view over both Ponte 25 de Abril and the city of Lisbon from the viewpoint below this statue in Almada, which is only a 20 min drive from central Lisbon. The view over Lisbon both from the bridge and from the viewpoint is beautiful.




Lisbon can be seen in the background on the right side of the bridge.

The 25 April bridge was inaugurated in 1966, and was thus almost brand new at the time of filming On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The bridge was originally called Salazar Bridge, named after the Portuguese prime minister and dictator António de Oliveira Salazar who ruled Portugal between 1932 and 1968. Following the carnation revolution on 25 April 1974, which ultimately led to a free and democratic Portugal, the name of the bridge was changed to Ponte 25 de Abril.

The bridge would also feature during one of the final scenes in the film as Bond and Tracy are driving away from their wedding reception towards Tracy's inevitable death.

2002: BOND 20 films Gustav Graves revealing his Icarus satellite.
2017: A Fleming-inspired competition to propose a 27th letter for the English alphabet closes this date.

Typography |
Could you be the designer behind the 27th
letter of the alphabet?
https://www.creativebloq.com/news/the-search-is-on-for-the-undiscovered-27th-letter-of-the-alphabet
By Dom Carter March 01, 2017 Typography

A competition conceived by Ian Fleming is looking for typographers to create a new letter design.

When he wasn't busy penning James Bond novels, Ian Fleming also experimented with typography. In fact, in 1947, while helping out at the typographical magazine Alphabet & Image, he hit on the idea of a competition that called for designers to create a 27th letter of the alphabet. Now, 70 years later, the contest is being run again in connection with The Book Collector.

The 2017 competition will follow Ian Fleming's original rules, namely that the experimental design must conform to the alphabet as known in English-writing countries, and that it must represent a recognised sound or combination of sounds. In terms of design, entrants must also demonstrate decorative, philological and typographical skill.

• A designer's guide to typography and fonts https://www.thebookcollector.co.uk/the-27th-letter

James Fleming, Ian's nephew, says: “I was intrigued to hear about the alphabet competition and I thought it was a good idea to give this another go. Creative heads don't need a professional qualification in order to enter. Anyone with an idea as to how the English language could be improved in a way that complies with the competition rules can take part.

"Last time submissions included '-sion', 'th' and 'st', but alternatives are yours to explore. Given that most people embrace the fast-moving world of social media, perhaps this time the new letter will become part of the alphabet."

Full rules and conditions can be found at The Book Collector, with the competition running from 15 March to 25 April 2017. The winner will be announced at the ABA Olympia Book Fair on 2 June, with a £250 cash prize up for grabs.
https://www.thebookcollector.co.uk/27th-letter-results

27th Letter results
https://www.thebookcollector.co.uk/27th-letter-results

2019: A BOND 25 press event in Jamaica reveals cast and plot details.

RichardTheBruce

April 26th

1941: Claudine Auger is born--Paris, France.
1965: James Bond Contra Goldfinger (James Bond vs. Goldfinger) released in Madrid, Spain.

1974: Ivana Milicevic is born--Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1978: Stana Katic is born--Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
2019: A night of Bond music at the Classical Symphony Hall, Broad Street, Birmingham.

Best of Bond
http://livebrum.co.uk/symphony-hall/2019/04/26/best-of-bond

Source https://www.thsh.co.uk/event/best-of-bond

The name’s Bond – James Bond. The CBSO puts on its tux and pours itself a Vesper Martini with some of the sassiest signature tunes in cinematic history: six decades of girls, gadgets, supervillains and knockout songs. Well, you know what they say: Diamonds are Forever. These tunes are every bit as enduring – and as brilliant. Guaranteed to leave you shaken… and stirred!

7.30PM 26 April 2019
Classical Symphony Hall

Broad Street
Birmingham
B1 2EA
0121 780 3333

2019: Bond Fan Events kicks off four days of Viva Vegas, Mr Bond!

BondFanEvents.com

2019: Viva Vegas, Mr Bond!
******
http://bondfanevents.com/2019-viva-vegas-mr-bond/
Locations – Lifestyle – Laughter – Viva Vegas, Mr Bond!, April 2019
**Bond With Fans!**
Join 2019’s Bond Fan Conference:
Viva Vegas, Mr Bond!

25-April Thursday
9 AM 007 Welcome Brunch, at ARIA
1:30 PM Tiffany? Tom Ford? The Shops at Crystals
2 PM Belvedere Cliffhangers, at Skybar
5 PM Group Gastropub, at Umami Burger and Biergarten
7 PM Sunset Sightseeing, at Stratosphere Las Vegas
9 PM – ? A View to a Kill from the 108th floor, at Airbar

Tour 40 Vegas Hot Spots from
Diamonds Are Forever and Ian Fleming!

26-April Friday
8:45 AM 007 Locations Tour, “Las Vegas is Forever”
1:30 PM Luncheon Break
2 PM 007 Locations Tour, “Nevada is Forever”
7:30 PM Raise a glass to The Brozza over dinner, at Rí Rá Irish Pub
9 PM – ? Let it Crumble, at Skyfall Lounge

Go Through the Gun Barrel with 007,
Fast and Louche!

27-April Saturday
10:30 AM Coffee Talk With Q, at The Luxor’s Atrium Starbucks
12 PM Green Eggs and Ham Luncheon, at Bruxie’s
1:30 PM Free Time with Fans, in The Silver City
5 PM Two Hundred on the Hard Way: Learn and Play Roulette, Hold ‘Em and Baccarat at The Palazzo
6 PM Dine Another Day, at Grand Lux Café
8:07 PM 007 Madmen Tour: Moonraker Gondoliers,
Mme Tussaud’s, Casino Royale, Party at The Paris
11 PM – ? We’ll Have Our Six (Vespers), at The Cosmopolitan

Locations – Lifestyle – Laughter

28-April Sunday
9 AM Brunch Like Bond, Champagne Unlimited, at Sterling Buffet
** Celebrating 22 Years of Bonding With Fans **

Viva Vegas, Mr Bond! is $455 U.S. per person, including four nights/five days at The Luxor Las Vegas (double occupancy)

Ask about our roommate matching service, to save money in a double, triple or quad room!

Tours alone price/reserve your own Las Vegas lodging: $95

Itinerary subject to change. Sign up today, Mr and Mrs Bond!

Viva Vegas, Mister Bond! is sponsored by Spybrary. http://spybrary.com/

Bonding fans together. Over 20 years of events and tours.

RichardTheBruce

April 27th

1959: Sheena Easton is born--Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.
1963: Dr. No released in Malta.
1964: Moscou Contra 007 (Moscow vs. 007) released in Brazil.
1985: Ivar Felix Charles Bryce dies at age 78--Birdbrook, Braintree District, Essex, England.
(Born 10 June 1906--London, England.)

Ivar Bryce
https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKbryceI.htm

Ivar Bryce was born in 1906. His father had made a fortune trading guano, the phosphate-rich deposit of fish-eating seabirds which had been widely used as a natural fertilizer. His mother was a painter and a published author of detective novels.

In 1917 Bryce met Ian Fleming and his brothers on a beach in Cornwall: "The fortress builders generously invited me to join them, and I discovered that their names were Peter, Ian, Richard and Michael, in that order. The leaders were Ian and Peter, and I gladly carried out their exact and exacting orders. They were natural leaders of men, both of them, as later history was to prove, and it speaks well for them all that there was room for both Peter and Ian in the platoon."

Bryce was sent to Eton College where he resumed his friendship with Fleming. Bryce purchased a Douglas motorbike and used this vehicle for trips around Windsor. He also took Fleming on the bike to visit the British Empire Exhibition in London. They also published a magazine, The Wyvern, together. Fleming used mother's contacts to persuade Augustus John and Edwin Lutyens, to contribute drawings. The magazine also published a poem by Vita Sackville-West. The editors showed their right-wing opinions by publishing an article in praise of the British Fascisti Party. It argued that its "primary intention is to counteract the present and every-growning trend towards revolution... it is of the utmost importance that centres should be started in the universities and in our public schools".

During the Second World War Bryce worked for William Stephenson, the head of British Security Coordination (BSC), a unit that was based in New York City. According to Thomas E. Mahl, the author of Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939-44 (1998): "Bryce worked in the Latin American affairs section of the BSC, which was run by Dickie Coit (known in the office as Coitis Interruptus). Because there was little evidence of the German plot to take over Latin America, Ivar found it difficult to excite Americans about the threat."

Nicholas J. Cull, the author of Selling War: The British Propaganda Campaign Against American Neutrality (1996), has argued: "During the summer of 1941, he (Bryce) became eager to awaken the United States to the Nazi threat in South America." It was especially important for the British Security Coordination to undermine the propaganda of the American First Committee that had over a million paid-up members. Bryce recalls in his autobiography, You Only Live Once (1975): "Sketching out trial maps of the possible changes, on my blotter, I came up with one showing the probable reallocation of territories that would appeal to Berlin. It was very convincing: the more I studied it the more sense it made... were a genuine German map of this kind to be discovered and publicised among... the American Firsters, what a commotion would be caused."

William Stephenson approved the idea and the project was handed over to Station M, the phony document factory in Toronto run by Eric Maschwitz, of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It took them only 48 hours to produce "a map, slightly travel-stained with use, but on which the Reich's chief map makers... would be prepared to swear was made by them." Stephenson now arranged for the FBI to find the map during a raid on a German safe-house on the south coast of Cuba. J. Edgar Hoover handed the map over to William Donovan. His executive assistant, James R. Murphy, delivered the map to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The historian, Thomas E. Mahl argues that "as a result of this document Congress dismantled the last of the neutrality legislation."

Ivar Bryce

Nicholas J. Cull has argued that Roosevelt should not have realised it was a forgery. He points out that Adolf A. Berle, the Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs, had already warned Cordell Hull, the Secretary of State that "British intelligence has been very active in making things appear dangerous in South America. We have to be a little on our guard against false scares."

Bryce wrote to Walter Lippmann in March 1942. He sent him a book by Hugo Artuco Fernandez that had been written at the behest of British intelligence. "I am sending you a copy of my friend Artuco's book, which I think will interest you... Some of it sounds rather alarming and exaggerated but it is much more accurate than most books on South America.... If you felt at all inclined to write anything about the dangers to South America, I could give you any number of facts which have never been published, but which my friends here would like to see judiciously made public at this point."

Bryce was based in Jamaica (his wife Sheila, owned Bellevue, one of the most important houses on the island), during the Second World War, where he ran dangerous missions into Latin America. Ian Fleming, who was personal assistant to Admiral John Godfrey, the director of naval intelligence, visited Bryce in 1941. Fleming told him that: "When we have won this blasted war, I am going to live in Jamaica. Just live in Jamaica and lap it up, and swim in the sea and write books."

In 1945 Bryce helped Fleming find a house and twelve acres of land just outside of Oracabessa. It included a strip of white sand on a lovely part of the coast. Fleming decided to call the house, Goldeneye, after his wartime project in Spain, Operation Goldeneye. Their former boss, William Stephenson, also had a house on the island overlooking Montego Bay. Stephenson had set up the British-American-Canadian-Corporation (later called the World Commerce Corporation), a secret service front company which specialized in trading goods with developing countries. William Torbitt has claimed that it was "originally designed to fill the void left by the break-up of the big German cartels which Stephenson himself had done much to destroy."

In 1950 Bryce married Josephine Hartford. Her grandfather, George Huntington Hartford, was the founder of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. Josephine was the daughter of Princess Guido Pignatelli and Edward V. Hartford, who was an inventor and president of the Hartford Shock Absorber Company. A former concert pianist she was one of the leading racehorse owners in the United States.

Bryce joined with Ernest Cuneo and a group of investors, including Ian Fleming, to gain control of the North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA). Andrew Lycett has pointed out: "With the arrival of television, its star had begun to wane. Advised by Ernie Cuneo, who told him it was a sure way to meet anyone he wanted, Ivar stepped in and bought control. He appointed the shrewd Cuneo to oversee the American end of things... and Fleming was brought on board to offer a professional newspaperman's advice." Fleming was appointed European vice-president, with a salary of £1,500 a year. He persuaded James Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley, that The Sunday Times should work closely with NANA. He also organized a deal with The Daily Express, owned by Lord Beaverbrook.

Bryce became a film producer and helped to finance The Boy and the Bridge (1959). The film lost money but Bryce decided he wanted to work with its director, Kevin McClory, again and it was suggested that they created a company, Xanadu Films. Josephine Hartford, Ernest Cuneo and Ian Fleming became involved in the project. It was agreed that they would make a movie featuring Fleming's character, James Bond.

The first draft of the script was written by Cuneo. It was called Thunderball and it was sent to Fleming on 28th May. Fleming described it as "first class" with "just the right degree of fantasy". However, he suggested that it was unwise to target the Russians as villains because he thought it possible that the Cold War could be finished by the time the film had been completed. He suggested that Bond should confront SPECTRE, an acronym for the Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Revolution and Espionage. Fleming eventually expanded his observations into a 67-page film treatment. Kevin McClory now employed Jack Whittingham to write a script based on Fleming's ideas.

The Boy and the Bridge was a flop at the box-office and Bryce, on the recommendation of Ernest Cuneo, decided to pull-out of the James Bond film project. McClory refused to accept this decision and on 15th February, 1960, he submitted another version of the Thunderball script by Whittingham. Fleming read the script and incorporated some of the Whittingham's ideas, for example, the airborne hijack of the bomb, into the latest Bond book he was writing. When it was published in 1961, McClory claimed that he discovered eighteen instances where Fleming had drawn on the script to "build up the plot".

President John F. Kennedy was a fan of Fleming's books. In March 1961, Hugh Sidey, published an article in Life Magazine, on President Kennedy's top ten favourite books. It was a list designed to show that Kennedy was both well-read and in tune with popular taste. It included Fleming's From Russia With Love. Up until this time, Fleming's books had not sold well in the United States, but with Kennedy's endorsement, his publishers decided to mount a major advertising campaign to promote his books. By the end of the year Fleming had become the largest-selling thriller writer in the United States.

This publicity resulted in Fleming signed a film deal with the producers, Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, in June 1961. Dr No, starring Sean Connery, opened in the autumn of 1962 and was an immediate box-office success. As soon as it was released Kennedy demanded a showing in his private cinema in the White House.

Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham became angry at the success of the James Bond film and believed that Bryce, Ian Fleming and Ernest Cuneo had cheated them out of making a profit out of their proposed Thunderball film. The case appeared before the High Court on 20th November 1963. Three days into the case, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. McClory's solicitor, Peter Carter-Ruck, later recalled: "The hearing was unexpectedly and somewhat dramatically adjourned after leading counsel on both sides had seen the judge in his private rooms." Bryce agreed to pay the costs, and undisclosed damages. McClory was awarded all literary and film rights in the screenplay and Fleming was forced to acknowledge that his novel was "based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and the author."

Fleming encouraged Bryce to write his memoirs and gave him some advice on how to deal with the process. "You will be constantly depressed by the progress of the opus and feel it is all nonsense and that nobody will be interested. Those are the moments when you must all the more obstinately stick to your schedule and do your daily stint... Never mind about the brilliant phrase or the golden word, once the typescript is there you can fiddle, correct and embellish as much as you please. So don't be depressed if the first draft seems a bit raw, all first drafts do. Try and remember the weather and smells and sensations and pile in every kind of contemporary detail. Don't let anyone see the manuscript until you are very well on with it and above all don't allow anything to interfere with your routine. Don't worry about what you put in, it can always be cut out on re-reading; it's the total recall that matters." Bryce's autobiography, You Only Live Once, was published in 1975.

Ivar Bryce died in 1985.

Trivia

His wife Jo had a mansion on the New York / Vermont border which is the setting for two of Ian Fleming's James Bond stories, "For Your Eyes Only" and "The Spy Who Loved Me".

The Diamonds Are Forever James Bond novel is co-dedicated to Ivar Bryce (as "i.f.c.b") along with two other friends of Ian Fleming.

After Ian Fleming visited Jamaica in 1944 and decided he wanted to live there, Bryce home-hunted the island to find him a residence and discovered "Goldeneye" for him.

Ian Fleming named his James Bond character's CIA agent friend after Ivar Bryce's middle name, Felix. His surname was named after another of Fleming's friends, Tommy Leiter.

Is played by actor Patrick Ryecart in Goldeneye (1989).

Was involved in the early stages of the development of the James Bond movie Thunderball (1965).

He was married to A&P Supermarket heir Huntington Hartford's sister, Josephine Hartford. Huntington Hartford was the original owner and developer of Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

Bryce and Fleming leave court after settling with McClory.

2005: Miramax Books publishes Charlie Higson's Young Bond novel Silverfin. His first!

RichardTheBruce

April 28th

1957: Publisher Rupert Hart-Davis repeats gossip criticizing the Fleming Effect.

Writers, Readers, and Reputations: Literary Life in Britain 1870-1918, Philip Waller, 2007.

Footnote 23 Margaret Lane, Edgar Wallace: The Biography of a Phenomenon (1938), 245-6, Cf. the publisher Rupert Hart-Davis reporting the gossip about Ian Fleming's James Bond stories on 28 April 1957;

'that when Ian Fleming mentions any particular food, clothing or cigarettes in his books, the makers reward him with presents in kind. "In fact", said my friend, "Ian's are only modern thrillers with built-in commercials" ' (Hart-Davis (ed.), Lyttelton Hart-Davis Letters, 290).

1967: Charles K. Feldman premieres Casino Royale in New York at the Capitol and Cinema I.

1987: Tonia Sotiropoulou is born--Athens, Greece.
1999: The Dean of Special Effects John Stears dies at age 64--Los Angeles, California.
(Born 25 August 1934--Uxbridge, Hillingdon, Middlesex, England.)

Obituary: John Stears
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-john-stears-1107368.html
Tom Vallance | Monday 19 July 1999 00:02

WINNER OF two Academy Awards, for his work on Thunderball and Star Wars, John Stears was one of the film industry's top men for special visual effects and many of his innovations are incorporated into the work of today's film-makers.

For the early James Bond films, he served as the real-life incarnation of the ingenious "Q", creating such gadgets and vehicles as the Aston Martin of Goldfinger which has been described as "the most famous car in the world". For Star Wars he worked with the production designer John Barry to conceive the unforgettable robots C3PO and R2-D2, and among his other memorable achievements were the flying car of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the model work for the British film about the Titanic, A Night to Remember, and the explosive demolition work in The Guns of Navarone.

Born in 1934, Stears studied at Harrow College of Art and Southall Technical School before working as a draughtsman with the Air Ministry. He served as a dispatch rider during his National Service, then joined a firm of architects where he was able to utilise his passion for model-making by constructing scale models of building projects for clients.

The firm also specialised in model aircraft, and when Rank's special effects expert Bill Warrington saw some of Stears's work he commissioned him to build model aircraft for Lewis Gilbert's screen version of the life of the pilot Douglas Bader, Reach for the Sky (1956).

Signed to a contract by the Rank Organisation, Stears worked with Warrington and Gilbert on three more true-life stories, creating model boats and planes for A Night to Remember (1958), in which Kenneth More, who had played Bader, was Second Officer Lightoller of the Titanic, Carve Her Name With Pride (1958), which starred Virginia McKenna as the British shop assistant Violette Szabo who became a resistance heroine, and Sink the Bismarck! (1960), with Kenneth More as an Admiralty captain intent on destroying Germany's prize battleship. Other Rank films included The One That Got Away (1957), Sea Fury (1958) and Gilbert's HMS Defiant (1962).

Having acquired a reputation impressive enough for him to freelance, Stears was hired to both build and destroy gun miniatures for J. Lee Thompson's exciting transcription of the Alistair MacLean adventure tale The Guns of Navarone (1961), then he created effects for two Disney films, In Search of the Castaways (1962) and the fantasy Three Lives of Thomasina (1962).

The producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman then asked Stears to work with them on a production which was to prove momentous in starting one of the most successful series in cinema history. It was the team's first adaptation of one of Ian Fleming's James Bond stories, Dr No (1962), and Stears's work on the film's finale, the destruction of Dr No's Jamaican hideout, still impresses today.

Aware of the importance of Stears's contribution to the film's success, Broccoli and Saltzman made him head of their special effects department for their next Bond production, From Russia With Love (1963), for which he both created and flew the first remote- controlled helicopter used in a film, and constructed the bizarre knife- toed boots for the Soviet spy Rosa Klebb. Still only 29 years old, Stears confessed later that he was having the time of his life and he described his job as "not really work but the chance to play . . . using other people's money!"

The next Bond film, Goldfinger (1964), included three of Stears's favourite creations, the lethal laser ray which nearly bisects Bond, the steel-rimmed bowler employed as a deadly frisbee by the villain Oddjob, and the famous Aston Martin. In the book, Fleming's hero drives a DB3, but Stears wanted to use the not yet available DB5, a sleekly photogenic model, and he persuaded the manufacturers to provide him with a prototype, which the effects wizard fitted with bullet-proof glass, a fog maker, revolving number plates, road slicker, machine guns and a passenger ejector seat. "I was never certain we would make the seat work," said Stears, "but in the end we did the stunt in one take."

The fourth Bond film Thunderball (1965) was one of the weaker dramatically but Stears did not disappoint, his effects including a rocket-firing motor cycle, an underwater flying saucer, large-scale models of a Vulcan bomber which he then sank in the waters of the Bahamas, and a life-size replica of the villain's yacht which he blew to pieces.

His work on the film brought him his first Oscar for Best Visual Effects. His old friend Lewis Gilbert directed the next Bond film, You Only Live Twice (1967), which included a flying machine that gobbles up a space capsule in outer space, after which Stears had a break from Bond when he worked on Broccoli's production Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) with its flying car.

If asked to pick a favourite Bond film, Stears used to say that the one he most enjoyed working on was On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), partly because he admired its star George Lazenby, who insisted on performing many of his own stunts. It was the start of a lifelong friendship between the two men, both mechanically minded motor bike enthusiasts. For the film, the most challenging moment came when Stears had to set off an avalanche on cue.

In 1970 Stears set up his own company, and worked on such films as Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man! (1973) and Douglas Hickox's Theatre of Blood (1973) in which a ham actor (Vincent Price) murders hostile critics by recreating death scenes from Shakespeare's plays. He returned to Bond for a final time to create effects including Scaramanga's flying car in The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), which featured Roger Moore as Bond.

In 1976 Stears had a call from George Lucas, who had been a great admirer of the Bond films and wanted to know if he was interested in creating mechanical and electrical effects for a film he had written, Star Wars. It was the opportunity to create things that had never been attempted before and Stears enthusiastically accepted.

The phenomenal hit that resulted brought Stears his second Oscar and featured such innovations as Luke Skywalker's Land-speeder, ostensibly a hover-car but actually a four-wheeled vehicle to which Stears had fitted mirrors angled to reflect the Tunisian desert and thus create the illusion that the craft was skimming over the ground. The Lightsabers, the Death Star with its threatening cannons, the robots both manually and remote- controlled, and the metallic suit for C3PO were other Stears creations, along with countless explosions, including the final destruction of the Death Star.

Stears worked again with the first Bond, Sean Connery, on Peter Hyams's Outland (1981), set on a 21st-century planet where space marshal Connery finds himself fighting a lone battle against wholesale corruption.

Subsequent films included The Bounty (1984), an intriguingly unconventional depiction of the famous mutiny, with Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson, and a thriller for which Stears was aptly called in as a special consultant since it featured a special effects expert as its hero, F/X: murder by illusion, in which Bryan Brown played an effects man hired to make a faked assassination appear real, only to find that he is himself the victim of a Mafia plot and has to bring all his ingenuity into play to defend himself. A modest success at the time of its release, it is now considered a cult movie.

In 1988 Stears hoped to produce a film but was unable to obtain sufficient financial backing, and in 1993, after producing effects for the Charlie Sheen vehicle Navy SEALS, he retired to California with his wife Brenda, whom he married in 1960, and two daughters. For most of his life he had lived on an estate in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, where he reared cattle and where his wife ran the Livy Borzoi Kennels, breeding Borzoi show dogs.

In California he continued to indulge his passion for building and flying model aircraft - his wife stated that at the time of his death there were a dozen aircraft in their garage, the latest a Fiat on which Stears had worked for three years and which had a 15-foot wing span. A supremely fit man until suffering a stroke two days before his death, he would ride his 1927 McEvoy motor bike, complete with sidecar built by himself, down to Malibu every Sunday along with his neighbour George Lazenby where they would join around 200 other bike enthusiasts at a beach-front cafe.

He returned to films with last year's The Mask of Zorro, staging the explosions for the film's early action sequences, but left midway through production after artistic disagreements, and at the time of his death was working on a screenplay set in the First World War and seen from the point of view of German aircraft designers.

John Stears, special effects designer: born 25 August 1934; married 1960 Brenda Livy (two daughters); died Malibu, California 28 April 1999.

2008: BOND 21 filming of the Tosca opera bregins at Bregenz, Austria.

2019: BOND 25 begins principle photography in Jamaica with Daniel Craig, director Cary Fukunaga, Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Ana de Armas, Naomie Harris, Lashana Lynch.

RichardTheBruce

April 29th

1917: Milton Reid is born--Bombay, India. (He dies 1987--Bangalore, Karnataka, India.)

THE LIFE CAREER AND DISAPPEARANCE OF MILTON REID
http://theblackboxclub.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-life-career-and-of-disappearance.html


Sometimes you’ll be watching a film and a minor supporting player will suddenly appear and command your attention in a way that is more powerful and immediate than the leading actors. It could a physical gesture they make or a line of dialogue uttered in an unusual way or simply the look of their face or body or both. Milton Reid is one of those actors. His credit is likely to be down toward the bottom of the cast list with the designated role of “The Executioner” or “The Bodyguard” or “The Club Bouncer” or “The Big Pirate” but it’s his mug that will stick in your memory long after the film fades. He appears to be of Asian descent though one biographical reference intimated that his ususual features were the result of Turner syndrome which is incorrect because that rare genetic disorder only affects about 1 out of every 2,500 FEMALE births. But it’s possible that his exotic look was the result of something other than being the son of an Irish father and Indian (as in Bombay) mother.

Strangely enough, my introduction to this imposing character actor wasn’t in a movie but in a series of trading cards issued by Universal in 1963 known as “Spook Stories” which stuck silly captions on stills from the studio’s horror films (here’s a link to an article on Monster trading cards –There were two images of Mr. Reid from the 1962 Hammer film NIGHT CREATURES that conjured up all kinds of crazy scenarios in my mind of who this character was. (The original British title of NIGHT CREATURES was CAPTAIN CLEGG which was a remake of the 1937 British feature; Walt Disney remade it in 1963 for television where it was broadcast in three parts on “The Wonderful World of Disney” as “The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh” and Patrick McGoohan played “The Scarecrow” aka Dr. Syn.)

When I finally caught up with NIGHT CREATURES years later Mr. Reid does indeed pop out of the screen during his brief scenes as “The Mulatto,” a huge mountain of a man whose tongue is cut out because of his treachery to the pirate Captain Clegg. He is later used by the relentless Captain Collier (Patrick Allen) to sniff out the incognito Clegg who is behind a smuggling operation in the village of Dymchurch. The film is a rousing and highly atmospheric period thriller with some wonderful visuals (the appearance of the marsh phantoms), and spirited performances (Peter Cushing, Patrick Allen and Oliver Reed have fun with their roles). But Milton Reid’s larger than life presence is mesmerizing. He’s like a caged wild animal here, grunting, growling and desperate, and though his part is relatively small, it’s of crucial importance to the story and leads to Clegg’s undoing.

NIGHT CREATURES, however, is probably an exception to most of the films Reid made where his on-screen time was barely more than that of an extra. And he rarely had dialogue because with a face and body like that who needs it? But even in one scene appearances or minor supporting roles you couldn’t miss the guy. He stands out the way Tor Johnson does in the Ed Wood films. You can’t look at anything else. You might not have known his name but you’ve probably seen him many times – he was the Japanese executioner in THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND (1958), the big pirate in Walt Disney’s SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON (1960), a guard working for DR. NO (1962), the strong man in BERSERK! (1967), the mute dog handler in THE BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW (1971) which will be shown on TCM’s Underground franchise on 3/28, Biederbeck’s man servant in DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN (1972), he played Sabbala in THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT (1977) and Sandor in THE SPY WHO LOVED MEdr np (1977).

According to a biography for Reid posted on IMDB by Jim Marshall, Reid was born in Bombay, India in 1917. He moved to London in 1936, married fashion illustrator Bertha Lilian Guyett in 1939 and made his first film appearance in the British propaganda film THE WAY AHEAD in 1944. Then the bio gets extremely interesting: “After the war he trained as a wrestler, turning professional in 1952, firstly as a Tarzan-like character called Jungle Boy wearing leopard skin trunks. He also continued to play small parts in films, usually as a tough guy or bodyguard, often as a cruel henchman such as the Japanese executioner in THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND (1958). His break-through came in 1959 when he was required to shave his head for the role of Yen the pirate in FERRY TO HONG KONG. He remained shaven-headed for the rest of his career, also changing his wrestling image to that of “The Mighty Chang,” an oriental giant. On stage he played in pantomime at the London Palladium as the Slave of the Lamp…However, most people remember Milton Reid as the bodyguard sorting out pretty girls for his boss in a long-running pipe tobacco commercial. In 1964 Milton challenged “The Great Togo” (aka Harold Sakata) to a wrestling contest to decide who would play the coveted role of Odd-Job in G0LDFINGER. Unfortunately, Milton had already been killed off in the first Bond movie Dr No (1962), so the producers were forced to pick Sakata and the “eliminator contest” wasn’t needed.”

Reid’s film career began to wind down in the late seventies and some of his last roles were in such sleazy softcore features as CONFESSIONS FROM THE DAVID GALAXY AFFAIR (1979) and QUEEN OF THE BLUES (1979), his final credited screen appearance. According to a poster on the britmovie.co.uk forums, there is an article on Reid in the book KEEPING THE BRITISH END UP, a survey of British softcore sex comedies. However, Reid’s story becomes much more unusual after 1979. Jim Marshall’s IMDB bio states that “Milton decided to try his luck in “Bollywood” and in 1980 returned to India. However, various problems arose and in 1981 he was arrested by Indian police for “trespassing, damaging furniture and disconnecting a telephone.” The trouble started when he visited his mother and sister in Bangalore, and there was a dispute with tenants at his sister’s bungalow. Police also complained of violence and abuse when they tried to detain him, and there were accusations of a manservant being assaulted. The following year Milton was stated by some reference works to have died from a heart attack, but that was incorrect. The actor’s son (same name) was still receiving correspondence sent by his father from Bangalore up to December 1986. Significantly, nothing was heard after that date, and the present assumption is that Milton Reid died in obscurity somewhere in India during the early part of 1987, although no death certificate or confirmation has been received by the family. Sadly, Bertha died in England in 1997, at the age of 90, still not knowing what had become of her husband. However, research continues.”

Despite the above information, some internet biographical sources have maintained that Reid died of a heart attack in London in 1982 but offer no explanation or evidence of their research. Reid’s grandson, Ian Reid, in fact, has challenged this fact in a web posting that read “I would be very interested to find out where the information about his death came from as this does not agree with how my family and I believe his life came to an end. His death and the location of his death are in fact a mystery. Therefore I would be interested to hear about any proof that backs up the claim that he died in London of a heart attack in 1982.”

We may never know what happened to “The Mighty Chang” but at least we can marvel at his unique presence in more than fifty films.

IMAGES: Marcus Brooks

Filmography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Reid#Filmography
Undercover Girl (1958) - Mac, thug with beard
The Camp on Blood Island (1958) - Japanese Executioner (uncredited)
Blood of the Vampire (1958) - Executioner
Ferry to Hong Kong (1959) - Yen, Sing-Up's Partner
Swiss Family Robinson (1960) - Big Pirate
The Terror of the Tongs (1961) - Guardian (uncredited)
Visa to Canton (1961) - Bodyguard
The Wonders of Aladdin (1961) - Omar
Captain Clegg (1962) - Mulatto
Dr. No (1962) - Dr. No's Guard (uncredited)
Panic (1963) - Dan
55 Days at Peking (1963) - Boxer (uncredited)
The Ten Gladiators (1963) - Baldhead Wrestler
A Stitch in Time (1963) - The Mighty Chang in Photograph (uncredited)
Desperate Mission (1965) - To-go
Deadlier Than the Male (1967) - Chang
Casino Royale (1967) - Temple Guard (uncredited)
Berserk! (1967) - Strong Man
The Mini-Affair (1967) - Fisherman
Great Catherine (1968) - Henchman (uncredited)
The Assassination Bureau (1969) - Elevator victim Leonardi (uncredited)
Target: Harry (1969) - Kemal
The Best House in London (1969) - Henchman (uncredited)
Rekvijem (1970) - Officer
The Nameless Knight (1970) - Dev (uncredited)
The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) - Dog Handler (uncredited)
Carry on Henry (1971) - Executioner (uncredited)
The Horsemen (1971) - Aqqul (uncredited)
Au Pair Girls (1972) - The Guard
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) - Manservant - Cheng
The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) - Japanese Restaurant Owner
Adventures of a Private Eye (1978) - Bodyguard
Come Play with Me (1977) - Tough
The People That Time Forgot (1977) - Sabbala
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) - Sandor
No. 1 of the Secret Service (1977) - Eye Patch
Terror (1978) - Club Bouncer
What's Up Superdoc! (1978) - Louie
Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair (1979) - Eddie
Arabian Adventure (1979) - Jinnee
Queen of the Blues (1979) - Ricky
Arabian Knights (1979) - Servant
Westcountry Tales (1981) - The Monster
Mard (1985) - Villain (uncredited)
Kala Dhanda Goray Log (1986) - (final film role)

1963: Dr. No released in Sweden.

1967: Bosley Crowther reviews Feldman's Casino Royale in the New York Times.

Screen: Population Explosion Victims: Secret Agents Abound in 'Casino
Royale ' Impesonators of Bond at Two Theaters
https://www.nytimes.com/1967/04/29/archives/screen-population-explosion-victimssecret-agents-abound-in-casino.html
By BOSLEY CROWTHER | APRIL 29, 1967

MORE of the talent agent than the
secret agent is flamboyantly evident
in Charles K. Feldman's "Casino
Royale," which opened at the
Capitol and Cinema I yesterday—and
that despite the fact that the
screen is crawling with secret
agents of all sexes and sorts. It is
absolutely teeming with wild
impersonators of James Bond,
ranging from David Niven to
Woody Allen and from Ursula
Andress to Deborah Kerr. It clatters
and bangs with 007's trying to pull
the all-time double-oh-cross on all
future aspirants to Bond-olatry. But
it is still the triumph of the talent
agent, which Mr. Feldman used to
be.That is because he has made it
on the premise that the more
writers and directors he could put to
work and the more actors he
could cram into his picture, the
more impressive, if not the better, it would be, and the more energy and
noise would be projected by the sheer human multiplicity. As a
consequence, he had twice as many writers working on the script as the
three that are named in the credits. He had six directors shooting
segments of it — and so conglomerate are their efforts that you have to
consult the program to tell where one left off and another began. And he
has a cast of so many, at least 14 of whom are ranking stars, that the
screen appears to be a demonstration of the population explosion at its
peak. Furthermore, since he wasn't paying (Columbia Pictures was), he
spared no expense in buying the most elaborate and fantastic sets and the
finest outdoor locations in London, Scotland and points east and
west to enclose his completely Brobdingnagian burlesque on the crazy
cult of Bond. You would think, with so much going for him, that he
would harvest a residue of fun—and he does, especially in the
beginning, when a quartet of representatives of Britain, the United
States, France and the Soviet Union call upon the aging Sir James Bond
to come out of retirement and help combat the growing power of
Smersh, which has been killing off secret agents more rapidly than the
automobile. It really gets off to a fast start as Sir James, whom David
Niven plays as though he were a clubmate of the latter-day urbane
Sherlock Holmes, goes to Scotland to see the widow of the untimely
murdered M, head of British Intelligence, and finds her running a
buzzing hive of female spies. With Miss Kerr playing this fuzzy lady and
Mr. Huston directing this phase (as well as playing M in the first scene),
it looks as though the film is grandly launched. And it continues to clip
along nicely as Peter Sellers, who is supposed to be the world's great
authority on baccarat, is recruited to simulate Bond and confront the
demon baccarat ace of the evil system, performed stupendously by
Orson Welles. The game between these two in the Casino Royale, which
is the only thing in the Ian Fleming novel of the same name translated
to the film, is a jolly tangle of two notoriously able scene-stealers.But all
of Mr. Feldman's scriptwriters and fortune tellers have so cluttered the
rest of the film with wild and haphazard injections of "in" jokes and
outlandish gags — such as having Joanna Pettet play the illegitimate
daughter of Mata Hari and Sir James, or Woody Allen come on as Sir
James's nephew, Jimmy Bond, for one of his interminable surrealistic
monologues—that it becomes repetitious and tedious. And since it's
based more on slapstick than wit, with Bond cliché piled upon cliché, it
tends to crumble and sprawl. It's the sort of reckless, disconnected
nonsense that could be telescoped or stopped at any point. If it were
stopped at the end of an hour and 40 minutes instead of at the end of 2
hours and 10 minutes, it might be a terminally satisfying entertainment
instead of the wearying one it is.

2008: Julie Ege dies at age 64--Oslo, Norway. (Born 12 November 1943--Sandnes, Norway.)

Julie Ege: 'Sex Symbol of the 1970s'
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/julie-ege-sex-symbol-of-the-1970s-820386.html
Saturday 3 May 2008

In the late Sixties and early Seventies, British cinema-goers, and British men in general, had a weakness for Scandinavian women. For a time, the Norwegian actress and model Julie Ege was as ubiquitous as Sweden's Britt Ekland.

In 1969, Ege's stunning looks caught the eye of the film producer Albert Broccoli, who cast her in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the only James Bond film to feature George Lazenby as the lead. In 1971, Ege was Voluptua to Frankie Howerd's Lurcio in the first Up Pompeii film, based on the titter-heavy sitcom of the same name. Having starred in Creatures the World Forgot, another Hammer "cave girl" film in the vein of the Raquel Welch vehicle One Million Years BC, Ege was touted as the "Sex Symbol of the 1970s" by Sir James Carreras, head of Hammer Film Productions, and his son Michael.

Despite further appearances in sci-fi and horror hokum like The Final Programme (1973), Craze, Dr of Evil (aka The Mutations) and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (all in 1974), she was typecast as a glamour girl, in comedies such as The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971) and Not Now Darling (1973), both with Leslie Phillips, as well as Percy's Progress (1974) and The Amorous Milkman (1975).

Born in Sandnes, on the south-west coast of Norway, in 1943, she was a bit of a tomboy but blossomed into a teenager obsessed with Hollywood stars. Spotted by local photographers, Ege appeared in advertisements for "anything from dresses to sardines", she later recalled. Following a short-lived marriage to a major in the Norwegian army, she moved to Oslo, won a beauty contest and took part in the Miss Universe pageant in Florida in 1962. She then remarried and undertook various modelling assignments, including an appearance in Penthouse magazine.

In 1967, she made her acting début playing a German masseuse in Stompa til Sjøs ("The Sky and the Ocean"), a low-budget Norwegian film, and also had an uncredited part in Robbery, a British gangster picture about the Great Train Robbery. She settled in London, registered with various model agencies, and sent her picture to Broccoli. The Bond producer signed Ege to play the Scandinavian Girl, one of the 10 women of different nationalities being brainwashed by Blofeld, the villain portrayed by Telly Savalas in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (the English Girl was played by Joanna Lumley). Ege spent nearly three months on location at Piz Gloria, the revolving restaurant on top of the Schilthorn in Switzerland, but was disappointed to see that, in the finished film, she only appeared on screen for a few moments.

In 1970, Ned Sherrin gave her a role opposite Marty Feldman in the comedy Every Home Should Have One. "It was my first real part with dialogue. They wanted me to look and sound like a Scandinavian nanny so I gave them just that. It was really difficult," Ege joked. She had spent time as an au pair in London in the early Sixties. "Once the film opened, all the newspapers carried a photo of me with the caption 'Every Home Should Have One'. I was famous overnight and was not prepared for all the decision-making so crucial at that moment," she admitted.

Ege's subsequent career moves bore out this claim. She turned down the chance to appear with Peter Sellers in the saucy comedy There's a Girl in My Soup and signed up with Hammer to do Creatures the World Forgot. The shooting on location in Africa turned out to be something of an ordeal for Ege who had recently given birth to her first daughter. "They made me wear this awful wig and my bikini was a far cry from the one Raquel Welch wore," she recalled. "I had dirt smeared all over me. My newborn child was back in England and after a few days I got homesick."

Ege then undertook a gruelling publicity schedule which included appearances on the Johnny Carson and David Frost chat-shows and a special edition of The Money Programme documenting the amount of money Hammer was investing in her. However, Creatures the World Forgot was slated by the critics and her career lost momentum after she passed on Hammer's Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde in 1972. "I was by then very reluctant about doing nudity," she said. "Many people think I did so much nudity in my films. I did a short scene in Every Home Should Have One, and two bathtub scenes in Not Now Darling and Mutations."

Ege was happier doing comedies, including playing "the sexy wife of a mad scientist" (Donald Sinden) in Rentadick (1972), even if the project went so awry that Graham Chapman and John Cleese, the film's original writers with John Fortune and John Wells, asked for their names to be removed from the credits. In 1972, she also had cameos in The Alf Garnett Saga and in Go For a Take with Reg Varney of On the Buses fame. "They needed a pretty girl with a good attitude to play these parts," she said. "It was all a laugh and I have never seen these films since."

In the Seventies, Ege lived for several years with the Beatles associate Tony Bramwell and recorded a version of "Love", a John Lennon composition originally featured on the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album in 1970. She subsequently went back to Norway and took up photography before training as a nurse in the Eighties. She was delighted when one of her patients presented her with a video copy of The Amorous Milkman.

Over the last decade, Ege was amazed by the renewed interest in her films. "There I was on the front cover of so many newspapers as the forgotten diva of British horror and comedy films," she said in 2004, two years after publishing her autobiography, Naken ("Naked"), in Norway. In 1999, she visited Britain and took part in a reunion of Hammer alumni. In 2005, she featured in the BBC documentary Crumpet! A Very British Sex Symbol, presented by the former Daily Sport editor Tony Livesey. "To be honest, I was never really that proud of my performance in films," she said, "but I gave it my best and enjoyed the work very much."

Pierre Perrone

Julie Ege, model, actress and nurse: born Sandnes, Norway 13 November 1943; twice married (two daughters); died Oslo 29 April 2008.

Filmography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Ege#Filmography
Robbery (1967) – Hostess (uncredited)
Stompa til Sjøs! (1967)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) – The Scandinavian girl
Every Home Should Have One (1970) – Inga Giltenburg
Up Pompeii (1971) – Voluptua
Creatures the World Forgot (1971) – Nala – The Girl
The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971) – Ingrid (segment "Gluttony")
Go for a Take (1972) – April
Rentadick (1972) – Utta Armitage
The Alf Garnett Saga (1972) – Herself
Not Now, Darling (1973) – Janie McMichael
Kanarifuglen (1973) – Kari, flyvertinne
The Final Programme (1973) – Miss Dazzle
Craze (1974) – Helena
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) – Vanessa Buren
Percy's Progress (1974) – Miss Hanson
Den siste Fleksnes (1974) – Herself
The Mutations (1974) – Hedi
Bortreist på ubestemt tid (1974) – Christina
The Amorous Milkman (1975) – Diana
De Dwaze Lotgevallen von Sherlock Jones (1975) – Sondag's secretaresse
Fengslende dager for Christina Berg (1988) – Krags hustru

2012: Filming of the pre-titles sequence stops for the principal cast and crew to attend a press conference at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul. (Then filming resumed the same day.)

https://filmreviewonline.com/2012/05/02/skyfall-bond-23-istanbul/

2017: Robert Davi receives a lifetime achievement award at the 12th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival, St. Petersburg, Florida.

Robert Davi will be awarded
https://www.007travelers.com/uncategorized/robert-davi-will-be-awarded/

Robert Davi, best known for his role as Bond villain Franz Sanchez in "Licence to Kill" (1989), will be awarded lifetime achievement award today, 29th of April 2017 at 12th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, where his documentary, "Davi's Way" will be screened.

Source: Everything Sinatra (Facebook)

RichardTheBruce

April 30th

1945: Adolph Hitler commits suicide in the Führerbunker using a gold-plated Walther PPK handgun.

1963: From Russia With Love nighttime filming at the Sehzade Mosque, Istanbul.
1964: De Rusia con amor released in Argentina.

1988: Ana de Armas is born--Santa Cruz del Norte, Cuba,
2015: The BOND 24 production releases an on set photo of Dave Bautista as Hinx to the press.

Thunderfinger

Beautiful gun. Hitler had real taste.

RichardTheBruce

May 1st

1929: Rik Van Nutter is born--Los Angeles, California.
(He dies 15 October 2005 at age 76--West Palm Beach, Florida.)

Rik Van Nutter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rik_Van_Nutter
Born: Frederick Allen Nutter - May 1, 1929 - Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died: October 15, 2005 (aged 76) - West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.

Nationality American
Years active 1959-1979
Spouse(s) Anita Ekberg (1963-1975)

Rik Van Nutter (May 1, 1929 – October 15, 2005) was an American actor who appeared in many minor films and the James Bond picture Thunderball.

Career

He is best known for playing the third version of Felix Leiter in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965). He also had a role alongside Peter Ustinov in Romanoff and Juliet (1968), and his later films included Foxbat (1977) with Henry Silva and Vonetta McGee and the Jim Brown WW2 adventure Pacific Inferno (1979).

Personal life
Van Nutter was married to film actress Anita Ekberg from 1963 until 1975. They lived in Spain and Switzerland and started a shipping business together.

Death
Van Nutter died on October 15, 2005 at the age of 76.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1959 Guardatele ma non toccatele Charlie
1959 Uncle Was a Vampire Victor Uncredited
1960 Space-Men Ray Peterson (IZ41)
1960 The Passionate Thief
1960 Some Like It Cold German Officer
1961 Romanoff and Juliet Freddie
1962 Tharus Son of Attila Oto
1965 The Revenge of Ivanhoe Ivanhoe
1965 Aventuras del Oeste Buffalo Bill Cody
1965 Thunderball Felix Leiter
1966 A Stroke of 1000 Millions Fraser
1967 Dynamite Joe Agent Joe Ford
1977 Foxbat Crays
1979 Pacific Inferno Dennis (final film role)

1945: Rita Coolidge is born--Lafayette, Tennessee.
1946: Joanna Lumley is born--Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir India.
1963: From a hospital bed in London Ian Fleming comments to wife Ann he is working on a children's book.

She replies: "Oh! those poor kids ...you'll frighten them to death with James Bond Jr.!"

1967: Roger Ebert reviews Casino Royale in The Chicago Sun-Times.

Casino Royale
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/casino-royale-1967
| Roger Ebert | May 1, 1967 | 7

Cast

Peter Sellers as Evelyn Tremble
Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd
David Niven as Sir James Bond
Joanna Fetter as Mata Bond
Orson Welles as Le Chiffre

Directed by

Ken Hughes
John Huston
Val Guest
Robert Parrish
Joe McGrath

Screenplay by

Wolf Mankowitz
John Law
Michael Sayers

Production: Famous Artists, Ltd.,
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Foreign
Rated NR | 131 minutes

At one time or another, "Casino Royale" undoubtedly had a shooting schedule, a script and a plot. If any one of the three ever turns up, it might be the making of a good movie.

In the meantime, the present version is a definitive example of what can happen when everybody working on a film goes simultaneously berserk.

Lines and scenes are improvised before our very eyes. Skillful cutting builds up the suspense between two parallel plots -- but, alas, the parallel plots never converge. No matter; they are forgotten, Visitors from Peter O'Toole to Jean-Paul Belmondo are pressed into service. Peter Sellers, free at last from every vestige of' discipline goes absolutely gaga,

This is possibly the most indulgent film ever made. Anything goes. Consistency and planning must have seemed the merest whimsy. One imagines the directors (there were five, all working independently) waking in the morning and wondering what they'd shoot today. How could they lose? They had bundles of money, because this film was blessed with the magic name of James Bond.

Perhaps that was the problem. When Charles Feldman bought the screen rights for "Casino Royale" from Ian Fleming back in 1953, nobody had heard of James Bond, or Sean Connery for that matter. But by the time Feldman got around to making the movie, Connery was firmly fixed in the public imagination as the redoubtable 007. What to do?

Feldman apparently decided to throw all sanity overboard instead of one Bond, he determined to have five or six. The senior Bond is Sir James Bond (David Niven). He is called out of retirement to meet a terrible threat by SMERSH.

Unfortunately, the threat is never explained. Other Bonds are created on the spot. Peter Sellers is the baccarat-playing Bond. He meets Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) in a baccarat game. Why? The movie doesn't say.

The five directors were given instructions given only for their own segments, according to the publicity, and none knew what the other four were doing. This is painfully apparent.

There are some nice touches, of course. Woody Allen rarely fails to be funny, and the massive presence of Welles makes one wish Le Chiffre had been handled seriously.

But the good things are lost, too often, in the frantic scurrying back and forth before the cameras. The steady hand of Terence Young, who made the original Bond films credible despite their gimmicks, is notably lacking here.

I suppose a film this chaotic was inevitable. There has been a blight of these unorganized comedies, usually featuring Sellers, Allen, and-or Jonathan Winters, in which the idea is to prove how zany and clever everyone is when he throws away the script and goes nuts in front of the camera.

In comedy, however, understatement is almost always better than excess.

Sellers was the funniest comedian in the movies when he was making those lightly directed low-budget pictures like "I'm All Right, Jack." Now he is simply self-infatuated and wearisome. And so are the movies he graces.

One wishes Charlie Feldman had sat down one bright morning, early in the history of this film, and announced that everyone simply had top get organized.

2008: John Murray publishes Samantha Weinberg's The Moneypenny Diaries: The Final Fling.

RichardTheBruce

May 2nd

1932: Bruce Glover is born--Chicago, Illinois.
1966: 007 contra Goldfinger released in Uruguay.

1967: Title song "You Only Live Twice" is recorded at the CTS Studios in Bayswater, London. 60 piece orchestra.
1985: US premiere of A View to a Kill, the 14th Bond film--San Francisco, California, a key location in the plot.

1996: COLD, the final Bond novel by John Gardner, published by Hodder & Stoughton.

2002: Raymond Benson's sixth and final Bond novel The Man With the Red Tattoo is published by Stodder & Houghton.

2008: Original confirmed release date for BOND 22, at a time when negotiations pursued director Roger Mitchell.

RichardTheBruce

May 3rd

1972: Bruce Cabot at age 68--Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.
(Born 20 April 1904--Carlsbad, New Mexico.)

Bruce Cabot, Film Actor, Dies; Playes the Hero in 'King Kong'
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/05/04/archives/bruce-cabot-film-actor-dies-played-the-hero-in-king-kong.html
May 4, 1972

HOLLYWOOD, May 3 (AP)— Bruce Cabot, whose starring role in the 1933 screen classic “King Kong” was his best known part during four decades of acting, died today at the age of 67. He succumbed to lung cancer at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills.

Mr. Cabot played the young man who rescued Fay Wray from the clutches of the giant ‘ape in “King Kong.” In the nineteen‐thirties and forties, the 6‐foot 2‐inch actor appeared in numerous films as a cowboy, tough guy or soldier of fortune.

The brown‐haired, blue‐eyed Mr. Cabot was seen with Errol Flynn, who became a close friend, in “Dodge City” and “The Bad Man of Brimstone.”

After World War II service in the Army Air Forces that took him to Africa, Sicily and Italy as an intelligence and operations officer, Mr. Cabot cut down on his movie‐making. He spent much time in Europe during the nineteen‐fifties, making films and living there.

Mr. Cabot was in several movies with his close friend, John Wayne. Among them were “The Green Berets” in 1968 and “Big Jake” in 1971. He also had a role in “Diamonds Are Forever,” also made last year.

The actor, whose real name was Jacques de Bujac, was born in Carlsbad, N. M. He was married and divorced twice, to Adrienne Ames and Francesca de Scaffa, both actresses. In recent years he had lived in Hollywood.

Tackled Many Jobs

Before Mr. Cabot entered the movies he had had a variety of jobs—hauling bleached bones of animals from prairies, working on tramp steamers and as a paper salesman, a printing salesman and a real‐estate man. He tried the cotton goods business and even essayed an unsuccessful film test.

At a Hollywood party—he had been working in a cafe— he met David O. Selznick, the producer, who offered him a screen test. Mr. Cabot said he had been on the stage and offered to do a scene from the play “Chicago.”

He had seen the play several times and had all but memo rized one scene, which he proceeded to enact. He recalled later that the test was “rather awful,” but it led to a job in his first film, “Roadhouse Murder.”

The article as it originally appeared.
May 4, 1972, Page 48

1997: BOND 18 films Bond meeting Wai Lin.
2001: Hodder & Stoughton publishes Raymond Benson's Never Dream of Dying in the UK. Cover by Steve Stone.

2014: BBC Radio 4 Saturday Drama airs an audio production of On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Saturday Drama

James Bond seems more interested in gambling at the Casino Royale than tracking down elusive SPECTRE chief Blofeld. Then he meets Tracy, emotionally disturbed daughter of mafia boss Draco.

Now he has a double motive: seek and destroy Blofeld, and prevent Tracy killing herself.

Impersonating a College of Arms official Bond infiltrates Blofeld's Swiss mountain-top lair. He learns that Blofeld and aide Irma Bunt are brainwashing young women. Why? Is biological warfare involved? Backed by 'M' and Draco, Bond mounts an air assault. But can he pin down monstrous Blofeld? And what will happen to Tracy?

Toby Stephens is on top form as 007. A stellar cast includes Joanna Lumley, Alfred Molina, Alex Jennings, Lisa Dillon, John Standing, Janie Dee, Lloyd Owen, Joanna Cassidy, Clare Dunne and Julian Sands, with Jarvis himself as the voice of Fleming.

Specially composed music: Mark Holden and Michael Lopez
Dramatised by Archie Scottney

Director: Martin Jarvis
Producer: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres Production for BBC Radio 4.

2017: Daliah Lavi dies at age 74--Asheville, North Carolina. (Born 12 October 1942--Shavei Tzion, Israel.)

Obituary: Daliah Lavi

Actress whose memorable turn in the spoofy 1967 Casino Royale belied a prodigious talent

Israeli actress, singer and model Daliah Lavi arrives at London Airport, UK, 15th November 1967.
(Photo by Michael Stroud/Daily Express/Getty Images)

She came on the wing of the 1960s spoof spy thrillers, providing the glamour for a genre that had little to do with MI5 or national security but won audiences with sheer escapism. With her smouldering eyes and raven hair, the actress Daliah Lavi, who has died aged 74, fitted the bill perfectly, not just because of her exotic beauty, but for her linguistic skills and a typically Israeli sense of irony, which should have won her more serious roles.

Some might describe her as Israel’s answer to Italian star Gina Lollobrigida, who was active in the same era, or a brunette Brigitte Bardot. The great fortune of Lavi’s life was to meet the American actor Kirk Douglas when she was 10, and he was in Israel filming The Juggler near the village of Shavi Zion, in pre-Mandatory Palestine, where she was born.

The daughter of Reuben and Ruth Lewinbuk, who came respectively from Russia and Germany, informed Douglas that she wanted to be a ballet dancer. The actor convinced her parents to send her to Stockholm to study ballet. Two years later, he arranged a scholarship for her, but, after three years at the ballet school, low blood pressure put paid to her potential dancing career.

Instead she turned to acting and began her career in serious foreign films — only later moving to the lighthearted turns which helped to make her name.

Lavi’s first film, in 1955, made while she was still a teenager, was a Swedish adaptation of August Strindberg’s novel, The People of Hemso, and the young actress, who was fluent in numerous languages, found that her linguistic skills won her parts in several European ventures. She starred in German, French, Italian and Spanish films (changing her name to Lavi while living in Paris) and in a forerunner of her later roles, also appeared as a femme fatale in Blazing Sand (1960), described as a “matza western” in which she peformed an exotic dance.

Vincente Minnelli’s Two Weeks in Another Town (1962) was her first American film and not only brought her to wider notice, but also won her a Golden Globe Award for most promising female newcomer. She starred in the film with George Hamilton, and it also reunited her with her early mentor and now co-star Kirk Douglas.

She was cast as the love interest opposite Peter O’Toole in Lord Jim (1965), based on Joseph Conrad’s novel and filmed in Cambodia and Malaysia. However, the film was not a huge success and within a year she was taking on less dramatic roles.

In 1966 she played a sexy double agent in The Silencers with Dean Martin and, in the same year, was a Russian princess in the British film parody The Spy with the Cold Nose.

But her place in cinematic history was assured the following year with her part as a secret agent in the James Bond spoof Casino Royale. She was part of an ensemble cast including David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Woody Allen and Orson Welles.

She was a mysterious woman who runs a gambling house in Nobody Runs Forever (1968) and was the villain, opposite Richard Johnson in Some Girls Do, the following year.

Her gothic horror film, The Whip and the Body, directed by Mario Bava and co-starring Christopher Lee as a sado-masochist aristocrat who seduces her won her some minor acclaim, and, after her last film, the western, Catlow in which she plays a Mexican rebuffed by Yul Brynner (1971) she left the world of film and rebranded herself as a singer, on the advice of Israeli actor Chaim Topol, who had persuaded her to record Hebrew songs for the BBC.

In an interview with the Boston Globe in 1964, just before the opening of Lord Jim, she admitted somewhat ruefully that her first love of dancing remained the pre-eminent one — the one, of course, for which Kirk Douglas had provided her ballet education.

Her new singing career in the ’70s was particularly successful in Germany where she was one of the most popular vocalists of her era. She made her greatest mark with Oh Wann Kommst Du? (When Will You Come? And Willst du mit Mir Gehen? (Will You Go With Me?)

Daliah Lavi’s three marriages, to John Sullivan, Peter Rittmaster and Gianfranco Piacentini ended in divorce. She is survived by her fourth husband, the businessman Charles Gans, whom she married in 1977, and their children Kathy, Rouben, Alexander and Stephen; grandchildren Sophie, Ben, Emma, Hannah and Levi; and sister Michal.

Daliah Lavi: born October 12,1942. Died May 3, 2017

RichardTheBruce

May 4th

1981: New York Magazine reports that in the new John Gardner novels Bond drives a fuel-efficient Swedish auto.

New James Bond Isn't Fuelish
https://books.google.com/books?id=8eUCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=%22ian+fleming%22+%22may+4%22&source=bl&ots=HIygL9-nh2&sig=HrnYikwgmyzYk1YwjfeX_wzZr6M&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwik5-_a4-raAhWwd98KHYHZCh44HhDoAQg0MAI#v=onepage&q=%22ian%20fleming%22%20%22may%204%22&f=false

Times change, and so do superagents. In a new series of James Bond books, 007 will forsake the British-made $109,000 Bentley that he drove in the Ian Fleming novels for a $19,000 "fuel-efficient" Swedish car.

A spokesman for John Gardner, the British novelist who's reviving Fleming's fictional hero, said Bond will now drive a Saab Turbo 900, "because this is the eighties, and it gets nineteen to a gallon to the Bentley's eleven".

Just so everyone gets the message, a Saab has been outfitted with those little 007 features--gun portholes and X-ray goggles for seeing in smoke--to ferry Gardner to a New York party this week to launch his first Bond book for publisher Richard Marek.

Still, Rolls-Royce, which makes the Bentley, is unimpressed.

"I knew Ian Fleming, and the James Bond he created was a chap who lived hard and played hard and didn't care about fuel economy said company official Dennis Miller-Williams.

And not forgotten.

2000: Hodder & Stoughton publishes Raymond Benson's fourth Bond book Doubleshot.

2006: Craig Bond is shown in action for the first time in the teaser trailer.

RichardTheBruce

May 5th

1944: John Rhys-Davies is born--Ammanford, Wales.
1963: From Russia With Love films the truck chase in Istanbul, Turkey.
1988: Adele Laurie Blue Adkins MBE is born--Tottenham, London, England.
1995: Ian Fleming's 1952 gold plated Royal typewriter sells for £56,250 ($90,309) at Christie's in London.

Ian Fleming's gold typewriter auctioned
https://upi.com/Archives/1995/05/05/Ian-Flemings-gold-typewriter-auctioned/7367799646400/
By PAUL BELSITO | May 5, 1995

LONDON, May 5 -- A gold-plated typewriter belonging to British author Ian Fleming, creator of the fictional spy James Bond, was auctioned in Christies' London auction house Friday for 56,250 pounds ($90,500). An anonymous bidder sent representative Tony Quinn to Christies to snap up the typewriter, with strict orders to buy it at any cost. 'They told me to keep bidding,' said Quinn, a psychotherapist with connections to the entertainment business. 'Just go in there and buy it. That was my brief.' Quinn, who is Irish, refused to reveal the identity of the buyer, although he said his colleague was involved in the film industry. 'He's a James Bond fan, but I wouldn't call him a collector,' he said. Quinn also confirmed the buyer was not British. The gold-plated typewriter, commissioned by Fleming from the Royal Typewriter Company in New York in 1952 for $174, was valued at between 5,000 and 8,000 pounds ($8,000 and $12,800), but Christies said they expected it to fetch a higher price. 'We knew it would sell for more than the listed price,' said Christie's press officer Freya Sims. 'We had a lot of interest from abroad and we had six telephone lines going.' Also auctioned were paraphernalia and works by Britain's World War II Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill to coincide with Victory in Europe Day, including a signed note fetching 18,000 pounds ($30,000). But these were overshadowed by fierce bidding for Fleming's typewriter, which drew gasps of excitement from the crowd as prices spiraled.

Fleming gained worldwide recognition as the creator of the famous 007 agent James Bond series. He bought the typewriter after writing the first draft of the first Bond novel 'Casino Royale'. In accordance with family tradition, Fleming used the machine to type all his subsequent novels. It remained in the family after his death in 1964.

Recommended reading.

1988: Michael G. Wilson completes the Licence to Kill, later credited as "from a story by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson".
1997: Walter Gotell dies at age 73--London, England. (Born 15 March 1924--Bonn, Germany.)

Obituary: Walter Gotell
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-walter-gotell-1256876.html
Tom Vallance | Friday 20 June 1997 00:02

A familiar figure of authority or menace in over 90 films and countless television shows, Walter Gotell was one of those reliable character players whose faces are well known but whose names are familiar to only a few. His balding, severe countenance made him the perfect KGB chief in several James Bond adventures, and in war films his crooked smile could quickly become a cruel sneer when he portrayed a Nazi.

Born in 1924, he went in 1943 straight from acting with a repertory company into films, which were suffering from a dearth of young actors due to the Second World War. His first films all dealt with the war - The Day Will Dawn, We Dive at Dawn, Tomorrow We Live, Night Invader (all 1943) and 2,000 Women (1944). Deciding to pursue a more secure business career, he gave up acting for several years. A man of strong intellect (he spoke five languages), he was an astute and successful businessman, but in 1950 returned to the screen with small roles in The Wooden Horse (a rare sympathetic, if enigmatic, role as a member of the French resistance), Cairo Road and Albert RN.

He was to work steadily for the next 40 years, though still combining acting with business (he ultimately became business manager of a group of engineering companies) and, in later years, farming.

In John Huston's fine film version of C.S. Forester's The African Queen (1951), Gotell was one of the German seamen who briefly capture Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn near the film's climax. Subsequent Nazi roles included Ice-Cold in Alex (1958), Sink the Bismarck! (1960, as an officer on the ill-fated battleship), The Guns of Navarone (1961), and a particularly chilling portrayal of ruthlessness in The Boys From Brazil (1978). In this last bizarre tale of Hitler clones, he was Mundt, an assassin despatched by Joseph Mengele (Gregory Peck) to kill the father of one of the clones. Recognising the victim (Wolfgang Preiss) as an old comrade from his days in the SS, he tells the man that he has a difficult assignment but lies about the identity of his intended victim. When his friend assures him that orders must be obeyed, he hurls the man over a snow-covered dam

As Morzeny, henchman of the memorable villainess Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) in the second and most distinguished James Bond film, From Russia With Love (1963), it was Gotell who, in the opening "teaser" sequence in which Bond (Sean Connery) is apparently assassinated, peels off the dead man's mask to reveal that it was merely a double being used in a lethal training exercise for a Spectre assassin.

In the first Bond film to star Roger Moore [incorrect statement], The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Gotell had a more prominent role as the KGB chief General Gogol, a role he continued to play in other Bond films, including Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985) and the first Bond to star Timothy Dalton, The Living Daylights (1987).

Gotell's prolific television work included the recurring role of Chief Constable Cullen in the popular BBC crime series Softly, Softly: Task Force, which ran for 131 episodes from 1970 to 1976. He was also featured in the mini-series The Scarlet and the Black (1983), in which Gregory Peck played his first dramatic role on television as a real-life Vatican official who aided escaped prisoners of war in Nazi-occupied Rome.

Gotell's last films included the fantasy Wings of Fame (1990) with Peter O'Toole and Colin Firth, and the hit comedy The Pope Must Die (1991). In recent years he had devoted more time to his farm in Ireland.

Walter Gotell, actor: born Bonn 15 March 1924; twice married (two daughters); died 5 May 1997.

1997: Putnam publishes the US edition of Raymond Benson's Zero Minus Ten.

2018: Free Comic Book Day. No kidding.

treasureislandcomics.com/2018/04/28/free-comic-book-day-is-saturday-5-may-2018/

2019: Cinco de Mayo.

Thunderfinger

I got me some comics yesterday. Not for free, but cheap.

RichardTheBruce

May 6th

1915: Orson Welles is born--Kenosha, Wisconsin. (He dies 10 October 1985--Los Angeles, California.)

A Cocktail Recipe For
Disaster: Peter Sellers And
Orson Welles On The
Making Of Casino Royale
https://sabotagetimes.com/tv-film/a-cocktail-recipe-for-disaster-peter-sellers-and-orson-welles-on-the-making-of-casino-royale
Take one deluded producer, two huge egos, four directors, five 007s and half-a-dozen writers. Sprinkle with cash, add jokes to taste, shake, stir - and voila! Casino Royale: a cocktail recipe for disaster
Richard Luck | Updated on Nov 2, 2015

Casino Royale must have looked an appetising prospect when it went into pre-production in 1965. The Saltzman/Broccoli Bond movies had established the playboy spy as a bankable commodity, and when producer Charles Feldman signed up comic genius Peter Sellers for his film version of Fleming's novel, he doubtless thought he had a licence to print money. Rather than breaking box-office records, however, Feldman's $12 million movie would devour its budget, fail to recoup its costs and destroy careers, including his own.

But Casino Royale was cursed even before Feldman optioned it in the early '60s. CBS, who had made a US TV movie of it in 1954, passed the option on to actor-director Gregory Ratoff. He signed to make a big-screen version for Fox in 1960 - only to die before a frame was shot.

As for Feldman, his problems began the day he hired Sellers - at the time one of the biggest movie stars in the world. The impact of his performances in Dr Strangelove, in addition to the commercial success of the Pink Panther movies, elevated Sellers to a position of rare power for a comic actor. Feldman knew from experience that Sellers was a draw - the actor had helped make a hit of the producer's giddy comedy What's New Pussycat? - so he agreed to pay the former Goon a then-unheard-of $1m to play accountant and Bond imposter Evelyn Tremble.

No sooner had he agreed terms than Sellers fell out with Feldman and began to act irrationally. He insisted that the producer hire his friend, TV director Joe McGrath, and refused to appear on set with co-star Orson Welles. Many concluded that the already eccentric Sellers had gone mad, especially after he came to blows with McGrath and then fled the set - never to return.

The impact of his performances in Dr Strangelove, in addition to the commercial success of the Pink Panther movies, elevated Sellers to a position of rare power for a comic actor

Peter Sellers' walkout seemed to spell the end of Casino Royale. But rather than capitulating, Charles Feldman reverted to his original plan and set about making a truly immense movie. Out went McGrath and original writer Wolf Mankowitz; in came a string of different directors - Val Guest, John Huston, Richard Talmadge, Robert Parrish, Ken Hughes - and a raft of screenwriters that included co-stars Woody Allen and David Niven, Hollywood legend Billy Wilder and groundbreaking novelist Terry Southern .

The end result has to be one of the strangest films ever made by a Hollywood studio. The combination of Sellers' walkout and Feldman's extravagance deprived Casino Royale of anything approaching structure and transformed it into a series of unconnected sketches. Worst of all, here was a comedy almost totally devoid of laughs.

It was to be Feldman's swansong: he died of stomach cancer within a year of the film's 1967 premiere. The paranoid Peter Sellers had predicted as much. "Feldman is going to die!" he once ranted, "and the reason he'll die is so he can blame me! He'll say, 'Sellers killed me!' He'll do it to spite me!"

Charles Feldman (producer): I love the movies, always have. I like money too, but only because it lets me make the movies I want to make.

Orson Welles (actor, Le Chiffre): The movies need people like Charles Feldman: rich, jolly, generous men who're happy writing cheques.

Val Guest (director): Charlie found out that, when he bought the book, all he got was the title. Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli had already used everything in the book except the baccarat game, so the whole thing had to be structured around that.

Woody Allen (actor, Jimmy Bond/Dr Noah): I was offered a lot of money and a small part. My manager said, "Why not? It could become a big movie." So I went to London. I was on a good salary and expense account. But they didn't film me for six months! I stayed in London at their expense for six months! That's only one example of how utterly wasteful the project was.

I once saw him on one phone to Peter Sellers, on a second to United Artists and on a third to the Italian government

Bryan Forbes (first-choice director): Charlie came into my life brandishing a copy of Casino Royale. He told me he wanted to have five James Bond and would guarantee me an all-star cast. "You can write it wherever you want. Do you like the south of France?" Gifts started to arrive - silk scarves, theatre tickets. Charlie was talking Monopoly money to secure my services. Every time I expressed doubts, he sweetened the deal.

Peter Sellers (actor, Evelyn Tremble): People will swim through shit if you put a few bob in it.

Woody Allen: Charlie was a genius. I once saw him on one phone to Peter Sellers, on a second to United Artists and on a third to the Italian government. He was a big-time charming con man and I never trusted him for a second.

Bryan Forbes: I said 'yes' to Charlie and then thought about the basic idiocies of the script. Five Bonds! That meant departing from the novel. I called one of Charlie's assistants who went into a fit on the phone. But I stuck to my guns.

Wolf Mankowitz (screenwriter): Peter Sellers was a treacherous lunatic. My advice to Feldman was not in any circumstances to get involved with Sellers. But Sellers was at his peak. I told Charlie that Sellers would fuck it all up.

Joseph McGrath (director): Feldman was glad to get Peter at any price. He'd put up the money for Sellers' insurance on What's New Pussycat? - after his heart attack, nobody would cover him.

Wolf Mankowitz: Charlie gave Sellers a Rolls Royce on the first day of shooting as a come-on.

Peter Sellers: I was offered $1 million to play Bond. I said, "You must be out of your bloody minds - what about Sean Connery?" Feldman said, "Yes, I know, but I have this book and I'm going to make it." I said, "I certainly can't play Bond!"

Wolf Mankowitz: Charlie Feldman offered Peter more and more money to play 007. In the end, the fee was so large Peter would have been mad to turn it down.

Peter Sellers: I wanted to play James Bond the way Tony Hancock would play him. But Ian Fleming's people would never have allowed it.

Wolf Mankowitz: In the end, Peter didn't play Bond. He played Evelyn Tremble. "Who's Evelyn Tremble?" everyone asked. Nobody knew. But then we didn't know who Sellers was either.

Charles Feldman: The only way to make a film with Peter is to let him direct, write and produce it as well as star in it.

Wolf Mankowitz: Sellers wanted different directors; he wanted to piss around with the script. He knew nothing about anything except doing funny faces and funny voices.

Joseph McGrath: Peter asked me if I'd be interested in directing a film he'd agreed to star in. I said, "I'd be delighted to." And that's where the trouble started.

Wolf Mankowitz: By Casino Royale, Peter Sellers was pretty well round the bend and couldn't function properly. He'd change the order of shooting. He'd be 'unavailable' or constantly change his timing, making it hard to splice material together.

Sellers was frightened of the scale of Orson - his legend, literally his weight and immensity.

Orson Welles: Sellers wasn't terribly bright, but he came on as the great actor.

Joseph McGrath: One of the problems that blew the film apart was that Orson and I got along really well. And Sellers got really annoyed. "I didn't think you and Orson would take sides against me." I said, "I'm not - but Orson thinks we can come up with some funny stuff." Sellers replied, "I'll only attempt to come up with funny stuff so long as he's not here." He was frightened of the scale of Orson - his legend, literally his weight and immensity.

Wolf Mankowitz: I'll never forget the occasion Orson and I, two rather large fellows, were in the lift. The door opened and Sellers was there. Sellers wasn't talking to Orson, and he was none too keen on me either. He wouldn't go down in the lift with us - said it wasn't safe. Orson was pissed off. "What the fuck is he talking about?" "I think he means the combined weight, Orson." "What the fuck does he weigh? Skinny as a shrimp. Looks like a shrimp, come to think of it."

Joseph McGrath: Orson didn't have the same attitude about his career as Peter did. Peter was what he did. Orson thought, I'll be here for four weeks, let's enjoy ourselves. Peter's thing was: My career is on the line.

Wolf Mankowitz: Peter was terrified of playing with Orson and converted this into an aversion for him.

Joseph McGrath: Orson would come onto the set at 9am prompt, sit down at the baccarat table and say, "So, Joe, where's our thin friend today?"

Orson Welles: Sellers was very proud of how thin he was. Apparently, he'd taken a lot of pills to help shift the weight. If you listened to him talking, you'd think it was the greatest achievement of his career.

Wolf Mankowitz: Sellers claimed Orson was surrounded by a dark aura and said it would not be healthy for him to be close to Orson. He was incredibly superstitious. He was obsessed with horoscopes, tarot cards and colours.

Peter Sellers: Green has been a superstition of mine for a long time. And purple. Vittorio De Sica told me, "My dear Peter, purple is the colour of death." And certain shades of green. The hard, acidy green is bad. I pick up strange vibrations from it. It disturbs me.

Wolf Mankowitz: Sellers was completely obsessed with royalty. He was always going on about Princess Margaret. His biggest thrill was to present people to her.

Orson Welles: The fact that Princess Margaret was stopping by every day at my house was unknown to Sellers. One day she came to the set to have lunch with Peter, or so he claimed. He couldn't wait to tell the cast and crew who he was dining with. Then she walked past him and said, "Hello, Orson, I haven't seen you for days!" That was the real end. That's when we couldn't speak lines to each other. "Orson, I haven't seen you for days!" absolutely killed him. He went white as a sheet, because he was going to present me!

Joseph McGrath: Peter and I had a fist fight in his caravan. He threw a punch and I hit him back. We got separated by Gerry Crampton, the stunt coordinator. "I love you both. I don't know who to thump first," Gerry said. Sellers and I started laughing and crying, but I said, "There's no point going on, because somebody's going to hit somebody again." And he did.

Peter Sellers: If I find myself surrounded by stupid people, I get rid of them.

Joseph McGrath: After I was fired - at Peter's request - Sellers phoned and said, "Come back! Feldman's going to give you a Rolls Royce." I said, "I don't want one." Two years later, I was in LA and Jerry Bressler, who got a credit on Casino Royale as an executive producer, pulled up in a white Coriniche. "Are you Joe McGrath?" he said. "I'm driving your Rolls Royce!"

Peter Sellers: In the end, Peter did one of his celebrated walkouts.

Ken Hughes (director): Peter stated that he was not prepared to complete the movie. Casino Royale came to a ghastly halt. Charles Feldman was left with a few scenes shot with Sellers but no movie. He had to consider closing down. But big money was involved and he decided to go ahead.

Joseph McGrath: It's hard to finish a film when you lose your star.

Ken Hughes: At a panic script meeting, it was decided that since they no longer had Sellers, they'd have to improvise. The writers were working like crazy trying to save the day. Feldman hired everyone in sight: Woody Allen, David Niven, John Huston. It was total chaos. Units were shooting in three studios. I was shooting at Shepperton, another unit was shooting at MGM. And none of us saw a completed script. I had to call the director at MGM to find out what he was shooting so I'd know how it dovetailed into what I was shooting.

Orson Welles: At the end of it, Charlie Feldman hired John Huston to direct and John moved everybody to Ireland because he wanted to go fox hunting.

Ken Hughes: The end result speaks for itself - a mish-mash that came into being because the star had walked out.

Wolf Mankowitz: The film doesn't make any sense. Because of Sellers it was cut, re-cut, screwed around with a thousand different ways.

Joseph McGrath: Peter told me years later, "I don't have a lot of friends, but I can trust you. Because we've been through hell together. You've actually faced me and thrown a punch at me. I know you won't put up with any shit.

Peter Sellers: I am not a funny man. I don't have a strong comedy personality. But even without that, you can be successful if the material is funny.

Woody Allen: I never bothered to see Casino Royale. I knew it would be horrible. The set was a madhouse. I knew then that the only way to make a film is to control it completely.

Peter Sellers: The making of that film would make an interesting film in itself.

1958: Jeffrey Deaver is born--Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
1985: Title song "A View to a Kill" performed by Duran Duran is released as a US 7" single.

1999: Hodder & Stoughton publishes the third Raymond Benson Bond novel High Time to Kill. The first copyrighted by Ian Fleming Publications (formerly Glidrose Publications).

2008: Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko are photographed at open-air theatre 'Festbuehne' in Konstanz, Austria.

RichardTheBruce

May 7th

1997: BOND 18 films the remote control BMW Series 7 E38.

1998: Hodder & Stoughton publishes the second Raymond Benson Bond book The Facts of Death.

2003: Sir Roger Moore is stricken while performing on Broadway. He's fitted with a pacemaker the next day.
2016: Deadline publishes "The Stakes Behind The James Bond Rights Auction As Warner Bros And Others Try To Win 007’s Loyalties From Sony".

The Stakes Behind The James Bond Rights Auction
As Warner Bros And Others Try To Win 007’s Loyalties
From Sony
https://deadline.com/2015/10/daniel-craig-james-bond-sony-warner-bros-mgm-daniel-craig-1201528241/
By Anita Busch, Mike Fleming Jr | October 30, 2015 8:10am

Ask anyone in the hunt for the next batch of James Bond films that are now up for grabs, and this is what you’ll hear, as voiced by one exec whose studio is among those in the chase: “They might not say they’re actively shopping it, but they are certainly making it known their deal is up and they will be.”

The James Bond distribution deal with Sony is done after Spectre bows in the U.S. on November 6. It could stay at Sony or it could head to Warner Bros., or Fox (which handles MGM’s home video), or Universal, and Paramount. Or even Disney, where Bob Iger has shown the wisdom of making big bets can work out in buying out whole companies like Marvel and Lucasfilm for cash and stock.

At a time when studios are hungrier than ever for proven global franchises, James Bond is Hollywood’s longest-running success story. Consider that 50 years after Sean Connery launched the character in 1962’s Dr No, 007’s last outing Skyfall became the series’ biggest grossing film, topping out at $1.1 billion globally. With Daniel Craig and that film’s director Sam Mendes a week away from the U.S. launch of what might be their last Bond film together, there is every expectation that Spectre will chase that high-water gross mark. It already opened briskly overseas.

So it’s not surprising that a hit-starved studio like Warner Bros, or any other major, would covet the franchise. Indeed, sources sighted Warner Bros chief Kevin Tsujihara at the Montage Hotel recently with Gary Barber, the point person at MGM whose job it is to figure out the distribution future of 007 for MGM and Danjaq producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. According to our source, the chatter seemed more intense than a meet and greet. It looked like they were throwing around numbers. Not surprisingly, Warner Bros has been oft mentioned as the most aggressive in this hunt.

What’s odd about this is that nobody is saying that Sony hasn’t done a fine job in marketing and releasing the Bond films. But the last deal was made by Amy Pascal, and she is no longer in charge. The new guy in the seat, Tom Rothman, is known from his days running Fox as a tough, bottom-line-minded executive who most feel would walk away from a deal that gave the studio market share at the expense of profit. Indeed, some say that at Pascal’s urging, Sony gave up too much the last time around to keep 007 in the fold.

The Wall Street Journal rifled through those hacked Sony documents and pried out a memo that underscores the troubling risk-reward disparity. According to WSJ, co-financing and marketing and releasing Skyfall brought Sony $57 million on a film that grossed $1.1 billion globally. MGM, in turn, made $175 million, while Danjaq made $109 million. And that doesn’t factor in all the other things Sony gave up and the movies like the 21 Jump Street franchise that MGM was kissed into when the last re-up deal was made. Some would consider the math on this to be on par with the old first-dollar gross deal scenarios which became toxic to studios when owners like Sumner Redstone realized that a star like Tom Cruise had earned way more than $50 million on a Mission: Impossible movie through first-dollar gross participation before Paramount — which financed the whole film –had even recouped its outlay. His generous portion on video pushed that payday to an estimated $80 million.

So much is up in the air right now on 007. First off, the odds are against Craig and Mendes returning for another go, which would mean starting again with a new actor even though reports indicate Craig might owe one more film to fulfill his contract. When Craig recently observed that he would rather “slash his wrists” than do another Bond movie, it certainly echoed loudly around Hollywood, even if those close to him attributed it mostly to the bad idea of putting Craig in front of a journalist right after he completed a time-press and arduous Spectre shoot in which he seriously injured his knee. It would be similar, they said, to asking a woman just out of childbirth how eager she was to have another.

Here’s what we hear. 007 rights gatekeepers Barber, and Wilson and Broccoli, will wait until Spectre plays around the world and accumulates an ungodly global gross that will only strengthen their leverage. And then, early next year, they will make the best deal. If that means bidding farewell to Sony, so be it.

Sony had initially gotten rights to Casino Royale years ago in a deal orchestrated deftly behind the scenes by former Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO John Calley, who revived James Bond while head of United Artists. Because of that, Sony released Casino Royale with a new Bond — Craig — and grossed about $600M worldwide.

When it came time to re-up, Pascal was running the studio and people are still debating whether her zeal to keep Bond led Sony to give up too much. On the plus side, Pascal was invited to have a creative voice in the process over the last few films. Sony co-financed movies that were big hits, and received a distribution fee that some say was capped.

But it was the other concessions granted by Sony that still has tongues wagging. Sony offered up some of its plum projects to be co-financed by MGM. At the time, the sexiest one the studio had was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. That film, which starred Craig, went into the pot and while the movie didn’t come close to meeting everyone’s out-sized expectations, 21 Jump Street — another film offered up for co-financing — certainly did. MGM got to be part of that hit and its sequel and presumably will be part of the next film that is rumored to meld that series with Men In Black. Sony, in turn, got to co-finance and release some MGM films, including the Robocop remake. Sony is now gearing up for another Dragon Tattoo installment with The Girl In The Spider’s Web, the book written by David Lagercrantz, who was installed by the rights-holder relatives of the late author Stieg Larsson. Pascal is a producer on that movie, and MGM is expected to be in the mix if the studio wants to be.

The proceeds from these co-fi deals went into into a split pot, but the unsung coup for MGM was that it got to broker almost all of the international TV deals. That studio was still getting back on its feet after being frozen in a bankruptcy, and it’s believed they didn’t have the kind of clout to get as high a price as Sony would have. It also left Sony’s loyal global customers on the outside looking in because MGM was making the deals and had its own list of customers. The prospect of all that led to widespread internal disagreements within Sony divisions over whether the studio should make such a deal, but Pascal won the day.

Two blockbusters and Spectre later, and Pascal is now off producing movies. And the studio will have some serious decisions to make as it formulates how crucial it is to keep James Bond. Many believe that no studio will replicate the horse trading that took place in the last Sony 007 deal. It is an open question whether another studio will find some ground on which they can get the market share bragging rights that come with 007, while not feeling they made a loss leader deal.

If ever MGM was going to get back into the distribution business — it disbanded distribution when it emerged from bankruptcy and has placed big movies like the Ben-Hur and The Magnificent Seven remakes all over town — the 007 franchise would be the one to relaunch. That’s always an option, but more of a long shot than the notion of Craig returning to His Majesty’s Secret Service.

The betting here is that if Sony’s brain trust led by Michael Lynton and Rothman won’t do it, another big studio like Warner Bros — which successfully partnered with MGM on the billion-dollar The Hobbit trilogy — will swallow hard and make the deal. Tsujihara and Barber are tight, and you can bet that Warner Bros will move heaven and earth to make a hit out of MGM’s upcoming Rocky film Creed, the Ryan Coogler-directed film that opens Thanksgiving with Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan starring. Is it too much to imagine that soon, the most important entries on Tsujihara’s call sheet will be Barber, along with Harry Potter author JK Rowling and James Packer?

2016: The London on Water's final day to feature James Bond's yacht.

James Bond’s yacht Soufrière to be showcased at
London on Water show this weekend
https://www.ybw.com/boat-events/james-bonds-yacht-soufriere-to-be-showcased-at-london-on-water-show-17563
Stef Bottinelli | 06.05.2016

The beautiful Spirit 54 yacht Soufrière, which appeared in Casino Royale, will be on show at
the London on Water show at St Katharine Docks 4 - 7 May.


The Spirit 54’, which starred alongside Daniel Craig and Eva Green in Casino Royale, is perhaps Spirit’s most iconic yacht. Following her movie début, the yacht was sold and went on to enjoy subsequent years’ cruising and participating in competitive racing.

Spirit Yachts will be displaying the stunning Soufrière at this year’s London on Water show, which takes place at St Katharine Docks from 4 – 7 May.

The beautiful Spirit 54 had quite the role when she starred alongside Daniel Craig and Eva Green in James Bond’s 2006 film Casino Royale.

Soufriere from Casino Royale

Following her film debut, Soufrière was sold and enjoyed subsequent years’ cruising and participating in competitive racing. She was then returned to Spirit Yachts to complete a refit and is now for sale through Spirit’s brokerage department for £600,000.

Spirit Yachts CEO and head designer Sean McMillan comments, “Soufrière was designed specifically for Casino Royale following the production company’s search for a classically elegant, unique, British built yacht. The scene in which Daniel Craig and Eva Green glide into Venice onboard Soufrière granted her a place in British film history. What better place to re-launch her to the public than London; the home of James Bond?”

Describing the filming of Casino Royale, McMillan adds, “Probably the most challenging voyage for Soufrière came during filming in Venice when we had to take the rig in and out ten times; she was the first sailing yacht to go up the Grand Canal for 300 years.”

Soufrière was recently given a fresh coat of paint on her elegant ice blue coloured hull and all external varnish was stripped and re-varnished where necessary. The interior woodwork has been re-varnished where required and all equipment from the engine to the rigging has been inspected and serviced. She will be on display in berth C09 at the London show.

Also on display at the London show in berth C10 will be the Spirit P40, a sophisticated 12 metre power boat whose clean lines and impeccable design are synonymous with Spirit Yachts’ modern classic style.

2017: Hello Monaco and Olga Taran celebrate resident Sir Roger Moore.

Sir Roger Moore: James Bond of
Monaco
https://www.hellomonaco.com/mc-lifestyle/mccelebrities/sir-roger-moore-james-bond-of-monaco/
7 May , 2017

Roger Moore is a famous British actor who will perhaps always be remembered for his role as James Bond in seven of the 007 series films from 1973 to 1985. As he played the role of a dashing spy, Moore also found himself a home fit for James Bond in the glamorous Principality of Monaco.

Roger Moore and the Princely couple. Source: www.thesun.co.uk

He came from considerably humble beginnings, born on October 14th 1927 in London, England to his policeman father and housewife mother. He was a good student, attending prestigious schools and was also a talented swimmer. However his passion was to act, and so at the age of 15 he chose to drop out of school to pursue a career in acting, becoming an animation apprentice at a London film company as his first job in the field.


Source: www.vanityfair.fr

Moore’s rise to fame proved to be quite an uphill battle; he was quickly fired from his first job, it was difficult to be recognized and land important roles, and his budding acting career was interrupted at age 18. Shortly after World War II ended, while he was attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts paid for by director Brian Desmond Hurst who saw the potential in Roger, he was drafted into the military. He was stationed in Germany for about three years, during which time he married his first of four wives actress Doorn Van Steyn, before he was able to return to London to continue his career where he left off.


Source: roger-moore.skynetblogs.be

His desire to pursue his acting dreams kept him inching forwards regardless of the difficulties thrown his way. In 1953 his battle led him to America, where he was welcomed with open arms for his good looks and skills as an actor, as well as his performance in his first TV show World by the Tail. It was during this period that Roger Moore finally got the attention he deserved. Major Hollywood Studios were suddenly interested in this British gentleman, and soon after Moore signed his first contract with MGM he appeared in his first big role in The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954). Disappointedly though, after starring in a few other movies for MGM, his time with this production company proved to be fruitless as Moore was still far from becoming a Hollywood star.


Source: roger-moore.skynetblogs.be

This prompted Roger Moore to try his luck elsewhere, signing next with Warner Bros, the company that would finally propel his career into stardom. It was with this production company that Moore began to star in popular TV shows, including The Saint (1962-69) that made him a household name. It was thanks to his performance in that show and in the 1970 film The Man Who Haunted Himself that he proved himself as an actor and ultimately landed the role that would completely revolutionize his career: James Bond.


Sir Roger Moore. Source: roger-moore.skynetblogs.be

Roger Moore effectively replaced the previous 007 agent, Sean Connery, who was tired of playing the role, and in 1973 he filmed his first film with the franchise, Live and Let Die that ended up being a great success, as it grossed more than the previous film starring Connery. A great start for Moore who went on to film another six Bond films! In 1985 he had enough of playing the part of a dashing spy and announced his retirement from the series, and though he still appeared in several other movies post-Bond, none would reach the same levels of success as the Bond series.

Source: roger-moore.skynetblogs.be

Not only did Roger Moore fight to be successful but also fought against various health scares throughout his life, including prostate cancer, heart trouble and type II diabetes, as well as three failed marriages. Nevertheless he remained charitable, serving as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 1991 and receiving an International Humanitarian Award from the London Variety Club for his involvement in various charities.

Moore now lives in Larvotto, the Principality’s seafront, from about 2002 when he met his current wife Kristina Tholstrup at a dinner party in Monaco; the two quickly fell in love and set up a home together on the Côte d’Azur.


Roger Moore and his wife Kristina Tholstrup. Source: www.vanityfair.fr
quote]Roger Moore speaks fondly about his adopted home, Monaco, describing it as a town with no envy, “the only place in the world where you can park a Bentley without someone coming along with a key and scratching it”, and says he enjoys the social life. The absolute security of the Principality is also an appealing factor, as well as the pretty sea views from his Larvotto home.

[/quote]

RichardTheBruce

May 8th

1945: Ian Fleming pursues a personal interest on VE/Victory in Europe Day.

Ian Fleming's Commandos: The Story of the Legendary 30 Assault Unit, Nicholas Rankin, 2011.

Chapter 14 - Getting the Goods

VE Day, Victory in Europe day, 8 May 1945, signalled 'the greatest
outburst of joy in the history of mankind' as Churchill wrote
later: 'Weary and worn, impoverished but undaunted and now
triumphant, we had a moment that was sublime.' But Ian Fleming
was fretting in London. The Bibliophile and collector wanted the
cache of German naval records from Tambach badly. He was also
afraid that they might fall into the hands of the Russians, believing
that under the Four Power Division of Germany, Tambach would
be in the Russian zone, the eastern part of Germany that would
become the German Democratic Republic. (He was wrong about
the line on the map - Tambach did not quite fall within the
Russian zone - but he was right about the threat from Russia,
which would be the backdrop of much of his fiction.) A couple of
NID officers had been sent out from London to Germany to help
secure the Tambach records, but had failed to achieve anything.
In May 1945, therefore, Fleming flew out to see for himself.

He found Ralph Izzard, the expert Forward Interrogator, and the
American Lieutenant Earle at the castle. It was Izzard to whom Ian
Fleming made the typically off-beat suggestion that was also deeply
serious: when Izzard got hold of the dozen top admirals in the
German navy he should make each of them sit down and write a
10,000 word essay on 'Why Germany lost the war.' The results of this,
and the Admiralty questionnaire that Izzard handed out, though
often self-justificatory, were illuminating. Now at last Fleming got
the chance to see with his own eyes what his intelligence unit had
achieved. He was amazed at the size and comprehensiveness of the
archive; with his intelligence background he could clearly see its
potential importance. Of course, he became even more anxious to
get 30AU's haul back safely to England. Strings had to be pulled,
lorries and ships arranged.

1963: Δόκτωρ Νο released in Greece.
1963: Dr. No released in North America, 450 theaters.

1963: MGM receives feedback from Fleming on various points for a Solo television project.

http://www.for-your-eyes-only.com/Site/UNCLEtline63.html

Wednesday, May 8, 1963

Ashley-Steiner informs MGM of counterproposal from Fleming on various
points in Solo deal.

1963: From Russia With Love filming of the boat chase.
1982: Christina Cole is born--London, England.
2019: Dynamite Entertainment releases James Bond Origin #9.

James Bond: Origin #9
https://www.comixology.eu/James-Bond-Origin-9/digital-comic/767556

“RUSSIAN RUSE, Part III” Injured and alone, lieutenant James Bond has escaped his Russian captors, only to be thrust into the heart of war. The epic World War 2 tale continues from JEFF PARKER (Aquaman, Fantastic Four) and superstar artist IBRAHIM MOUSTAFA (Mother Panic, The Flash).

RichardTheBruce

May 9th

1912: Pedro Armendáriz is born--Mexico City, Mexico.
(He dies 18 June 1963 at age 51--Los Angeles, California.)

Pedro Armendáriz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Armendáriz

Armendáriz as Kerim Bey in From Russia with Love (1963)

Born Pedro Gregorio Armendáriz Hastings, May 9, 1912 - Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico

Died June 18, 1963 (age 51) - Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death Suicide by gunshot
Burial place Panteón Jardín, Mexico City
Occupation Actor
Years active 1935–1963
Spouse(s) Carmelita Bohr
(m. 1938; his death 1963)
Children 2, including Pedro Jr.

Pedro Armendáriz (born Pedro Gregorio Armendáriz Hastings; May 9, 1912 – June 18, 1963) was a Mexican film actor who made films in both Mexico and the United States. With Dolores del Río and María Félix, he was one of the best-known Latin American movie stars of the 1940s and 1950s.

Early life
Armendáriz was born in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico to Pedro Armendáriz García Conde (Mexican) and Adela Hastings (American). He was also the cousin of actress Gloria Marín. Armendáriz and his younger brother Francisco lived with their uncle Henry Hastings, Sr. in Laredo, Texas after their mother died. He later studied in California. He started in the world of acting by participating in the stage plays performed by the theater group at the University of California, where he continued a career in law. He graduated with an engineering degree from the California Polytechnic State University.

Career

Armendáriz with Harry Carey Jr. and John Wayne in 3 Godfathers in 1949.

When Armendáriz finished his studies, he moved to Mexico where he worked for the railroad, as a tour guide and as a journalist for the bilingual magazine México Real. He was discovered by film director Miguel Zacarías when Armendáriz recited a soliloquy from Hamlet to an American tourist. His meeting with the director Emilio Fernández was providential, whereupon the actor and director began working in numerous films: Soy puro mexicano (1942), Flor silvestre (1942) and specially María Candelaria (1943) were the first films of intense common path. Under the guidance of Emilio Fernández, Pedro Armendáriz developed the film personality traits of strong nationalist; often, he played tough and manly men, indigenous, peasants and revolutionaries. Amendáriz repeatedly portrayed Pancho Villa and played opposite actresses such as Dolores del Río and María Félix.

With Dolores del Río, Amendáriz formed one of the most legendary couples of the Mexican cinema. María Candelaria provided Armendáriz with international visibility. The film was awarded the Palm d'Or at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival. Other prominent titles where Armendáriz appeared with Dolores del Río were Las Abandonadas (1944), Bugambilia (1944) and La Malquerida (1949). Maria Felix was his other partner in such films as Enamorada (1946) or Maclovia (1948).[1]

In the late 40s, he made the jump to Hollywood by the hand of John Ford. Armendáriz was a favorite of Ford, appearing in three of his films: The Fugitive (1947), Fort Apache and 3 Godfathers (both 1948).


Armendáriz with Lana Turner in Diane in 1956.

Besides his career in the Mexican cinema, Armendáriz made a remarkable career in Hollywood and Europe. His other prominent films in Hollywood were: We Were Strangers (1949, directed by John Huston), The Torch (1950), Border River (1954), The Conqueror (1956) and Diane (1956), among others. In Europe, highlighted his participation in the film Lucrèce Borgia (1953), filmed in France. In Mexico, his participation highlighted such notable films such as El Bruto (1953, directed by Luis Buñuel), La Cucaracha (1959) and La Bandida (1962).

Armendáriz's last appearance was in the second James Bond film, From Russia with Love (1963), as Bond's ally, Kerim Bey. Armendáriz was terminally ill with cancer during the filming of From Russia with Love, and towards the end of shooting he was too ill to perform his part; his final scenes were performed by his double, director Terence Young. Armendáriz died four months before the release of the film.

Personal life

Armendáriz was married to actress Carmelita Bohr (née Pardo) by whom he had one son and daughter. Pedro Armendáriz, Jr. also became an actor and appeared in the James Bond film Licence to Kill (1989); his daughter Carmen Armendáriz became a TV producer.

Illness and death
In 1956, Armendáriz had a role in the film The Conqueror produced by Howard Hughes. Filmed in the state of Utah at the time when the US government was doing above-ground nuclear testing in neighboring Nevada, within 25 years 91 of the 220 people involved in the production were afflicted with cancer, 46 of whom died.

Armendáriz began to suffer pain in his hips; years later it was discovered that he had neck cancer. He learned his condition was terminal while at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California and, reportedly, endured great pain to film From Russia with Love (he visibly limps in most scenes) in order to assure his family financial resources.

On June 18, 1963, Armendáriz committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest with a gun he had smuggled into the hospital. He was 51 years old. He is buried in the Panteón Jardín cemetery in Mexico City, Mexico.

Filmography

Hollywood
Year Title Role Notes
1947
The Fugitive A lieutenant of police a.k.a. El Fugitivo (Mexico)
1948
Fort Apache Sgt. Beaufort as Pedro Armendáriz
3 Godfathers Pedro "Pete" Roca Fuerte as Pedro Armendáriz
1949
Tulsa Jim Redbird
We Were Strangers Armando Ariete
1950
The Torch José Juan Reyes a.k.a. Del odio nace el amor (Mexico)
1954
Border River General Eduardo Calleja
1955
The Littlest Outlaw Gen. Torres
1956
Diane King Francis I
The Conqueror Jamuga as Pedro Armendáriz
1957
The Big Boodle Col. Mastegui as Pedro Armendáriz
1959
Little Savage El Tiburón
The Wonderful Country Cipriano Castro
1961
Francis of Assisi The Sultan
1963
Captain Sindbad El Kerim as Pedro Armendáriz

British cinema
Year Title Role Notes
1963
From Russia with Love Ali Kerim Bey (final film role)

Italian cinema
Year
Title Role Notes
1955
Tom Toms of Mayumba Martinez
1957
Uomini e lupi Giovanni a.k.a. The Wolves
1962
Arrivano i titani Cadmo a.k.a. My Son, the Hero (USA)

French cinema
Year Title Role Notes
1953
Lucrèce Borgia César Borgia a.k.a. Lucretia Borgia
1955
Fortune carrée [fr] Igricheff

Mexican cinema
Year Title Role Notes
1935
Rosario Enrique
1936
Irma la mala
María Elena Eduardo
1937
Las cuatro milpas
Jalisco nunca pierde Pedro González
Amapola del camino Juan Padilla
1938
Mi candidato Pancho García
La Adelita Sabino Estrada
Los millones de Chaflán Antonio
Canto a mi tierra Antonio
1939 El indio Felipe
La reina del río Pescador joven
La china Hilaria Apolonio
Una luz en mi camino Daniel
Con los Dorados de Villa Mayor Pedro Mondragón
1940
Los olvidados de Dios Zenón Rojas
Poor Devil Raúl Solares
El charro negro Ramón
Mala yerba Chuy Rodríguez
El jefe máximo
1941
El secreto del sacerdote
El zorro de Jalisco Leonardo
Neither Blood nor Sand Frank
1942
Allá en el bajío Juan Hernández
La epopeya del camino Raúl
Del rancho a la capital Pedro Rodríguez
Simón Bolívar General Briceño Méndez
La isla de la pasión (Clipperton) El Toro
Soy puro mexicano Guadalupe Padilla
1943
Wild Flower Jose Luis Castro
Tierra de pasiones Porfirio
Guadalajara Pedro
Red Konga Federico Robles
Another Dawn Octavio
1944
María Candelaria Lorenzo Rafael
La guerra de los pasteles Antonio del Valle
El corsario negro El corsario negro
Las calaveras del terror Rolando
Alma de bronce
1945
Entre hermanos
Las Abandonadas Juan Gomez Nominated — Ariel Award for Best Actor
El Capitán Malacara Capitán Leonardo Buenrostro
Bugambilia Ricardo Rojas
1946
Rayando el sol Pedro, adulto
Enamorada Gen. José Juan Reyes Nominated — Ariel Award for Best Actor
1947
La casa colorada Gaspar
Albur de amor
The Pearl Quino Ariel Award for Best Actor
1948
Juan Charrasqueado Juan Robledo / Juan Charrasqueado
En la hacienda de la flor Juan Robledo - el hijo de Juan Charrasqueado
Maclovia José María
1949
Al caer la tarde Sebastian del Llano

Year Title Role Notes
1949
El abandonado Dámian López
The Unloved Woman Esteban
El charro y la dama Pedro Meneses
1950
Vuelve Pancho Villa Pancho Villa
La loca de la casa José María Cruz
Por la puerta falsa Bernardo Celis
Rosauro Castro Rosauro Castro Nominated — Ariel Award for Best Actor
1951
Tierra baja Manelic
Bodas de fuego Rodolfo Carrera
Camino del infierno Pedro Uribe
Por querer a una mujer José Renteria
Ella y yo Pedro Múñoz
1952
Los tres alegres compadres Baldomero Mireles
La noche avanza Marcos Arizmendi
Carne de presidio Pablo González
El Rebozo de Soledad Roque Suazo Ariel Award for Best Actor
1953
Lovers of Toledo Don Alvaro Blas Basto y Mosquera
El Bruto Pedro
1954
Reto a la vida Diego Maldonado
Mulata Captain Martín
La rebelión de los colgados Cándido Costa Nominated — Ariel Award for Best Actor
Dos mundos y un amor Ricardo Anaya
1956
La Escondida Felipe Rojano
Canasta de cuentos mexicanos Carlos Cosio (segment "Tigresa, La")
Viva revolución
1957
Manuela Mario Constanza
La mujer que no tuvo infancia Lic. Alberto Garza Cifuentes
Los salvajes Pedro Matías
Así era Pancho Villa Pancho Villa
1958
Quiero ser artista Himself
1959
Ando volando bajo Pedro
Café Colón General Sebastián Robles
Las Señoritas Vivanco Gen. Inocencio Torrentera
El zarco El Zarco
Flor de mayo Pepe Gamboa
Sed de amor Pedro Ortiz
La Cucaracha Coronel Valentín Razo
Yo pecador Francisco Bracamontes
Hambre nuestra de cada día Macario Férnandez
1960
Los desarraigados Joe Pacheco
Verano violento Francisco Peña
Dos hijos desobedientes Pedro
Calibre 44 Don Pedro
Pancho Villa y la Valentina Pancho Villa
Aquí está Pancho Villa Pancho Villa
El impostor Professor César Rubio
Los hermanos del hierro General
La cárcel de Cananea Pedro
1961
El indulto Lucas Sánchez Parrondo
1962
El tejedor de milagros Señor cura
Los valientes no mueren Pedro
1963
La Bandida Roberto Herrera

1936: Albert Finney is born--Salford, Greater Manchester, England.
(He dies 7 February 2019--Royal Marsden Hospital, London, England.)

Albert Finney, 82, ‘Angry Young Man’ Who
Became a Hollywood Star, Is
Dead
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/movies/albert-finney-dead.html
By Alan Cowell | Feb. 8, 2019

Albert Finney during the filming of the 1981 crime drama
“Loophole.” He was one of his generation’s finest and most
honored actors over six decades.CreditCredit
Evening Standard/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images

LONDON — Albert Finney, the British stage and film actor who defined an era’s rage and frustration in dramas of blue-collar realism and social revolt and went on to find stardom in Hollywood, died on Thursday in London. He was 82.

His death, at the Royal Marsden Hospital, was confirmed by Jon Oakley, a partner at Simkins, a law firm that represents the Finney family. The cause was a chest infection, he said.

Mr. Finney became one of his generation’s finest and most honored actors over six decades. A frequent nominee for an Oscar and Britain’s equivalent of one, the Bafta, he was a star as comfortable in movies like “Tom Jones,” “Murder on the Orient Express,” “Under the Volcano” and “Erin Brockovich” as he was on the classical British stage.

He first came to wide attention alongside contemporaries like Alan Bates and Tom Courtenay, actors collectively known as “angry young men” — counterparts to the playwrights and novelists who shared that sobriquet. Together they helped turn Britain’s gaze inward, toward gritty industrial landscapes, where a generation of disaffected youth railed against the class system and the claustrophobic trap it laid for workers locked in dead-end jobs.

Mr. Finney was propelled to early stardom by “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning,” a low-budget 1960 film steeped in smoggy vistas of smokestacks and deprivation and shot in stark black and white. Mr. Finney played Arthur Seaton, a restless young man caught in sexual adventures and bouts of beer drinking intended to distract him from his job at a cavernous bicycle factory.

His broad-voweled northern accent injected a powerful authenticity into the part, and his acting style drew favorable comparisons to such titans of the English stage as Laurence Olivier. Yet he preferred wealth to accolades, according to his biographer, Quentin Falk.

“At the turn of the ’60s, Finney was the screen’s incarnation of the new working-class hero,” Mr. Falk wrote in “Albert Finney in Character,” published in 1992 and republished in 2015. “In the theater, he was barely 20 when he was hailed as the ‘new Olivier.’ Yet instead of pursuing either mantle, he became a millionaire and made love to beautiful women on several continents.”

Mr. Falk added: “To some he is still the leading actor of his generation; to others, though, he has suffered an ambition bypass. To even severer critics, he appears to have remained cheerfully indolent, almost willfully failing to fulfill the remarkable early promise.”


Mr. Finney, as the title character, with Diane Cilento in “Tom Jones,” Tony Richardson’s
1963 adaptation of the Henry Fielding novel. The performance brought Mr. Finney the
first of his five Academy Award nominations.
Credit Lopert Pictures Corporation/Photofest

The angry young men “were indignant because little seemed to be changing in postwar Britain,” the critic and essayist Nora Sayre wrote in The New York Times in 2000. “They thought there were few opportunities for the young.”

Their characters grew from the work of novelists like Alan Sillitoe (who adapted his novel in writing the script of “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning”), John Braine and David Storey, and the playwright John Osborne, whose “Look Back in Anger” set the parameters for what became known as kitchen-sink dramas in the late 1950s and ’60s.

“Stocky and obdurate, Mr. Finney spits with aggression, walks with impatience and indicates that laws exist to be broken,” Ms. Sayre wrote. “His morose, craggy face looks as though it has been pummeled by experience.”

The angry young men were a prelude to the explosion of creativity and license that characterized the so-called Swinging Sixties, when the songs of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other bands were anthems to a new permissiveness that changed British society.

Mr. Finney went on to play an eclectic array of movie roles, from the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in Sidney Lumet’s star-studded version of Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” in 1975, to the pugnacious lawyer Edward L. Masry, who hires the crusading title character (Julia Roberts) in “Erin Brockovich” (2000), Steven Soderbergh’s tale of a power-company pollution scandal.

But in 2007 Mr. Finney dropped out of sight, disclosing only in 2011 that he had been struggling for four years with cancer. After his return to acting, he took small parts in the thriller “The Bourne Legacy” and the James Bond movie “Skyfall,” both in 2012.

“The pattern of my life is that there is no pattern,” Mr. Finney once said. “In work I like doing things that are different, contrasting. I’m lurching rather than pointing in any given direction.”

An episode in 1960 seemed to confirm that self-assessment. Mr. Finney had a long screen test for the lead role in David Lean’s epic movie “Lawrence of Arabia,” but, according to Mr. Falk, he rejected a lucrative five-year contract with the film’s producer, Sam Spiegel, saying, “I didn’t know where I want to be in five years’ time — or tomorrow for that matter.”

The role, of the adventurer T. E. Lawrence, went to Peter O’Toole and turned him into an international star.


Mr. Finney, center, in his Oscar-nominated performance as the Belgian detective
Hercule Poirot in “Murder on the Orient Express” (1974), directed by Sidney Lumet.
Credit Paramount Pictures

Mr. Finney was nominated five times for an Oscar, four for best actor: as the title character in “Tom Jones,” Tony Richardson’s 1963 adaptation of the Henry Fielding novel; as Poirot in “Murder on the Orient Express”; as an aging, embittered actor in Peter Yates’s 1983 version of “The Dresser”; and as an alcoholic British consul in a small town in Mexico in John Huston’s “Under the Volcano,” based on the Malcolm Lowry novel. His performance in “Erin Brockovich” earned him a supporting actor nomination.

He was also nominated 13 times for a Bafta and won twice — as “most promising newcomer” in 1960 and, in 2002, for his performance as Winston Churchill in “The Gathering Storm,” a BBC-HBO television movie that also brought him an Emmy.

He never won an Oscar, however, and made a point of not attending the glittering award ceremonies.

“It’s a very long evening and not exactly my idea of a good night out,” Mr. Falk quoted him as saying — “sat there for five hours in a nonsmoking, nondrinking environment.”

During the Oscar ceremony in 1963, Mr. Finney was cruising aboard a luxurious catamaran off Hawaii while a news crew, surrounded by a throng of onlookers, awaited his return to port in case he won the award for his role in “Tom Jones.”

From an upper deck, Mr. Finney had a clear view onto the approaching quay side. “Suddenly,” Mr. Falk wrote, “Finney saw a man pushing his way through the crowd, shouting: ‘Wrap it up. He didn’t win.’ Sidney Poitier had.” (Mr. Poitier won for “Lilies of the Field.”)

By the time the catamaran docked, the news crew and its equipment had disappeared.

Mr. Finney’s aversion to such accolades extended even to Britain’s own system of medals, knighthoods and peerages. In 2000, he turned down an opportunity to become Sir Albert Finney, echoing an earlier rejection of a lesser award. He said the honors system was a way of “perpetuating snobbery.”

Albert Finney was born on May 9, 1936, in Salford, near Manchester in northwest England, the third child and first son of Alice Hobson, who left school at age 14 to work in a mill, and Albert Finney Sr., who made his living running bets on horse racing.

The family lived at first in a rowhouse — the familiar cramped accommodation of the working classes in a region where the Industrial Revolution had spread a patina of grime, grit and pollution over back-to-back homes separated by cobbled alleyways and streets. Overshadowed by the nearby northern metropolis of Manchester, Salford was known as a factory town and inland port, and its docklands became a target for German bombers during World War II.

In 1941, when Mr. Finney was 5 years old, the family was bombed out of its rowhouse and moved to a more genteel home across town.


Mr. Finney with Julia Roberts in “Erin Brockovich,” Steven Soderbergh’s 2000 tale of a
power company pollution scandal. He played a pugnacious lawyer who hires the
crusading title character (Ms. Roberts), and was again nominated for an Oscar. CreditBob Marshak/Universal Studios

“Though Finney himself would later come to personify the working-class hero in several of his earliest roles,” Mr. Falk wrote, the move to a new area “confirmed a strictly lower-middle-class status for a family who were never really less than comfortably off.”

As a high school student at Salford Grammar School, Mr. Finney displayed both a liking for the theater and a poor grasp of academic subjects. A teacher suggested that he apply to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art — Britain’s premier acting school, usually known as RADA — where he auditioned in 1953 and won a scholarship.

By 20, he had completed his course at RADA and was playing parts in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” at a repertory theater in Birmingham, in the English Midlands. He went on to play Henry V in the play of the same name — one of many Shakespearean roles that established his reputation on the stage.

Besides Shakespeare, he had leading roles in plays by Anton Chekhov, Samuel Beckett, August Strindberg and John Osborne.

Mr. Finney met Jane Wenham, a fellow actor, in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1957. The couple married and had a son, Simon, who became a film technician. They divorced in 1961. Mr. Finney married the French actress Anouk Aimée in 1970. They divorced in 1978. He married Pene Delmage, a travel specialist, in 2006.

He is survived by his wife, his son and two grandchildren.

The low-budget “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning,” filmed on location in Nottingham and at Twickenham Studios, was Mr. Finney’s big break. Three years later, the critical and box-office success of “Tom Jones,” which won three Oscars including best picture, made him a millionaire at the age of 27. He took a 10-month break to travel the world for much of 1964.

As Mr. Finney’s career unfolded, movies overlapped with stage plays. He appeared in the musical films “Scrooge” in 1970 and “Annie” in 1982, for which he shaved his head to play Daddy Warbucks. He made his American television debut in the role of Pope John Paul II in 1984.

“I often wondered why I am an actor,” Mr. Finney told a television interviewer in 1962. He then seemed to answer the question, speaking of the profession as a very public form of escape.

“I think I am always watching and balancing, and sort of tabulating my own emotions,” he said. “And the only way I can lose myself is when I’m acting.”

1998: James Bond 007: A License To Thrill theme park attraction opens at 5 Paramount amusement parks in North America: Paramount's Great America, Paramount's King's Dominion, Paramount's Carowinds, King's Island, and Canada's Wonderland in Toronto, Canada.

2015: Christopher Wood dies at age 79--Southwest France. (Born 5 November 1935--London, England.)

Christopher Wood, writer - obituary
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11951112/Christopher-Wood-writer-obituary.html
Author of the risqué Confessions novels who armed James Bond with wit and
humour in Moonraker
5:47PM BST 23 Oct 2015

Christopher Wood

Christopher Wood, who has died aged 79, was an advertising executive turned writer whose oeuvre included literary fiction, historical novels and the screenplays for the James Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).

“One of the keys of writing a Bond movie,” he said, “is to do the same thing, just differently.” It was, however, his Confessions series of humorous erotic novels, written during the 1970s under the name “Timothy Lea” and presented as Lea’s real experiences, which proved his richest seam . “Timothy” recalls his amorous encounters while on a variety of jobs, and his improbable success rate as window cleaner, driving instructor or plumber made the books a publishing phenomenon.

Wood took as his inspiration the tall tales he heard in his youth while working as a mason’s mate and part-time postman. “These stories were prolific,” he said. “Even one of the – to my eyes – singularly uncharismatic workers had apparently been invited to indulge in carnal capers after a glass of lemonade one hot summer afternoon near Guildford.” Most of the men’s claims, Wood recalled, involved a mature but seductive “posh bird”.


Film poster for Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974)

The first in the series, Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1971), set the tone. “She has dyed hair, too much lipstick and a diabolical eyebrow pencil beauty spot that dates her a bit,” Timothy notes while eyeing up a potential conquest. “If she is going down hill I can think of a few blokes who wouldn’t mind waiting for her at the bottom.”

Henry Hitchings, author of Sorry! The English and their Manners, suggested that the first book proved “that we are not just bad at anything to do with the erotic life but also window cleaning”. The combination of soft pornography and bawdy comedy proved a hit, prompting 18 more titles – each one dashed off in five weeks – and four film adaptations, scripted by Wood, with Robin Askwith as the irrepressible Lea and Tony Booth (father of Cherie Blair) as Timothy’s oily brother-in-law.


Film poster for Confessions of a Driving Instructor
Photo: Rex Features

Elegant and erudite, Wood was an unlikely author of erotica. One interviewer was taken aback by his tweed jacket and received pronunciation. Yet, when the series was republished in 2013, Wood remained unapologetic about the books’ racy content. “They were funny then, and they are funny now,” he insisted. “They are full of clever alliteration, onomatopoeia, metaphors and similes.” In later life he observed that Fifty Shades of Grey made his Confessions books “seem like Aristotle”.

Christopher Hovelle Wood was born on November 5 1935 in Lambeth, south London. During the Blitz his parents sent him away to Norwich where he became a pupil at the Edward VI Grammar School. He later returned to London to attend King’s College Junior School.

He read Economics and Law at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and after graduating in 1960 had a spell working in Cameroon, where he took part in the administration of the UN plebiscite of 1961. He did his National Service in Cyprus during the Eoka crisis.

By the end of the 1960s Wood was back in London managing brands for the advertising agency Masius Wynne-Williams. He used his daily journey from Royston in Hertfordshire to write fiction. His first two novels, both in the comical-realist vein of Evelyn Waugh, drew on his experience in Cameroon (Make it Happen to Me, 1969) and Cyprus ('Terrible Hard’, Says Alice, 1970). Although well reviewed, neither sold well. He then pitched the idea of a sex journal written in the hand of a Cockney chancer, and he “could almost see the pound signs in my publisher’s eyes”.

In 1976 he wrote the comedy film Seven Nights in Japan (1976, starring Michael York) for the director Lewis Gilbert, with whom he shared an agent. Gilbert’s next project was The Spy Who Loved Me, and he brought Wood on board. “I just wanted to do a good job for everybody,” Wood said, describing their producer, Cubby Broccoli, as a generous employer: “Everybody on the movie lived in style.” His approach to the script, writing with Richard Maibaum, fitted the Roger Moore era in which Bond was more of a lover than a killer.


Wood, centre, looking up at Richard Kiel as he greets Prince Philip at the premiere of
Moonraker in 1979
Photo: Rex Features

Wood returned to the franchise two years later as the sole writer on Moonraker. “It seemed to me that we were copying Star Wars,” he recalled. “I also found the idea of space slow in filmic terms. It is difficult to rush around in an astronaut’s suit. Did I tell Cubby that his idea sucked? No.”

As Ian Fleming had sold only the titles to his books, not the content, Wood was commissioned to “novelise” his screenplays for tie-in paperbacks. “Mr Wood has bravely tackled his formidable task,” Kingsley Amis wrote in the New Statesman, “that of turning a typical late Bond film, which must be basically facetious, into a novel after Ian Fleming, which must be basically serious.”


Film poster for Moonraker (1979)
Photo: Rex

In the early 1980s Wood published A Dove Against Death (1983), a Boy’s Own tale set in Africa during the First World War. In all his writing there was a sense of fun and a keen intelligence. William Boyd, who wrote the Bond sequel Solo, described Wood as “one of the most quick-witted, wittiest men I have ever met – up there with Gore Vidal”.

Wood’s other projects include two novels involving the adventurer John Adam (“deadlier than Kung Fu, lustier than Flashman”), the Rosie Dixon series of novels, sex comedies this time from a female perspective , and the screenplay for Remo Williams: Unarmed and Dangerous (1985), an action film directed by another Bond veteran, Guy Hamilton.

Latterly he lived in France, where he was occasionally asked to comment on Timothy Lea and James Bond. “I miss the lightness of touch of the old Bonds,” he told one reporter. In 2013 Harper Collins republished the Confessions books.

Christopher Wood married Jane Patrick in 1962; the marriage was dissolved. He is survived by their son and daughter; another son predeceased him.

Although he died in May, his death only became widely known earlier this month when Sir Roger Moore published the news on Twitter, saying: “He wrote two of my best.”

Christopher Wood, born November 5 1935, died May 9 2015

RichardTheBruce

May 10th

2008: Filming at the floating opera stage in Bregenz, Austria, ends.
Up to 1500 extras watched Tosca while Bond stirred Quantum.
2008: Roger Moore presents BBC 4's scheduled airing of “The Bond Correspondence”, letters between Ian Fleming and readers of James Bond.
2017: Dynamite Entertainment releases James Bond comic Hammerhead as a hardcover edition collecting 6 issues. Luca Casalanguida, artist. Andy Diggle, writer. Francesco Francavilla, cover.

2019: Naomie Harris proposes "Old Bond" is history.

Naomie Harris says 'old Bond' is history
thanks to Phoebe Waller-Bridge
https://www.list.co.uk/article/108441-naomie-harris-says-old-bond-is-history-thanks-to-phoebe-waller-bridge/
Bang Showbiz
10 May 2019


Naomie Harris

Naomie Harris says the days of the "old Bond" are
numbered and insisted Phoebe Waller-Bridge will "ramp
up the female perspective" on Bond 25

Naomie Harris says the days of the "old Bond" are numbered thanks to Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Phoebe – who wrote the script of the hit assassin thriller TV series 'Killing Eve' and wrote and starred in BBC comedy-drama 'Fleabag' – has joined the writing team for Bond 25, which will be Daniel Craig's fifth and final outing as 007.

Harris – who plays Miss Moneypenny in the franchise – revealed that the writer and actress will "ramp up the female perspective" on the yet-to-be-titled film and hailed the star as a "strong woman" with a "comedic touch".

Speaking to Stuart McGurk at the GQ Heroes summit on Thursday (09.05.19) the 42-year-old star said: "She's a strong woman with a great comedic touch so she's going to ramp up the female perspective on Bond 25. The Bond of old, his days are numbered."

The 'Moonlight' actress also explained that one of the reasons James Bond is such a successful franchise is that it toes the line between Ian Fleming's original novels and "being progressive with the times."

She added: "I think it always has to be its own thing because you always have to represent the Bond Ian Fleming wrote and it was a very particular time.

"But this is going to be the 25th Bond, this is the longest running franchise of all time and that's for a very particular reason. The reason is that it manages to keep the essence of what Ian Fleming wrote but it's also constantly adapting and changing with the times.

"To keep people interested that's the incredibly difficult line you have to walk between keeping the diehard Bond fans who want [a] traditional Bond and also being progressive with the times."

James Bond 25 | 2019UK
Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Cast: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear, Jeffrey Wright, Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah, David Dencik, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen
UK release: 3 April 2020

The next James Bond film has the working title of Shatterhand and is due for release in April 2020.

RichardTheBruce

May 11th

1974: Original Bond comic strip Beware of Butterflies ends its run in The Daily Express.
(Started 4 December 1973. 2408–2541) Yaroslav Horak, artist. Jim Lawrence, writer.

https://spyguysandgals.com/sgLookupComicStrip.aspx?id=1011


Danish 1976 http://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/jb007-dk-no36-1976/

‘Beware of Butterflies’ has more on its mind than just Lepidoptera
By Edgar Chaput Last updated Dec 9, 2015
https://www.popoptiq.com/beware-of-butterflies/"]https://popoptiq.com/beware-of-butterflies/

1987: A-ha records title song "The Living Daylights" for Warner Brothers.

2018: Reports say that French President Emmanuel Macron plans to give Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, a special lighter as a gift.

https://www.2oceansvibe.com/2018/05/11/macron-is-getting-this-james-bond-cigarette-lighter-for-prince-harry/

Macron Is Getting This James Bond Cigarette Lighter For Prince Harry
11 May 2018 by Nereesha Patel in Lifestyle, Politics, Prince Harry, Royal Wedding, Royalty


We all know that smoking can be bad for one’s health. In fact, South Africa’s new draft law will basically wipe out smoking forever and save us all from the plight of tobacco addiction.

Or something like that.

But it seems like Emmanuel Macron doesn’t know that tidbit about smoking being a bad thing, since he’s reportedly planning to give Prince Harry a cigarette lighter as a wedding gift.

Before you scoff, it’s not just any old lighter from a corner shop. The President of France is getting a golden lighter that’s part of a James Bond collection, explained The Telegraph:

French heritage brand ST Dupont’s London-based PR group said it was “delighted to announce that their ST Dupont 007 Collection will be the official Royal Wedding gift on behalf of France from President Macron. (Prince Harry is reported to be a 007 fan!)”

Accompanying pictures showed a travel case with a golden lighter, cigar cutter, pens and cuff links all arranged in the shape of a gun, each with the 007 logo.

Check out this bad boy:

If this isn’t a direct reference to The Man with the Golden Gun, I’ll be so friggin’ upset.

Meghan Markle apparently wants her fiancé to cut down on his ciggie intake:

The catch is that news of the Gallic wedding gift came just weeks after reports that Megan Markle had persuaded her husband-to-be to ditch his Malboro Lights and cut down on alcohol consumption as part of a health drive to “get his soldier body back” in time for the big day.

It was unclear whether the Elysée had been hastily informed of Prince Harry’s decision to quit smoking.

While the reports of Prince Harry kicking his nicotine habit are unconfirmed, he has not been seen smoking in public for some time and royal watchers said it would clash with his global role model status.

We know that Harry is currently shredding for the wedding at that high-end London gym, so bad timing, Macron, bad timing.

The choice of a golden cigarette is yet to be confirmed “100” percent, though. Perhaps Macron has another gift in mind:

ST Duponts did confirm, however, that the luxury heritage brand had been chosen to create the royal gift, which would be “unique”, and most likely including an engraved message from President Macron.

Let’s hope whatever Macron has up his sleeve meets Markle’s approval. Probably not, but it’s fun to imagine.

Read more: https://www.2oceansvibe.com/2018/05/11/macron-is-getting-this-james-bond-cigarette-lighter-for-prince-harry/#ixzz5na1g2pxq

RichardTheBruce

May 12th

1928: Burt Bacharach is born--Kansas City, Missouri.
1952: William Plomer divines that Ian Fleming has written a novel.

William Plomer: Man of Letters
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1979/01/14/william-plomer-man-of-letters/ae16a7fb-6edf-4ab9-87f5-67065a5ba60f/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.78e235d314d3
By PETER QUENNELL
PETER QUENNELL, coeditor of History Today,
essayist, biographer, has written The Marble Foot and
the first volume of his autobio
January 14, 1979

ON MAY 12, 1952, Ian Fleming was seated at a London restaurant opposite his friend William Plomer. Suddenly he produced a startling question. How, he enquired of Plomer, do you "get smoke out of a woman once you've got it in?" Though Plomer claimed to be "always alert to the caprices of the human race," he felt considerably bewildered, until Fleming proceeded to assure him that the question had a literary motive. You couldn't say that your heroine "exhaled" her cigarette-smoke -- that would be insufferably pompous -- while "puffed it out" sounded downright silly. Then a flash of enlightenment crlssed Plomer's mind. "You must have written a book," he said. Fleming agreed; and Plomer, being a publisher's reader, suggested he should see the manuscript, with the result that Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale, appeared in April 1953.

I quote this incident because it may help to illustrate both Plomer's professional versatility and his gift of human understanding. Though he had himself a well-established reputation as a poet and a highbrow novelist, he immediately grasped the popular appeal of his old friend's shocking thriller, and, when Ian had entered the best-seller class, continued to encourage and advise him. For Plomer was, above all else, a deeply sympathetic man; and Rupert Hart-Davis' posthumous selection of his occasional verse and prose shows the range of his intelligence. During his literary career, he published two volumes of verse, five novels, five collections of short stories, two autobiographies, a quartet of libretti for Benjamin Britten's operas, and an entertaining children's tale. He also edited a number of books, among them Francis Kilvert's famous diary of clerical life in mid-Victorian England.

Electric Delights, which owes its title to a phrase taken from Charlotte Bronte's Shirley, "the electric delight of admiring what is admirable," contains besides poems, stories and travel sketches, a series of essays that the editor calls "Admirations," each an appreciative portrait of some fellow artist he particularly valued. The best perhaps is his study of Edward FitzGerald; though why the translator of Omar Khayyam should be discussed under the heading "Prose Writers" is a problem that I cannot solve. FitzGerald, however, seems to have interested him more as a splendid letter writer and curious human being than as a remarkably accomplished poet; and I suspect that Plomer's affection for FitzGerald may have had something to do with the fact that their temperaments were much akin.Plomer's selfepitaph includes the revelatory lines:

Sometimes thinking aloud He went his own way.

He was joky by nature, Sad, sceptical, proud.

He shared not only FitzGerald's scepticism, but his "jokiness," his loneliness and his taste in odd companions. The Victorian writer's strongest attachment was to a simple fisherman he nicknamed "Posh"; and he and Posh spent happy days "knocking round" the North Sea, aboard a lugger that FitzGerald had bought and the good-looking Posh sailed. A somewhat similar association gladdened Plomer's last years.

For one glimpse of FitzGerald's character I feel particularly grateful to Plomer. As a middle-aged man, he decided that he ought to get married, and chose a tall, big-boned woman, with a loud, deep voice. It was an unwise step. According to Plomer: "The wedding-day did not show Fitzgerald in any haste to be ruled or reformed. He turned up in a slouch hat... and during the wedding-breakfast only spoke once. This was when he was offered some blancmange. He looked at it, and then waved it away,... saying as he did so, 'Ugh! Congealed bridesmaid!'"

Among Plomer's other "admirations" is an essay on the Alexandrian poet C. P. Cavafy, of whom E. M. Forster said that he stood "at a slight angle to the universe." Many of the other artists discussed and praised here evidently stood at such an angle, a little outside and in opposition to the accepted social system -- Herman Melville, George Gissing, Christina Rossetti, even the ingenuous country clergyman Francis Kilvert.

Of Kilvert, while he edited his diaries, Plomer seems to have grown extremely fond; and he writes on him with special feeling.Born in 1840, the diarist spent his whole adult existence at a succession of remote parsonages, far from London and urban literary life, where he divided his time between his parishioners, their attractive wives and daughters, and the radiant beauties of the natural world. Kilvert adored nature, which inspired the finest passages in his diary. (He was a Wordsworthian romantic). He also worshipped, and fervently though innocently pursued, a series of fascinating local girls, whom he often kissed, now and then embraced, but, so far as we can make out, never embarassed or offended.

Like his 20th-century editor, Kilvert was an individualist; and it is that same individualistic quality in Plomer's essays that makes them always worth reading. They convey his personal response to life and art in evocative yet unaffected prose.

1966: Glidrose allows Geoffrey Jenkins to write the first Bond continuation novel, named Per Fine Ounce.
It remains unpublished.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Fine_Ounce


https://literary007.com/2015/03/25/the-re-boot-of-per-fine-ounce-a-continuation-novel-that-isnt-what-you-think/


https://mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/literary_per_fine_ounce_extract.php3

Notional bookcover in the style of Richard Chopping.

1967: Time magazine prints its Casino Royale review "Keystone Cop-Out".
1981: Rami Malek is born--Los Angeles, California.

RichardTheBruce

May 13th

1946: Timothy Peter Pigott-Smith is born--Rugby, Warwickshire, England.
(He dies 7 April 2017 at age 70--Northampton, England.)

Tim Pigott-Smith obituary

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/apr/09/tim-pigott-smith-obituary
Stage and screen actor best known for his role in the TV series The Jewel in the Crown
Michael Coveney | Sun 9 Apr 2017 13.34 EDT
Last modified on Tue 19 Dec 2017 15.56 EST


Tim Pigott-Smith as Ronald Merrick, with Siddharth Kak (right), in The Jewel in the Crown, Granada TV’s adaptation of Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet novels. Photograph: ITV/Rex

The only unexpected thing about the wonderful actor Tim Pigott-Smith, who has died aged 70, was that he never played Iago or, indeed, Richard III. Having marked out a special line in sadistic villainy as Ronald Merrick in his career-defining, Bafta award-winning performance in The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Granada TV’s adaptation for ITV of Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet novels, he built a portfolio of characters both good and bad who were invariably presented with layers of technical accomplishment and emotional complexity.


Tim Pigott-Smith in the title role of
Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III at the
Almeida theatre in 2014. Photograph:
Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

He emerged as a genuine leading actor in Shakespeare, contemporary plays by Michael Frayn – in Frayn’s Benefactors (1984) he was a malicious, Iago-like journalist undermining a neighbouring college chum’s ambitions as an architect – and Stephen Poliakoff, American classics by Eugene O’Neill and Edward Albee, and as a go-to screen embodiment of high-ranking police officers and politicians, usually served with a twist of lemon and a side order of menace and sarcasm.

He played a highly respectable King Lear at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2011, but that performance was eclipsed, three years later, by his subtle, affecting and principled turn in the title role of Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III (soon to be seen in a television version) at the Almeida, in the West End and on Broadway, for which he received nominations in both the Olivier and Tony awards. The play, written in Shakespearean iambics, was set in a futuristic limbo, before the coronation, when Charles refuses to grant his royal assent to a Labour prime minister’s press regulation bill.

The interregnum cliffhanger quality to the show was ideal for Pigott-Smith’s ability to simultaneously project the spine and the jelly of a character, and he brilliantly suggested an accurate portrait of the future king without cheapening his portrayal of him. Although not primarily a physical actor, like Laurence Olivier, he was aware of his attributes, once saying that the camera “does something to my eyes, particularly on my left side in profile”, something to do with the eye being quite low and “being able to see some white underneath the pupil”. It was this physical accident, not necessarily any skill, he modestly maintained, which gave him a menacing look on film and television, “as if I am thinking more than one thing”.

Tim Pigott-Smith: a man born to play kings
Born in Rugby, Tim was the only child of Harry Pigott-Smith, a journalist, and his wife Margaret (nee Goodman), a keen amateur actor, and was educated at Wyggeston boys’ school in Leicester and – when his father was appointed to the editorship of the Herald in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1962 – King Edward VI grammar school, where Shakespeare was a pupil. Attending the Royal Shakespeare theatre, he was transfixed by John Barton and Peter Hall’s Wars of the Roses production, and the actors: Peggy Ashcroft, with whom he would one day appear in The Jewel in the Crown, Ian Holm and David Warner. He took a part‑time job in the RSC’s paint shop.

At Bristol University he gained a degree in English, French and drama (1967), and at the Bristol Old Vic theatre school he graduated from the training course (1969) alongside Jeremy Irons and Christopher Biggins as acting stage managers in the Bristol Old Vic company. He joined the Prospect touring company as Balthazar in Much Ado with John Neville and Sylvia Syms and then as the Player King and, later, Laertes to Ian McKellen’s febrile Hamlet. Back with the RSC he played Posthumus in Barton’s fine 1974 production of Cymbeline and Dr Watson in William Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes, opposite John Wood’s definitive detective, at the Aldwych and on Broadway. He further established himself in repertory at Birmingham, Cambridge and Nottingham.


Tim Pigott-Smith as the avuncular businessman Ken Lay in Lucy Prebble’s Enron at the Minerva theatre, Chichester, in 2009. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

He was busy in television from 1970, appearing in two Doctor Who sagas, The Claws of Axos (1971) and The Masque of Mandragora (1976), as well as in the first of the BBC’s adaptations of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South (1975, as Frederick Hale; in the second, in 2004, he played Hale’s father, Richard). His first films were Jack Gold’s Aces High (1976), adapted by Howard Barker from RC Sherriff’s Journey’s End, and Tony Richardson’s Joseph Andrews (1977). His first Shakespeare leads were in the BBC’s Shakespeare series – Angelo in Measure for Measure and Hotspur in Henry IV Part One (both 1979).

A long association with Hall began at the National Theatre in 1987, when he played a coruscating half-hour interrogation scene with Maggie Smith in Hall’s production of Coming in to Land by Poliakoff; he was a Dostoeyvskyan immigration officer, Smith a desperate, and despairing, Polish immigrant. In Hall’s farewell season of Shakespeare’s late romances in 1988, he led the company alongside Michael Bryant and Eileen Atkins, playing a clenched and possessed Leontes in The Winter’s Tale; an Italianate, jesting Iachimo in Cymbeline; and a gloriously drunken Trinculo in The Tempest (he played Prospero for Adrian Noble at the Theatre Royal, Bath, in 2012).

Tim Pigott-Smith: how Ian McKellen made me raise my acting game
The Falstaff on television when he played Hotspur was Anthony Quayle, and he succeeded this great actor, whom he much admired as director of the touring Compass Theatre in 1989, playing Brutus in Julius Caesar and Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus. When the Arts Council cut funding to Compass, he extended his rogue’s gallery with a sulphurous Rochester in Fay Weldon’s adaptation of Jane Eyre, on tour and at the Playhouse, in a phantasmagorical production by Helena Kaut-Howson, with Alexandra Mathie as Jane (1993); and, back at the NT, as a magnificent, treacherous Leicester in Howard Davies’ remarkable revival of Schiller’s Mary Stuart (1996) with Isabelle Huppert as a sensual Mary and Anna Massey a bitterly prim Elizabeth.

In that same National season, he teamed with Simon Callow (as Face) and Josie Lawrence (as Doll Common) in a co-production by Bill Alexander for the Birmingham Rep of Ben Jonson’s trickstering, two-faced masterpiece The Alchemist; he was a comically pious Subtle in sackcloth and sandals. He pulled himself together as a wryly observant Larry Slade in one of the landmark productions of the past 20 years: O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh at the Almeida in 1998, transferring to the Old Vic, and to Broadway, with Kevin Spacey as the salesman Hickey revisiting the last chance saloon where Pigott-Smith propped up the bar with Rupert Graves, Mark Strong and Clarke Peters in Davies’ great production.

He and Davies combined again, with Helen Mirren and Eve Best, in a monumental NT revival (designed by Bob Crowley) of O’Neill’s epic Mourning Becomes Electra in 2003. Pigott-Smith recycled his ersatz “Agamemnon” role of the returning civil war hero, Ezra Mannon, as the real Agamemnon, fiercely sarcastic while measuring a dollop of decency against weasel expediency, in Euripides’ Hecuba at the Donmar Warehouse in 2004. In complete contrast, his controlled but hilarious Bishop of Lax in Douglas Hodge’s 2006 revival of Philip King’s See How They Run at the Duchess suggested he had done far too little outright comedy in his career.


Tim Pigott-Smith as King Lear at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2011. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

Television roles after The Jewel in the Crown included the titular chief constable, John Stafford, in The Chief (1990-93) and the much sleazier chief inspector Frank Vickers in The Vice (2001-03). On film, he showed up in The Remains of the Day (1993); Paul Greengrass’s Bloody Sunday (2002), a harrowing documentary reconstruction of the protest and massacre in Derry in 1972; as Pegasus, head of MI7, in Rowan Atkinson’s Johnny English (2003) and the foreign secretary in the Bond movie Quantum of Solace (2008).

Tim Pigott-Smith: a life on stage and screen – in pictures
In the last decade of his life he achieved an amazing roster of stage performances, including a superb Henry Higgins, directed by Hall, in Pygmalion (2008); the avuncular, golf-loving entrepreneur Ken Lay in Lucy Prebble’s extraordinary Enron (2009), a play that proved there was no business like big business; the placatory Tobias, opposite Penelope Wilton, in Albee’s A Delicate Balance at the Almeida in 2011; and the humiliated George, opposite his Hecuba, Clare Higgins, in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, at Bath.

At the start of this year he was appointed OBE. His last television appearance came as Mr Sniggs, the junior dean of Scone College, in Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall, starring Jack Whitehall. He had been due to open as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman in Northampton prior to a long tour.

Pigott-Smith was a keen sportsman, loved the countryside and wrote four short books, three of them for children.

In 1972 he married the actor Pamela Miles. She survives him, along with their son, Tom, a violinist, and two grandchildren, Imogen and Gabriel.

• Timothy Peter Pigott-Smith, actor, born 13 May 1946; died 7 April 2017

This article was amended on 10 April 2017. Tim Pigott-Smith’s early performance as Balthazar in Much Ado About Nothing was with the Prospect touring company rather than with the Bristol Old Vic.

1963: Agente 007 contra el Dr. No (Agent 007 against Dr. No) premieres in Madrid, Spain.

1964: Sean Connery practices his golf swing at Northolt Airport, South Ruislip, England.

1967: Title song "You Only Live Twice" charts this date. Also, British weekly Melody Maker declares “Nancy meets James Bond … in the recording studio.”

https://nancysinatra.com/blog/2017/04/nancy-meets-james-bond-you-only-live-twice-at-50/

1971: Diamonds Are Forever films the craps game with Bond and Plenty O'Toole.

https://twitter.com/007/status/598517510133182464

1974: Bond comic strip The Nevsky Nude begins its run in The Daily Express.
(Finishes 21 September 1974. 2542–2655) Yaroslav Horak, artist. Jim Lawrence, artist.

‘The Nevsky Nude’ centres on a rather revealing mystery
https://popoptiq.com/the-nevsky-nude/
By Edgar Chaput





Swedish 1982 https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/semic_1982.php3?s=comics&id=02218


danish 1976 http://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/jb007-dk-no38-1976/

1987: Happy Anniversary, 007 hosted by Roger Moore celebrates Bond's 25th anniversary.

1999: UNICEF Envoy Roger Moore visits a Stankovac refugee camp to raise funds for Kosovo children.
2008: Thomas Dunn Books publishes the US hardcover version of The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel by Samantha Weinberg (as "Kate Westbrook").

2014: The Norwegian press says Norwegian actresses compete for Bond Girl roles in BOND 24.

Norwegian actors in race to be next Bond
girl
https://www.thelocal.no/20140513/headhunters-star-in-running-to-be-next-bond-girl

Synnøve Macody Lund (right) and Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (left) Photo: Magnet Releasing/Resolve film | The Local | [email protected] | @thelocalnorway
13 May 2014 | 09:11 CEST+02:00
Norwegian actresses Ingrid Bolsø Berdal and Synnøve Macody Lund are both among the Scandinavian women competing to become the next 'Bond girl'.

Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, the 34-year-old Norwegian star of the upcoming Hollywood film Hercules, auditioned for the provisionally named "Bond 24" last year, her agent Anne Lindberg told The Local.

According to Norway's Dagbladet newspaper, Synnøve Macody Lund, the 38-year-old star of the film Headhunters, has also recently filmed audition scenes in Copenhagen for the film which, like Skyfall, will star Daniel Craig as James Bond and have Sam Mendes as director.

According to Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper two Swedish actresses have also auditioned: Disa Östrand, a 27-year-old known for her role in Känn Ingen Sång, and Ida Engvoll, a 28-year-old who starred in 2013's Bäst Före.

The film's producers have confirmed they are recruiting a woman with typical Scandinavian features to play "a woman with a difficult history" in the film.

If Lund gets the role and is cast as one of Bond's love interests, the mother of two will become the eldest Bond girl in the history of the franchise. In Ian Fleming's 14 Bond books, Pussy Galore, the eldest of Bond's lovers, is described by Bond as "in her early thirties" .

According to Dagbladet, Lund would only confirm that she had met Sam Mendes at Pinewood Studio outside London.

"It was a great moment for me as a film enthusiast, and I was more than a little nervous," the former TV2 film journalist told the newspaper. "Just to look inside Pinewood Studios, with all its Bond props on display, was amazing."

Norway has already had one Bond girl, Julie Ege, who played Helen in On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969). Sweden, on the other hand, has already had no fewer than six Bond girls (click here for a full list https://www.thelocal.se/20121026/44070). Swedish actor Ola Rapace played one of the villains in Skyfall.

According to Lindberg, the film's producers have over the past year auditioned almost every suitable actress in Denmark, Sweden and Norway without yet giving any indications of who will get the role.

"In Denmark, there was a lot of castings last year and this year for the Bond girl but nobody knows anything yet," she said. "I don’t think anyone knows yet what the outcome is."

According to the film journalist Morten Steingrimsen, who edits James Bond magazine, Lund would fit into the new trend for more psychologically complex Bond girls.

"Synnøve has something Bond-like about her, and it is easy to imagine that she could develop a good dynamic with Craig and create a complex, interesting and different Bond girl," he said.

"In recent years there has been a clear trend towards making Bond's female counterpart something more than a sex symbol."

RichardTheBruce

May 14th

1939: Veruschka von Lehndorff is born--Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany.

1964: The first two demo recordings of title song "Goldfinger" are completed, vocals by Anthony Newley. John Barry liked the "creepy" performance. (Newley and Leslie Bricusse agreed it was too strange a tune to be part of for the film version.)

1993: Domark Software releases James Bond video game The Duel (Japan: 007 Shitō).
Developed by "The Kremlin".

James Bond Wiki
jamesbond.wikia.com/wiki/The_Duel

1997: BOND 18 begins filming the motorcycle chase.
2016: The Bruce Museum's 29th Annual Renaissance Ball at the Greenwich Country Club takes on a James Bond theme. Greenwich, Connecticut. Casino tables, martini bar, and bids for travel packages.

https://news.hamlethub.com/coscob/events/3178-the-bruce-museum-s-29th-annual-renaissance-ball-is-may-14th

RichardTheBruce

May 15th

1918: Joseph Wiseman is born--Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
(He dies 19 October 2009 at age 91--Manhattan, New York City, New York.)

Joseph Wiseman obituary
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/20/joseph-wiseman-obituary
Versatile character actor best remembered on screen as James
Bond's adversary Dr No
Ronald Bergan | Tue 20 Oct 2009 13.33 EDT

‘I thought it might be just another grade-B Charlie Chan mystery,’ said Wiseman of his role in Dr No.

Despite the fact that Joseph Wiseman, who has died aged 91, appeared in dozens of movies and countless TV series and had only 20 minutes of screen time in Dr No (1962), it is for his performance in that film, as the eponymous adversary to James Bond in the first movie of the series, based on the books by Ian Fleming, that he will best be remembered.

Dressed in a white Nehru jacket with a pair of shiny black, prosthetic hands, the result of a "misfortune", Wiseman was cool and calculating as the half-German, half-Chinese arch enemy of 007, played by Sean Connery, and one of the most effective of Bond villains. Dr Julius No is a member of Spectre – the Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion. "The four great cornerstones of power headed by the greatest brains in the world," he explains. "Correction. Criminal brains," says Bond. "A successful criminal brain is always superior. It has to be," retorts Dr No.

Wiseman was fortunate that Noël Coward, a friend and neighbour of Fleming's in Jamaica, where the film was set, turned the role down, saying, "Doctor No? No. No. No." Of his most famous role, Wiseman said: "I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. I had no idea it would achieve the success it did. I know nothing about mysteries. I don't take to them. As far as I was concerned, I thought it might be just another grade-B Charlie Chan mystery."

Wiseman was born in Montreal, Canada, and his family subsequently moved to the US. He started his acting career on stage in his late teens, making his Broadway debut as part of the ensemble in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1938), with Raymond Massey in the title role. There followed parts in three plays by Maxwell Anderson: Journey to Jerusalem (1940), Candle in the Wind (1941) and Joan of Lorraine (1946), and he was the eunuch Mardian in Antony and Cleopatra (1947), directed by and starring Kathleen Cornell.

But it was his role on stage in Sidney Kingsley's Detective Story (1949) that launched his film career, during which he typically played slightly crazy off-beat characters. Wiseman, in a loud striped suit, was both sleazy and comic as the lowlife burglar, becoming hysterical when interrogated by overzealous policeman Ralph Bellamy. He repeated the role in William Wyler's 1951 film version, starring Kirk Douglas, without toning down his manic stage performance.

This coiled-up energy proved to be highly effective in Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata! (1952), in which he played the opportunistic journalist and agent provocateur who finally betrays Emiliano Zapata (Marlon Brando). He continued to steal scenes in two rather risible biblical epics, as an imposing priest in The Silver Chalice (1954), Paul Newman's debut picture, and as a wily beggar in The Prodigal (1955). Around the same time, Wiseman was able to reveal more of his talent on stage. He played Edmund to Louis Calhern's King Lear; the gangster Eddie Fuselli in a revival of Clifford Odets's Golden Boy (1952), and The Inquisitor in Jean Anouih's The Lark (1955), with Julie Harris as Joan of Arc.

In 1960, returning to movies, Wiseman had a typically flashy role as a one-eyed, deranged itinerant evangelist armed with the "Sword of God" in John Huston's western The Unforgiven. Then, in 1962, came The Happy Thieves, in which, third-billed after Rita Hayworth and Rex Harrison, he seemed to have some fun as a master forger, and the infamous Dr No. It was six years before Wiseman made another movie.

Making up for lost time, he appeared in seven films within a few years. Apart from playing ruthless Italian gangsters in Stiletto (1969) and The Valachi Papers (1972), Wiseman created a niche for himself portraying a variety of Jewish characters. In The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968), Wiseman is the bemused Jewish owner of the notorious burlesque theatre, who disapproves of his son's introducing striptease.

Bye Bye Braverman (1968) saw him as a pedantic lecturer on his way to a friend's funeral. Of his performance, Time magazine wrote that Wiseman "wears an expression of perpetual disgust, as if he were forever smelling fried ham … What picture there is for stealing is burgled by Wiseman with his portrayal of a stereotypical littérateur … As lofty as Edmund Wilson, he pronounces Jehovah-like judgments on literature and humanity."

Back in Canada for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), Wiseman played a Trotskyite owner of a blouse factory, who calls his nephew (Richard Dreyfuss) "a pushy Jewish boy".

On Broadway, Wiseman originated the role of LeDuc, a Jewish psychotherapist, in Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy (1964), who asserts that "the Jew is only the name we give to that stranger within everyone". Also on Broadway was his Drama Desk award-winning performance in the title role of In the Matter of J Robert Oppenheimer (1969).

Wiseman continued to be active on television throughout his career, notably in Crime Story (1986-88) as the menacing gang boss Manny Weisbord. In his later years, Wiseman would often give readings of Yiddish writers, and his last stage performance was in 2002 at a gala concert called Yiddish in America at the New York town hall. His last Broadway appearance had been the previous year, as a prosecution witness in Abby Mann's stage adaptation of his film drama Judgment at Nuremberg.

Wiseman's first marriage, to Nell Kennard, ended in divorce, and he is survived by his daughter, Martha, by that marriage, and his sister Ruth. His second wife, the dancer, teacher and choreographer Pearl Lang, died last February.

•Joseph Wiseman, actor, born 15 May 1918; died 19 October 2009

1932: John Glen is born--Sunbury-on-Thames, England.
1965: Bond comic strip On Her Majesty's Secret Service ends its run in The Daily Express.
(Started 29 June 1964. 1-274) John McLusky, artist. Henry Gammidge, writer.

MI6 https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/comic_ohmss_review.php3
MI6 https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/ohmss.php3


Danish 1975 http://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/jb007-dk-no33-1975/



Swedish https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/semic_1967.php3?s=comics&id=01690


Danish 1967 http://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/jb007-dk-no11-1967/

2015: NewScientist reports a Caribbean rodent named after James Bond.

Meet the cat-sized rodent named after James Bond
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27542-meet-the-cat-sized-rodent-named-after-james-bond/
Life | 15 May 2015 | By Penny Sarchet

(Image: Jose Nunez-Mino)

The name’s Bond. Plagiodontia aedium bondi. It’s certainly a name to live up to. A cat-sized rodent newly discovered on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola has been named after James Bond, a real-life naturalist who also gave his name to Ian Fleming’s fictional spy.

Found by Samuel Turvey of the Zoological Society of London and his team, the guinea pig-like rodent, which weighs more than a kilogram, is a type of hutia, a family of secretive rodents that live in the West Indian islands. Its name is fitting because the original Bond studied the distribution of hutias and their relatives in the Caribbean.

But the James Bond rodent belongs to a troubled family. Although there were once more than 30 species, most hutia have been driven to extinction by the colonisation of the islands. The newly discovered resident may be one of only eight types of hutia left.

“I am glad we were able to describe James Bond’s hutia before it’s too late, as it is highly threatened by deforestation, even in protected areas,” says Turvey.

Journal reference: Zootaxia, 10.11646/zootaxa.3957.2.4

RichardTheBruce

May 16th

1948: Jesper Christensen is born--Copenhagen, Denmark.
1953: Pierce Brendan Brosnan OBE is born--Drogheda, County Louth, Republic of Ireland.
1966: Capital Records releases The Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds--its (instrumental) title track was a Bond hopeful. (Original name: "Run James Run".)

How James Bond became Pet Sounds
By editor • May 16, 2016
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/05/16/pet_sounds_james_bond
Cathy Wurzer · May 16, 2016 | The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys in 1964. From left to right, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson (1944 - 1983) and Carl Wilson (1946 - 1998). Fox Photos | Getty Images file

Listen Story audio | 1min 24sec | https://www.mprnews.org/listen?name=/minnesota/news/features/2016/05/16/music_pet_sounds_20160516_64.mp3

The Beach Boys acclaimed album "Pet Sounds" was released 50 years ago today. Rolling Stone magazine put the album at No. 2 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The title track is an instrumental, and it was originally called "Run James Run" in hopes that it would become the theme song for a James Bond film.

"Pet Sounds."


"Run James Run."


"Run James Run", 2017.


Brian Wilson and Joe Thomas on the song

1968: Roger Moore is photographed in his dressing room at Elstree Studios, Boreham Wood, England.

1985: Bond-promo Michelin Tire ad appears in The Los Angeles Times as part of a Sweepstakes promotion.

1990: Sammy Davis Jr. dies at age 64--Beverly Hills, California.
(Born 8 December 1925--Harlem, New York City, New York.)

From the Archives: Consummate Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.
Dies at 64
By Edward J. Boyer | Times Staff Writer |
May 17, 1990 | 12:00 AM

Altovise and Sammy Davis Jr. in 1972

Sammy Davis Jr., the quintessential showman embraced by his peers as "Mr. Entertainment" for his enormous talent and versatility, died early Wednesday morning at his home in Beverly Hills after a nine-month battle with throat cancer.

Death came as friends and fans of the diminutive, 64-year-old entertainer maintained a vigil outside his home. They had been gathering there since Tuesday when word began to circulate that the end was near.

The tributes were immediate:

Frank Sinatra, who with Davis, Joey Bishop, Dean Martin and Peter Lawford became Hollywood's fast-living "Rat Pack" of the 1960s and who knew him for 40 years, said he "wished the world could have known Sam as I did. . . . It was a generous God who gave him to us for all these years . . . . Sam was the best friend a man could have."

Said Bishop: "Guess they must need a good show up in Heaven, that's all I can say." Then he added, "God I'm sorry. I loved him."

Martin hailed Davis as a great entertainer and "an even greater friend, not only to me, but to everyone whose life he touched."

Former President Ronald Reagan remembered him as "a special talent which made him more than just a great entertainer--it made him magical." Comedian Bill Cosby said that "it would have been fantastic to see him at age 82 still enjoying performing for the people. I'll see him later."

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley—who counted Davis among his friends and political supporters—ordered the city's flags flown at half staff.

Davis had battled the cancer in his throat since September, when a tumor was discovered growing behind his vocal cords. He began a series of radiation treatments that left his skin discolored and raw enough to bleed when he touched his throat.

When his illness became known, fans around the world deluged him with letters letting him know that he was in their prayers.

Show business friends from Sinatra and Cosby to Liza Minnelli and Steve Lawrence rallied to his side, putting themselves at his disposal. A month before the cancer was detected, Davis, Sinatra and Minnelli (filling in for an ailing Dean Martin) had been on a reunion tour, bringing sellout audiences to their feet.

His friends' affection for the man who enjoyed describing himself as a "little one-eyed colored guy" was nowhere more evident than during a television tribute earlier this year, commemorating his more than six decades in show business.

Said singer Whitney Houston, a guest on the televised tribute taped last year: "He helped to break down the color barriers. I think he fought the battle for the rest of us."

Davis would have been the first to acknowledge that he was but one soldier among generations of troops who assaulted color barriers. Nonetheless, he determinedly fought his battles with whatever weapons were available, including one that he felt the haters could not withstand—his talent.

Whether dancing with his father and uncle on countless television guest spots, captivating movie audiences as Sportin' Life in "Porgy and Bess," singing his way through "Mr. Wonderful" on Broadway, or finding a hit song and a theme in "Candy Man," Davis brought an exuberance to every performance.

His versatility was such that he could go on a bare stage alone and weave a stunning evening of entertainment with song, dance, impressions and comedy.

"This is what I want on my tombstone," he once told an interviewer:
"Sammy Davis Jr., the date, and underneath, one word: 'Entertainer.' That's all, because that's what I am, man."

Behind Davis' superb stagecraft, however, and despite the adoration of faithful fans, Davis was for much of his life a man at war with himself.

He buried his pain in alcohol and cocaine—chasing the delusion that his "swinging" lifestyle somehow compensated for his two divorces, his estrangement from his children, and his futile efforts to become what he thought others expected him to be.

"I didn't like me," Davis told an interviewer in 1989. "So it made all the sense in the world to me at the time that if you don't like yourself, you destroy yourself.

"The monkey on my back is that I created a lifestyle that was no good for me. My life was empty. I had drugs, booze and broads, and I had nothing."

He had to fight his way through what he has called "the tortures of the damned," and he credited Altovise, his wife of 20 years, with helping him make a turnaround.

"She was there for me," he said. "She gave me all the support in the world."

The turnaround began when doctors told him in 1983 that his stomach and liver were so damaged that he would die soon if he didn't stop drinking. He stopped. In 1984 and 1985, he underwent hip replacement surgery.

But he returned to dance again and charmed movie fans as Little Mo, the veteran hoofer with still enough moves to accept a "challenge" dance, in the 1989 film "Tap."

The drinking was only one of his excesses. He spent money just as easily.

During his illustrious career, he had earned millions and spent or given away more. And by the 1980s, the Internal Revenue Service was clamoring for unpaid millions in taxes it said he owed.

Davis also shamelessly gushed over every guest on his television shows. And his ostentation became a trademark. If one gold ring was good, four had to be better.

Try as he might to win love with his talent, his public persona had become an easy target--grist for a devastating (and, he said, all too accurate) impersonation by comedian Billy Crystal.

But if his excesses were obnoxious to some, Davis, the individual, was a monument to generosity for others. He marched for civil rights in Selma, Ala., played benefits for Jesse Jackson's Operation PUSH, and helped raise funds to investigate the Atlanta child murders.

Benjamin L. Hooks, executive director of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, remembered him Wednesday as "a humanitarian whose heart was so big . . . that it dwarfed his frame."

Hooks, in a statement, called attention to Davis' accomplishments "in the struggle of African-Americans," much of which "was not widely known . . . ."

Coretta Scott King called him "not only one of the greatest performing artists of our age" but "an ardent, tireless supporter of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement . . . ."

Davis would break into his schedule to play a benefit for a blind ex-fighter or sell bonds for Israel. Even as his bank account slid toward empty, he was contributing thousands of dollars to his child's school.

This consummate entertainer whose career has been described as a series of radical mood swings was born Dec. 8, 1925, in Harlem, N.Y., where his father was lead dancer and his mother, Elvera (Sanchez) Davis, was in the chorus of a vaudeville troupe headed by his adopted uncle, Will Mastin.

When the act went on the road, Davis remained with his paternal grandmother, Rosa (Mama) Davis, who raised him until his parents divorced. His father took custody, and by age 3 a mugging little Sammy had made his stage debut.

He learned to dance by watching routines from the wings, and the rhythms from his flashing feet soon became a popular addition to the act. He made his film debut in 1933, at age 7, in "Rufus Jones for President," a comedy in which a boy dreams he is elected President.

Davis never attended school. His father and Mastin hired tutors—especially when truant officers applied pressure—to teach the youngster the three Rs. That irregular instruction and Davis' later friendship with a U.S. Army sergeant who loaned him books and taught him remedial reading was as close as he came to formal education.

Mastin's troupe, which had included 12 members, began to shrink with the decline of vaudeville and eventually was reduced to "The Will Mastin Trio, Featuring Sammy Davis Jr."

Touring in the 1930s and '40s, the trio often could not find hotels that would rent rooms to blacks or restaurants that would serve them. But it was not until Davis was drafted into the Army's first integrated unit at age 18 that he ran into the naked racism never far beneath the surface of World War II America.

During basic training in Wyoming, he was beaten, kicked and spat upon by bigoted whites in his barracks. Describing those days in his best-selling 1965 biography, Yes, I Can, Davis said his knuckles were covered with scabs from fighting racists during his first three months in the Army.

Perhaps the ugliest incident occurred when a group of white enlistees decided to teach him a lesson for being too familiar with a white female officer.

Davis said they lured him to a remote spot on the base, where they beat him and painted racial slurs on his chest and forehead. They forced him to tap dance and smeared more white paint over his body, only to remove a spot to demonstrate that beneath the paint he was still "just as black 'n' ugly as ever."

The pain of that incident motivated him to pump even more energy into his performances at camp shows. He felt that his sheer talent could reach the haters, "neutralize them," force them to recognize him as a person.

He used an audience's affection as fuel, and he made no secret of his "joy of being liked." And he would work himself to exhaustion to please an audience, friends said, in a futile effort to make the world love him--to erase the brutal memories of his Army experiences.

Davis rejoined his father and uncle after the war, but the trio led a hand-to-mouth existence as vaudeville died and they tried breaking into nightclubs. They worked hotels in Las Vegas, where they could neither register as guests nor enter the casinos because they were black.

Some New York City clubs would not allow him to enter, and he needed a special permit just to be on the streets of Miami Beach at night when he performed there.

But Davis continued to increase his repertoire—adding trumpet, drums, celebrity impressions—as the trio crisscrossed the country, taking whatever dates they could find.

In 1946, Metronome magazine named him "Most Outstanding New Personality" on the strength of his Capitol recording of "The Way You Look Tonight," the magazine's selection as record of the year. Davis recorded it under a deal paying him $50 a side for each recording.

During the next two years, the trio appeared with headliners such as Mickey Rooney, Sinatra and Bob Hope. Jack Benny later intervened to get them a booking at Ciro's nightclub in Hollywood where they opened for singer Janis Paige. The audience would not let them off—or Paige on—stage. The next night, Paige was the opening act for the Will Mastin Trio.

The group's later appearance on Eddie Cantor's NBC television show was such a hit that they became the comedian's summer replacement.

By 1954, when Davis released his first album under a contract to Decca Records, his father and Mastin had become background accompaniment to his soaring performances.

With Davis as its centerpiece, the trio sold out clubs from Los Angeles to New York, and the group was in constant demand for guest spots on television variety shows.

Davis' on-target impersonations of Jimmy Cagney, Jerry Lewis and Jimmy Stewart were a revelation to audiences who simply had never imagined a black performer being able to so accurately capture a white celebrity's character.

But it all nearly ended in November, 1954, in a car crash on a stretch of highway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles that cost him his left eye. During his recuperation at a San Bernardino hospital, he said, he began thinking seriously about religion and converted to Judaism.

Once out of the hospital, he was in even more demand. And contract offers began a steady march upward through five figures for a week's work. In 1956, he made his Broadway debut in "Mr. Wonderful," a musical comedy created for him.

By the late 1950s, the Will Mastin Trio had broken up, but Davis continued dividing his income with his father and uncle for months—some friends say years.

He became a member of Hollywood's so-called "Rat Pack" and made six of his 23 movies with them, beginning with "Ocean's Eleven" in 1960 and ending with "One More Time" in 1970.

After a brief marriage to dancer Loray White in 1959, Davis married Swedish actress May Britt in 1960. The couple had a daughter, Tracey, and adopted two sons, Mark and Jeff. The couple divorced in 1968, and two years later Davis married dancer Altovise Gore. They adopted a son, Manny, last year.

During his marriage to Britt, his celebrity could not shield him from white anger and black consternation.

Davis noted in an interview with Playboy magazine that his mother was Puerto Rican.

"So I'm Puerto Rican, Jewish, colored and married to a white woman," he said. "When I move into a neighborhood, people start running four ways at the same time."

He was bitterly criticized in 1972, during the Republican National Convention in Miami, for hugging Richard M. Nixon. To many black Americans, the photo of that incident was eloquent testimony to what they saw as Davis' misplaced values.

That criticism, however, wasn't as painful as the rejection that came his way from John F. Kennedy, whose candidacy he had tirelessly supported.

Davis had been invited to Kennedy's 1961 inauguration, but the invitation was rescinded a few days after it was offered because the Kennedy camp felt Davis and his white wife might anger Southerners.

"The guy I ran with is the man that told me, 'Don't come to the White House cause you'll embarrass me' because I was married to a white woman," Davis said in a 1987 interview. "And I had to accept that. But that was the man I campaigned for, and went all out for. That was John Kennedy."

By now Davis was a fixture in the firmament of American stars. Before his "Rat Pack" movies, he had appeared in "The Benny Goodman Story," co-starred with Eartha Kitt in "Anna Lucasta" and won rave notices as Sportin' Life in the film version of "Porgy and Bess."

He returned to the stage in the mid-1960s in a musical adaptation of Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy," a production that ran for 568 performances before closing in March, 1966.

Davis, meanwhile, had remained busy in films, producing the forgettable "A Man Called Adam" with his own company in 1966. He also appeared as revivalist Big Daddy in "Sweet Charity" and performed in the 1972 documentary "Save the Children."

While moving between stage, television and movies, Davis also recorded dozens of albums and released several hit singles, including his all-time top-seller, "Candy Man."

His was a familiar face in America's living rooms as he turned up on television in shows ranging from "The Beverly Hillbillies" to "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" to the soap opera "One Life to Live." He hosted several specials of his own, sat in for Johnny Carson and did the brief and ill-fated "Sammy Davis Jr. Show" on NBC from 1965 to 1966.

He was a smash hit in "Sammy," a television retrospective of his first half-century in show business. But his second try at a network show, "NBC Follies," was canceled midway through the 1973-74 season.

Last year he published a second biography, Why Me?, co-written, as was his best-selling first book, with Jane and Burt Boyar. In interviews discussing the new book, he acknowledged that racial prejudice had profoundly affected him.

He poignantly told a story of a man coming to his table at a nightclub to greet him after he had become an international celebrity. The man was the very person who had refused him admission to the same club some years before.

He felt he should have told the man "to get away from me with his hypocrisy." But he was silent.

"So I went home and threw up," he said. "I had stifled my own feelings and made myself sick. That night I vowed: 'I'll never let that happen again.' "

He said he began to fight the subtle prejudices he encountered, whether it was fellow board members of a company being surprised that he could do more than sing and dance, or making it clear to guests at a party that he could talk about more than what Carson or Sinatra are "really like."

Still, by his own admission, he had mellowed in the last five years.

He overcame what he called his obsession with his career even as he was being increasingly called upon to accept yet another honor for his body of work or for his commitment to various social and political causes.

"I've been looking inward," he said last year. "I've been counting my blessings. I no longer feel I have to do it all. I don't yearn to be at the top of the mountain."

Davis is survived by his wife, four children and two grandchildren. His mother and a sister also survive. Services are scheduled at 11 a.m. Friday at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Hollywood Hills. Burial will follow at Forest Lawn, Glendale.

The family suggested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Sammy Davis Jr. National Liver Institute at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark.

Times staff writer Eric Malnic contributed to this obituary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Davis_Jr.

2018: Dynamite Entertainment releases James Bond: The Body #5.

JAMES BOND: THE BODY #5
https://www.dynamite.com/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?PRO=C72513026419005011
Price: $3.99
SKU: C72513026419005011
Rating: Teen +
Cover A: Luca Casalanguida
Writer: Ale? Kot
Art: Hayden Sherman
Genre: Action
Publication Date: May 2018
Format: Comic Book
Page Count: 32 Pages
ON SALE DATE: 5/16/2018
The beatings. The virus. The assassin. The secrets. Everything comes together during a terror attack that may not even exist.

RichardTheBruce

May 17th

1965: Agent 007 - mission drab (Agent 007 - Mission Killing) re-released in Denmark.

http://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/category/films/dr-no-1962/



http://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/dr-no-dk-poster-1963/

1965: Agent 007 jages (Agent 007 Is Hunted) re-released in Denmark.

https://illustrated007.blogspot.com/2016/01/

http://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/frwl-dk-rerelease-poster/

http://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/frwl-dk-release-poster-1963/

http://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/frwl-dk-poster-1963/

1965: Bond comic strip You Only Live Twice begins its run in The Daily Express. (Ends 8 January 1966. 275-475)
Yaroslav Horak, artist. Henry Gammidge, writer.

http://www.universalexports.net/Graphics/McClusky/



http://www.illustrationcupboard.com

Swedish https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/semic_1989.php3?s=comics&id=02358


Danish http://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/jb007-dk-no12-1967/



Danish http://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/jb007-dk-no39-1977/

2012: Skyfall teaser poster revealed.

2015: Spectre night filming on the Thames, London, with Craig and Seydoux speeding after a helicopter near Westminster Bridge and Vauxhall Cross.

2015: Claude Carliez dies at age 90--Saint-Mandé, France. (Born 10 January 1925--Nancy, France.)

Claude Carliez
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Carliez

Claude Carliez (January 10, 1925 – May 17, 2015) was a French master at arms in classical fencing who became a period and fencing advisor to French films. He graduated to a stunt performer, stunt coordinator, special effects person and film director. He worked with such legends of the French cinema as Jean Marais, Louis de Funès, Gérard Oury and Jean-Paul Belmondo. He was a President of the Academie d'Armes de France and the first President of the French Stuntman's Union.

Biography
The son of a dancing expert, he was born in Nancy in 1925. At 18 he entered the School Magistrale Fencing Joinville-le-Pont at 18 becoming a Master at Arms at 21.[2] Due to the proximity of the school to film studios, Claude became a technical advisor on period weapons and costumes for several films.

In 1959 Claude appeared in the swashbuckler film Le Bossu starring Jean Marais and directed by André Hunebelle who both would propel his film career forwards. Hunebelle placed him in charge of all the stunts for his next film Le Capitan where he advanced to doing stunts for The Battle of Austerlitz.

Carrying on with not only period pieces such as Hunebelle's Fantômas series, Claude became the stunt arranger to André Hunebelle's OSS 117 film series in a manner similar to Bob Simmons of the James Bond films. When the James Bond film Moonraker was produced in France and Brazil, Claude provided and arranged many of the stunts for the film.

In 1969 Jean Marais suggested that with all his experience Claude direct him in Le Paria (1969).

He died on May 17, 2015.
Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1954
Cadet Rousselle | Le gendarme se battant en duel Uncredited
1955
Caroline and the Rebels
L'Affaire des poisons | Un acheteur de produit miracle Uncredited
1956
Una aventura de Gil Blas
1957
The Adventures of Arsène Lupin | Petit rôle Uncredited
1959
Le Bossu
1960
Austerlitz | Margaron
1961
Le Miracle des loups | Un soldat Uncredited
1962
Le Crime ne paie pas | Le juge du duel (segment "L'affaire Hugues"), Uncredited
1965
OSS 117 Mission for a Killer | Thomas Ellis Uncredited
1967
Les grandes vacances | Un marin au club nautique Uncredited
1976
Game of Seduction
1979
Moonraker | Franco, The Gondolier
Écoute voir Uncredited
1985
Zahn um Zahn [de] | Jules

Thunderfinger

Excellent work as always. AGENT 007 JAGES translates as AGENT 007 IS HUNTED.

RichardTheBruce

Thanks for that correction, highlighting one of my positive traits: making other folks look good.

Good to know you've got my back, @Thunderfinger.

RichardTheBruce

May 18th

1985: Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill" charts, eventually reaching #1.

2000: The Los Angeles Times publishes Susan King's article Psst: 007 Secrets Revealed.

Pssst: 007 Secrets Revealed
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-may-18-ca-31208-story.html
SUSAN KING | TIMES STAFF WRITER | May 18, 2000

The movie is not enough: The video and DVD editions of the latest James Bond adventure, "The World Is Not Enough," contain extras aimed at stimulating consumers to buy the film, not simply rent it.

MGM Video's VHS release ($20) includes Garbage's music video of the title tune and a tribute to the late Desmond Llewelyn, who played gadget meister Q in 17 Bond films.

The DVD special edition ($35), featuring a crisp wide-screen transfer of the 1999 film with Pierce Brosnan, offers even more goodies that every 007 fan should enjoy.

Particularly engrossing is "The Secrets of 007: Featuring Alternate Video Options," which allows viewers to click on a logo at various points in the film and exit temporarily to see how an individual scene or sequence was conceived and executed.

Director Michael Apted ("Coal Miner's Daughter") offers an intelligent, consistently compelling audio commentary. The British filmmaker, who began his career in documentaries, acknowledges that he was frequently overwhelmed being involved in such a big production, especially since he had never done an action film before. He says the dazzling opening sequence--a speedboat chase on the Thames--took five weeks to film.

Apted also talks about the fact that the producers told him he had to deliver exotic locales, action and women, yet Brosnan wanted some dramatic scenes too, so the director slowed things down to allow his star to have some moments with Dame Judi Dench, who plays M.

Also included on the DVD are the original theatrical trailer, the Garbage music video, an isolated music score, a rather lame behind-the-scenes featurette and a second audio commentary track with production designer Peter Lamont, second unit director Vic Armstrong and composer David Arnold.

Besides "The World Is Not Enough," MGM is offering special DVD editions of "Dr. No," "Moonraker," "The Man With the Golden Gun," "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "The Spy Who Loved Me" ($35 each; $150 for the set).

2002: Photo call, Die Another Day, Noga Hilton Pier, 55th Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, France.

2008: Amis, Amis and Bond airs again on BBC Radio 4 Sunday, 1:30 pm.

Amis, Amis and Bond
https://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007spqr
Martin Amis explores his father's obsessive interest in James Bond and the writing of Ian Fleming, with fellow Bond enthusiast Charlie Higson.

Release date:
17 July 2007 - 30 minutes

Martin Amis explores his father's obsessive interest with James Bond and the writing of Ian Fleming with fellow Bond enthusiast Charlie Higson.

Last on
Sun 18 May 2008 1:30 pm

2010: Disney Hyperion releases a graphic novel adaptation of Charlie Higson's SilverFin written by Higson, illustrated by artist Kev Walker.

https://ebabble.net/silverfin-graphic-novel/

2017: Chris Cornell dies at age 52--Detroit, Michigan. (Born 20 July 1964--Seattle, Washington.)

Chris Cornell obituary
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/18/chris-cornell-obituary
Lead singer of rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, and one of
the trailblazers of Seattle’s grunge scene
Adam Sweeting | Thu 18 May 2017 13.29 EDT

Chris Cornell on stage just hours before his death - video report

As the lead singer of the Seattle-based band Soundgarden, Chris Cornell, who has been found dead at the age of 52, had been one of the trailblazers of the city’s grunge movement in the late 1980s and 90s. Having achieved stardom with that band, he went on to further great success with Audioslave in the new millennium, while also developing a flourishing solo career. At the time of his death, Cornell was in the middle of a tour with Soundgarden, who had re-formed in 2010 after a 13-year hiatus, and had just performed at the Fox theatre in Detroit.

Chris Cornell:
rock star who
kicked down the
boundaries of sound
Alexis Petridis

The group was started in 1984 by Cornell, along with guitarist Kim Thayil and bass player Hiro Yamamoto, with Matt Cameron becoming their full-time drummer in 1986. After releasing a single, Hunted Down (1987) on the Seattle-based Sub Pop label, and a debut album, Ultramega OK (1988), for the independent SST, Yamamoto left the band, and was briefly replaced by Jason Everman, formerly of Nirvana, before Ben Shepherd joined on bass. Soundgarden signed to A&M records, and their second release for that label, Badmotorfinger (1991), became a multi-platinum seller in the US, also reaching the Top 40 in the UK. The singles from that album, Outshined and Rusty Cage, received heavy play on alternative radio stations and MTV, and Badmotorfinger earned a Grammy nomination in 1992.

An invitation to open for Guns N’ Roses on their Use Your Illusion tour (1991-93) introduced Soundgarden to huge new audiences in both the US and Europe, as did an opening slot with the heavy metal band Skid Row in 1992. “Our big moment of truth was when we were offered a slot opening up for Skid Row and we didn’t know what to do with that,” Cornell told the music journalist Pete Makowski in 2011. “Was that good or bad? And what happened was we toured with them and their audience all bought Soundgarden records.”

A berth on the 1992 Lollapalooza tour alongside Ministry, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and fellow Seattleites Pearl Jam framed Soundgarden as one of the rising names in American alternative rock. (In 1990 Cornell had joined with members of Pearl Jam to form Temple of the Dog, in tribute to the late Andy Wood of another Seattle band, Mother Love Bone. They released an eponymous album in 1991, and last year reunited for a 25th-anniversary tour.) Cornell also had a solo cameo performance in Cameron Crowe’s 1992 Seattle-based romcom Singles, with his gentle acoustic track Seasons.

Soundgarden’s next album, Superunknown (1994), duly topped the US chart (and reached No 4 in the UK), and went on to sell 5m copies in the States alone. After extensive international touring, Soundgarden started work on their fifth album, Down on the Upside, though Cornell’s desire to lighten the group’s dark, metallic sound with acoustic instruments triggered arguments with his bandmates. When it was released in 1996, it was acclaimed by reviewers but sales fell far short of its predecessor’s. After a further marathon bout of touring, the group announced they were splitting in April 1997.

Cornell released his first solo album, Euphoria Morning, in 1999. This found him exploring a mix of rock, pop and psychedelia, allowing him to use different facets of his impressive vocal range beyond a heavy-rock roar, though again critical enthusiasm did not translate into huge sales. But his solo career was put on hold when he formed Audioslave in 2001, with former Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello, Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford, who had been recommended Cornell by the producer Rick Rubin.

Over the next five years they recorded three albums, Audioslave (2002), Out of Exile (2005) and Revelations (2006). The first of these was by far the most successful, selling 3m albums in the States and spinning off five hit singles including Cochise, Like a Stone and I Am the Highway. The release of Revelations (which reached No 2 on the US charts and 12 in Britain) was preceded by the appearance of two of its tracks, Wide Awake and Shape of Things to Come, in Michael Mann’s film Miami Vice (2006).

Cornell quit Audioslave in early 2007. This was a significant period in his career, since he had been suffering from problems with drug and alcohol abuse during his later years with Soundgarden, and had made a strenuous effort to overcome them. “It was really hard to recover from, just mentally,” he recalled. “I think Audioslave suffered from that because my feet hadn’t hit the ground yet. I was sober but I don’t think my brain was clear … It took me five years of sobriety to even get certain memories back.”

Born Christopher Boyle in Seattle, to Ed Boyle, a pharmacist, and Karen (nee Cornell), an accountant, Chris had three younger sisters and two older brothers. After his parents’ divorce, when Chris was a teenager, he and his siblings took their mother’s maiden name. He attended a Catholic elementary school, Christ the King, then Shorewood high school, but left education at 16, and worked various jobs (including sous-chef at Ray’s Boathouse restaurant).

In a 1994 Rolling Stone interview he said: “I went from being a daily drug user at 13 to having bad drug experiences and quitting drugs by the time I was 14 and then not having any friends until the time I was 16.” He eventually found his feet as a musician, and it was while performing with the Shemps, a covers band, that he met Thayil and Yamamoto, with whom he subsequently formed Soundgarden.

In 2006, Cornell composed and recorded "You Know My Name", the theme song for the James Bond movie Casino Royale. He put out his second solo effort, Carry On, in 2007, and promoted it with a campaign of touring, both in his own right and as a support act to Aerosmith.

In 2009 he released his next album, Scream, on which he collaborated with the producer Timbaland. It reached No 10 on the US album chart, Cornell’s highest solo chart placing. In 2011 he released the live album Songbook, a document of his solo acoustic Songbook tour on which he played songs from all phases of his career as well as versions of Led Zeppelin’s Thank You and John Lennon’s Imagine. “I felt like I can’t really call myself a musician or entertainer if I can’t pick up a guitar by myself and hold someone’s attention,” he explained of his decision to perform solo.

By now he was working with the reformed Soundgarden, who released the compilation Telephantasm: A Retrospective (2010). Their first new song to go public was Live to Rise, which featured in the 2012 movie The Avengers, and later that year they followed up with an album of new material, King Animal (it reached No 5 in the US and 21 in Britain). Cornell’s most recent solo album was Higher Truth (2015), a mellow, melodic work, which entered the US Top 20.

He is survived by his wife, Vicky Karayiannis, whom he married in 2004, their son, Christopher Nicholas, their daughter, Toni, and by a daughter, Lillian, from his first marriage, to Susan Silver, which ended in divorce.

• Chris Cornell (Christopher John Boyle), singer, songwriter and musician, born 20 July 1964; died 17 May 2017

Note: most sources confirm his death ass on 18 may 2017.

RichardTheBruce

May 19th

1941: Tania Mallet is born--Blackpool, Lancashire, England. (She dies 30 March 2019 at age 77--England.)

Tania Mallet, ‘Goldfinger’ Bond
Girl, Dies at 77
https://variety.com/2019/film/news/tania-mallet-dead-dies-goldfinger-james-bond-1203177293/
By Dave McNary


CREDIT: Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

British actress and model Tania Mallet, who played Tilly Masterson in the 1964 James Bond classic “Goldfinger,” has died. She was 77.

The official James Bond Twitter account announced her death on Sunday. “We are very sorry to hear that Tania Mallet who played Tilly Masterson in ‘Goldfinger’ has passed away,” the tweet reads. “Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this sad time.”

Mallet was a first cousin to actress Helen Mirren. She was born in Blackpool, England, to British father Henry Mallet and Russian mother Olga Mironoff, a sibling of Mirren’s father.

Mallet was working as a model when she was cast as Masterson by producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli. She had previously auditioned for the role of Tatiana Romanova in 1963’s “From Russia With Love,” but lost the part to Daniela Bianchi.

In “Goldfinger,” Mallet’s character portrayed the sister of Shirley Eaton’s Jill Masterson, who betrays the villain Auric Goldfinger and is killed by him through “skin suffocation” after being completely painted in gold paint. Masterson, bent on avenging her sister’s death, is subsequently killed in the movie by Goldfinger’s servant, Oddjob (played by Harold Sakata), who throws a steel-rimmed hat at her.

Mallet told the James Bond fan site MI6 in 2003 that she had always been “more comfortable” in a small studio with “just a photographer and his assistant.”

“The restrictions placed on me for the duration of the filming grated, were dreadful, and I could not anticipate living my life like that,” she added.

Mirren said in her 2007 memoir, In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures, that Mallet was a “loyal and generous person” who helped pay for for her brothers’ education with her income as a model.

1948: Grace Jones is born--Spanish Town, Jamaica.
1978: Christopher Wood completes his Moonraker script.

1979: Bérénice Lim Marlohe is born--Paris, France.
1992: Samuel Frederick "Sam" Smith is born--Bishop's Stortford, England.
2009: Pierce Brosnan, whale activist, is photographed walking the White House grounds, Washington, D.C.

2019: Bond cars for auction at Bonham's.

James Bond's Favorite Aston Martin Cars Up For Auction
https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanneshurvell/2019/05/13/james-bonds-favorite-aston-martin-cars-up-for-auction/#688101ec58ca
Joanne Shurvell | Contributor | Travel | I write about travel, food, culture and fashion.


Aston Martin's iconic DB5, released in 1963, driven by James Bond and now available for sale at Bonhams' auction 19 May

The twentieth edition of Bonhams’ annual Aston Martin sale is to be held for the first time at The Wormsley Estate in the Chiltern Hills, about an hour outside of London. The Wormsley Estate, home to both a world-famous cricket ground and to the annual Garsington Opera festival, has been owned by the Getty family since 1985. Aston Martin auction attendees will also be able to view the semi-annual "Concours" event where Aston Martin Club owners display their cars to be judged. Aston Martin was founded in 1913 and takes its name from Lionel Martin (co-owner with Robert Bamford) who used to race at Aston Hill (a hill used to race cars until it was deemed too dangerous in 1925). Associated with elegance and speed, it's no surprise that the Aston Martin has been the car of choice by Ian Fleming's famous secret agent.


A 2019 Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato | Bonhams

The automobiles in the Bonhams' auction on 19 May will range in age from a 1952 Lagonda to a 2019 Vanquish Zagato shooting brake. All eyes will be on the top lot, a 1963 DB4 series V convertible, one of only 70 ever made, estimated to sell for at least £750,000.


A 1969 Aston Martin DBS similar to the one driven by George Lazenby in the sixth Bond film | Bonhams

James Bond fans will be pleased to see a wide range of the secret agent’s favorites at this sale, including a 1965 model of the iconic Aston Martin DB5. The DB5 featured in Goldfinger, Thunderball and Goldeneye, as well as Casino Royale and Skyfall. The 1965 model in the Bonhams’ auction is a classic silver birch with black leather interiors and has an estimate of £620,000-£680,000. A 1969 DBS sports saloon similar to the one driven by George Lazenby in the sixth Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service has an estimate of £100,00-£120,000.

1987 V8 Vantage X Pack Volante | Bonhams

Timothy Dalton’s 007 drove a V8 Vantage in the 1987 film The Living Daylights. This sale includes two examples from 1987, both in metallic blue. One of these is one of only 131 made, an X-Pack sports saloon that is expected to command in excess of £320,000. The other model, one of only 109 ever made, an X-Pack V8 Vantage Volante, was the world’s fastest convertible at the time with a cruising speed of over 150 miles per hour. The estimate is £300,000-£350,000.

The 1959 DB2 Aston Martin available for restoration | Bonhams

Collectors interested in restoring their own cars will be interested in the first and only Mark III Sports Saloon 1959 with automatic transmission and left-hand drive from California. It was delivered new to California and is now offered as a restoration project. This left-hand drive car (estimate £85,000 - £115,000) includes a dismantled 3.0-litre engine in the sale, together with a Borg Warner automatic transmission and a David Brown manual gearbox, giving the new owner the option to fit their preferred transmission.


Aston Martin 1952 Lagonda Drophead Coupé | Bonhams

The oldest car for sale on 19 May will be the 1952 Lagonda 2.6 litre Drophead Coupé, originally designed and engineered by W.O. Bentley, founder of another iconic British car brand Bentley Motors. The elegant lines with their Italianate flair, created by renowned automotive designer Frank Feeley, may have been a nostalgic nod to the pre-war Lagondas (estimate £70,000 - £80,000.)


A rare "Agents for Lagonda Cars" sign | Bonhams

The Aston Martin sale will also contain automobile memorabilia, including a Javan Smith 1:8 scale scratch-built model of the 1963 Monza-winning Aston Martin "DP214" (estimate £2,000 - £3,000), a rare “Agents for Lagonda Cars” enamel sign (estimate £1,300 - £1,800), a pre-world war II tool roll for the 1.5L Aston Martin (estimate £500 - £800) and numerous “007” related items, including several photographs of the various Bond cars, signed by the actors Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.

James Bond fans who are keen to view more "007" cars should visit London's film museum in Covent Garden to see the Bond in Motion exhibition. With over 100 cars and artefacts from all 24 James Bond films, this is the world's largest official collection of James Bond vehicles.