On This Day

RichardTheBruce

August 1st

1930: Lionel Bart is born--Stepney, London, England.
(He dies 3 April 1999 at age 68--Hammersmith, London, England.)

Obituary: Lionel Bart
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-lionel-bart-1085282.html
Tom Vallance | Monday 5 April 1999 00:02

IF HE had written only Oliver!, the composer Lionel Bart would have earned an honoured place in the history of British musicals, but he was far from a one-show wonder. His other work included shows such as Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be and Maggie May, plus many pop songs including "Living Doll" (Cliff Richard's first No 1 hit), Tommy Steele's "A Handful of Songs", Anthony Newley's "Do You Mind?" and Matt Monro's "From Russia With Love".

He epitomised the start of the Sixties in Britain, which he uniquely captured in song and spirit, and he was one of the few composers to deal uncondescendingly with the working classes, transposing their life styles and vernacular to the musical stage. "Nobody tries to be la-de-da or uppity, there's a cuppa tea for all," sings the Artful Dodger to Oliver, while Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be remains a time capsule of a world in which folk talked of their "birds" and their "manor" and dreamed of being able to afford furniture that was "contempery". It was like a musical EastEnders, but far more joyous and celebratory, without the unremitting angst suffered by the inhabitants of Albert Square.

Bart also epitomised the Sixties in a less happy way - like many who flourished in that era he was seduced by sudden success into a world of drink, drugs and hedonism, squandering his money and his youth.

Bart was one of the 11 children of an East End tailor. He was born Lionel Begleiter, in 1930, and he had no formal musical training. He displayed a flair for drawing, however, which brought him at the age of 16 a scholarship to the St Martin's School of Art in London. (His bus journey, which took him each day past St Bartholomew's Hospital, inspired him to adopt Bart as his professional surname.) He worked in a silk-screen printing works and commercial art studios before an attraction to the theatre brought him work at the left-wing Unity Theatre, where he worked as a set painter. He started writing songs in response to a sign asking for musical material for one of the theatre's productions. Unable to write music, he would tap out the melody with one finger and someone else would orchestrate it.

It was a time when popular music was undergoing a drastic transformation due to the influence of such stars as Elvis Presley and Bill Haley, and Bart was one of many musicians and singers (most of them Presley-influenced) who frequented the 2 I's coffee shop in Soho, where he met the rock singer Tommy Steele. With Michael Pratt and Steele, Bart wrote Steele's first hit, "Rock with the Caveman" (1957), and later that year Bart won three Ivor Novello Awards, presented by the Songwriters Guild, for outstanding song of the year ("A Handful of Songs"), best novelty song ("Water, Water") and outstanding film score (The Tommy Steele Story).

Another habitue of the 2 I's was a cherubic youngster named Harry Webb, and when he made his first film, Serious Charge (with his new name Cliff Richard), it was Bart who provided the songs, including "Living Doll", which topped the Hit Parade for eight weeks. (Bart claimed that he wrote the song in six minutes on a Sunday morning.) The same year Bart wrote a complete musical, Wally Pone of Soho, based on Ben Jonson's Volpone, but could not get it produced, but Joan Littlewood, who had been a producer at the Unity and was now running the enterprising Theatre Workshop in Stratford, London, asked him to provide the music and lyrics for a new musical written by a former convict, Frank Norman, Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be.

Bart and Norman complemented each other beautifully and produced a brash, funny, unpretentious working-class musical. Blessed with a cast aptly assembled by Littlewood, including Miriam Karlin, Barbara Windsor, James Booth, Yootha Joyce, Toni Palmer and George Sewell (who was to play Bill Sykes in Oliver!), it played to packed houses and eventually moved to the Garrick Theatre in the West End, where it ran for two years. Bart's ingratiating score included an infectious (if derivative) title tune, a Presley-type rock number "Big Time" (recorded by Adam Faith) and a plaintive lament for a prostitute, "Where Do Little Birds Go?", delivered with a show-stopping guilelessness by Windsor, who credited the number with changing her life and career.

Like Norman's libretto, Bart's songs perfectly captured a time of change - of the Wolfenden Report, massage parlours replacing street-corner pick- ups; and a time when "ordinary people" had started going to Paris for the weekend instead of Southend.

Later in 1959 Bart had another success when Lock Up Your Daughters, a musical version of Henry Fielding's Rape Upon Rape, opened at the Mermaid with lyrics by Bart to Laurie Johnson's music. He had also provided songs for Tommy Steele's film Tommy the Toreador and at the end of the year won four Novello Awards - for the year's best-selling song ("Living Doll"), the outstanding score of the year (Lock Up Your Daughters), outstanding novelty song ("Little White Bull") and a special award for "outstanding personal services to British music".

Bart was now on the threshold of the biggest success of his life. Based on a much-loved Dickens novel, and Bart for the first time providing his own libretto as well as music and lyrics, Oliver! seemed far from a certain success - a dozen managements had turned it down - but its first night at the New Theatre (now the Albery) on 30 June 1960 was something that none of us present will ever forget. Of British musicals, only Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend, which premiered seven years earlier, could be said to have had such a roof-raising, rapturous reception in the last half-century.

The show received 23 curtain-calls, and Bart's score was lauded next day for its richness and variety, from rousing show-stoppers like "Consider Yourself" and "I'd Do Anything" to the character songs such as Fagin's "Pick a Pocket or Two" and "Reviewing the Situation", and Nancy's "It's a Fine Life" and the torchy ballad "As Long As He Needs Me". (Bart later said that, when composing his songs, he always thought of Judy Garland singing them.) It won Novello Awards for outstanding score of the year, outstanding song of the year and best-selling song (the last two both for "As Long As He Needs Me"). Oliver! ran for 2,618 performances in London, and was a hit on Broadway where it opened in 1963 and ran for 774 performances, winning Bart a Tony Award.

Bart was said to be earning pounds 16 a minute from Oliver! in 1960 and his life style reflected his wealth. He entertained vigorously, his friends including Noel Coward, Brian Epstein, Judy Garland, Alma Cogan and Shirley Bassey, and he spent weekends in Mustique with Princess Margaret, who was later, according to Bart, to call him a "silly bugger" for mis-handling his finances. Bart himself would later place some of the blame on his upbringing. "My father gambled," he said, "and there were endless arguments about it. I hated money and had no respect for it. My attitude was to spend it as I got it."

Though there may be some truth in this, Bart's friends attest to his constantly altering the facts of his childhood and frequently taking liberties with the truth. When he was looking for a writer to help ghost his memoirs, several noted authors turned him down, one of them telling me bluntly, "He's such a liar!"

The American composer Richard Rodgers, who had not found a permanent lyricist partner since the death of Oscar Hammerstein, asked Bart to collaborate with him, but Bart refused and for his next show chose a subject close to his heart, the way East Enders coped with air-raids in World War II. Blitz! (Bart had a fondness for exclamation points in his titles) was a gargantuan production which never quite jelled (Bart directed the show) and its score was less inspired than that of Oliver!, though it had a show-stopping children's chorus, "Mums and Dads", and Bart persuaded Vera Lynn to record for the production his cod-wartime ballad "The Day After Tomorrow". Its strongest talking-point was the massive set by Sean Kenny (who had also done sterling work on Oliver!) which literally self- destructed during a bombing raid.

For his old friend Joan Littlewood, Bart next composed a title song and theme music for her film Sparrows Can't Sing (1963) starring Barbara Windsor and James Booth, and he had a hit with the title song for the James Bond film From Russia With Love (1964), recorded by Matt Monro.

Bart wrote the music and lyrics for his next stage musical, Maggie May (1964), but collaborated on the book with Harvey Orkin. Starring Rachel Roberts and Kenneth Haigh, it was a moderate success but produced no major song hits, though Judy Garland recorded four of the songs for an EP and it won the Novello Award as outstanding score of the year and the Critics' Poll as best new British musical.

Bart was by now experimenting with LSD and other drugs and was drinking heavily. By the late Seventies his drinking had brought on diabetes and by the time he managed to quit alcohol it had destroyed one-third of his liver. Much of his income was being dissipated, according to his friends, by his generosity to hangers-on and by the ease with which casual sex partners could rob him. (Though known in the profession to be gay, it was not until the Nineties that Bart described himself as "out at last".) His career reached a low point in 1965 with his musical about Robin Hood which he backed with a fortune of his own money. Twang! was a short-lived disaster and to finance it Bart had rashly sold his rights to Oliver! He later estimated that relinquishing those rights lost him over a million pounds.

In 1968 Carol Reed's film verion of Oliver! opened and was a huge success, winning several Oscars including Best Picture, plus nominations for Ron Moody (the original Fagin repeating his fine performance) and Jack Wild (as the Artful Dodger). Bart's score was kept virtually intact, and the soundtrack album was a best-seller. Columbia, the studio financing the film, had wanted an internationally known star (Peter Sellers) in the lead, but Reed and Bart fought to keep Moody. Their choice of Shirley Bassey to play Nancy was vetoed by the studio, who felt that if Bill Sykes was shown killing a black girl it could offend some audiences.

Four years after Twang! a new show by Bart was produced. Based on the Fellini film La Strada, it was staged on Broadway where it ran for only one night, though Bart never gave up on it and was working on plans for a revival at the time of his death.

He also wrote the score for a television version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde starring Kirk Douglas (never shown in Britain) and an unproduced stage musical, Quasimodo! based on The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In a 1995 interview with The Independent, Bart recalled that he sent some of the script for Quasimodo! to Noel Coward, who said, "Brilliant, dear boy, but were you on drugs when you wrote it? It seems a bit abstract here and there." "I suppose it was," said Bart.

In 1972 Bart declared himself bankrupt - he had debts totalling pounds 73,000. In 1975 he was banned for a year for driving under the influence of drink, and in 1983 banned again for two years. Regarding the changes in the style of musical theatre, he told the musical historian Mark Steyn that he would never have written a through-sung musical because in my case it would be slightly pretentious. I'm not a composer, I just make tunes and sing them, and I sing harmonies, and some of my chord progressions are not logical, but often they work. For Oliver! I thought in terms of people's walks. The Oliver theme was really the Beadle's walk, a kind of dum-de-dum . . . Fagin's music was like a Jewish mother clucking away. But I don't want to get high-falutin' about it. Music is important, fair enough. But just to have some kind of drab tune fitted to even more drab dialogue seems rather pointless to me.

Though Bart's final years were unproductive (a 30-second commercial for the Abbey National Building Society was his most notable achievement of the last decade), and he could be exasperatingly demanding of his friends, he was equable about his change in fortunes - he once had homes in London, New York, Malibu and Tangiers but had been living in a small flat in Acton. Cameron Mackintosh, who successfully revived Oliver! at the London Palladium in 1994 and gave him a percentage of the profits, said,

Of all the people I know in this business who have had ups and downs, Lionel is the least bitter man I have ever come across. He regrets it but, considering that everyone else has made millions out of his creations, he's never been sour, never been vindictive.

Andrew Lloyd Webber said, "Lionel's genius has in my view never been fully recognised by the British establishment. The loss to British musical theatre caused by his untimely death is incalculable."

Tom Vallance

Lionel Begleiter (Lionel Bart), composer, lyricist and playwright: born London 1 August 1930; died London 3 April 1999.

1930: Geoffrey Holder is born--Port of Spain, Trinidad.
(He dies 5 October 2014 at age 84--New York City, New York.)

Geoffrey Holder, Dancer, Actor,
Painter and More, Dies at 84
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/arts/geoffrey-holder-dancer-choreographer-and-man-of-flair-dies-at-84.html
Geoffrey Holder, Dancer, Actor, Painter and More, Dies at 84
By Jennifer Dunning and William McDonald | Oct. 6, 2014

Mr. Holder, the multitalented artist, and ebullient performer died Sunday at 84.CreditErin Combs/Toronto Star, via Getty Images

Geoffrey Holder, the dancer, choreographer, actor, composer, designer and painter who used his manifold talents to infuse the arts with the flavor of his native West Indies and to put a singular stamp on the American cultural scene, not least with his outsize personality, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 84.

Charles M. Mirotznik, a spokesman for the family, said the cause was complications of pneumonia.

Few cultural figures of the last half of the 20th century were as multifaceted as Mr. Holder, and few had a public presence as unmistakable as his, with his gleaming pate atop a 6-foot-6 frame, full-bodied laugh and bassoon of a voice laced with the lilting cadences of the Caribbean.

Mr. Holder directed a dance troupe from his native Trinidad and Tobago, danced on Broadway and at the Metropolitan Opera and won Tony Awards in 1975 for direction of a musical and costume design for “The Wiz,” a rollicking, all-black version of “The Wizard of Oz.” His choreography was in the repertory of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Dance Theater of Harlem. He acted onstage and in films and was an accomplished painter, photographer and sculptor whose works have been shown in galleries and museums. He published a cookbook.

Mr. Holder acknowledged that he achieved his widest celebrity as the jolly, white-suited television pitchman for 7Up in the 1970s and ’80s, when in a run of commercials, always in tropical settings, he happily endorsed the soft drink as an “absolutely maaarvelous” alternative to Coca-Cola — or “the Uncola,” as the ads put it.

Long afterward, white suit or no, he would stop pedestrian traffic and draw stares at restaurants. He even good-naturedly alluded to the TV spots in accepting his Tony for directing, using their signature line “Just try making something like that out of a cola nut.”

Geoffrey Lamont Holder was born into a middle-class family on Aug. 1, 1930, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, the youngest of five children of Louise de Frense and Arthur Holder, who had immigrated from Barbados. Geoffrey attended Queen’s Royal College, an elite secondary school in Trinidad. There he struggled with a stammer that plagued him into early adulthood.

“At school, when I got up to read, the teacher would say, ‘Next,’ because the boys would laugh,” he said in an oral history interview.

Growing up, Mr. Holder came under the wing of his talented older brother, Arthur Aldwyn Holder, known to everyone by his childhood nickname, Boscoe. Boscoe Holder taught Geoffrey painting and dancing and recruited him to join a small, folkloric dance troupe he had formed, the Holder Dancing Company. Boscoe was 16; Geoffrey, 7.

Geoffrey Holder’s career mirrored that of his brother in many ways. Boscoe Holder, too, went on to become a celebrated dancer, choreographer, musician, painter and designer, and he, too, left Trinidad, in the late 1940s, for England, where he performed on television and onstage.

His brother’s departure put Geoffrey Holder in charge of the dance company, as its director and lead performer, and he took it to New York City in 1954, invited by the choreographer Agnes de Mille, who had seen the troupe perform two years before in St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands. She arranged an audition for the impresario Sol Hurok. To pay for the troupe’s passage, Mr. Holder, already an established young painter, sold 20 of his paintings.

After dropping his bags at an uncle’s apartment in Brooklyn, he fell in love with the city.

“It was a period when all the girls looked like Janet Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor, with crinoline petticoats and starched hair,” he told The New York Times in 1985. “The songs of that period were the themes from ‘The Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Limelight,’ and it was so marvelous to hear the music in the streets and see the stylish ladies tripping down Fifth Avenue. Gorgeous black women, Irish women — all of them lovely and all of them going somewhere.”

Mr. Holder had the good fortune to arrive in New York at a time of relative popularity for all-black Broadway productions as well as black dance, both modern and folk. Calypso music was also gaining a foothold, thanks largely to Harry Belafonte.


Mr. Holder at the opening of the Broadway musical “The Lion King” in 1997 accompanied by his wife, the dancer Carmen de Lavallade. He made his own Broadway debut in 1954. Credit Nancy Siesel/The New York Times

For a while Mr. Holder taught classes at the Katherine Dunham School, and he was a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet from 1956 to 1958. He continued to dance and direct the Holder dance company until 1960, when it disbanded. In the meantime, at a dance recital, he caught the attention of the producer Arnold Saint-Subber, who was putting together a show with a Caribbean theme.

Thus did Mr. Holder make his Broadway debut on Dec. 30, 1954, as a featured dancer in “House of Flowers,” a haunting, perfumed evocation of West Indian bordello life, with music by Harold Arlen and a book by Truman Capote, based on his novella of the same name. Directed by Peter Brook at the Alvin Theater, it starred Diahann Carroll and Pearl Bailey, and among its dancers was a ravishingly pretty young woman named Carmen de Lavallade. She and Mr. Holder married in 1955, had a son, Léo, and sometimes shared the stage. Both wife and son survive him. Boscoe Holder died in 2007.

One character Mr. Holder played in the musical was the top-hatted Baron Samedi, the guardian of the cemetery and the spirit of death, sex and resurrection in Haitian Voodoo culture. Mr. Holder relished Samedi: he played him again in the 1973 James Bond film, “Live and Let Die” (the first of the Bond franchise to star Roger Moore), and featured him in his choreography — in his “Banda” dance from the musical “House of Flowers,” and in “Banda,” a further exploration of folk themes that had its premiere in 1982.

His Voodoo villain in “Live and Let Die” was of a piece with much of his sporadic film career: with his striking looks and West Indian-inflected voice, producers tended to cast Mr. Holder in roles deemed exotic. In “Doctor Dolittle” (1967), he was a giant native who ruled a floating island as William Shakespeare (the 10th). In Woody Allen’s “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * but Were Afraid to Ask” (1972), he played a sorcerer. In “Annie” (1982), he was the Indian servant Punjab. (An exception was the 1992 romantic comedy “Boomerang,” in which he played a randy director of commercials working for Eddie Murphy’s playboy advertising executive.)

Mr. Holder was multitasking before the term gained currency. In 1957, he landed a notable acting role playing the hapless servant Lucky in an all-black Broadway revival of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” directed by Herbert Berghof. The show, just seven months after the play’s original Broadway production, closed after only six performances because of a union dispute, but the role, with its rambling, signature 700-word monologue, lifted Mr. Holder’s acting career.

That same year, he choreographed and danced in a revival of the George and Ira Gershwin musical “Rosalie” in Central Park. And he received a Guggenheim fellowship in painting.

Painting was a constant for him. Whether life was hectic or jobs were scarce, he could usually be found in the SoHo loft he shared with Ms. de Lavallade, absorbed in work that drew on folk tales and often delivered biting social commentary. On canvases throughout the studio, sensuous nudes jostled for space with elegantly dressed women, ghostly swimmers nestled beside black Virgin Marys, bulky strippers seemed to burst out of their skins, and mysterious figures peered out of tropical forests.

His work was shown at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington and at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. And then there was his photography, and his sculpture.

His visual creativity extended to costume designs, “The Wiz” being just one showcase. Another was John Taras’s 1982 production of “The Firebird” for the Dance Theater of Harlem, in which the Russian fairy tale was relocated to a tropical forest. Mr. Holder designed both the sets and the costumes, one of which was a blend of 30 or 40 colors. He earned another Tony nomination for best costume design for the 1978 Broadway musical “Timbuktu!,” an all-black show based on the musical “Kismet.” He also directed and choreographed “Timbuktu!”

Mr. Holder’s dance designs were equally bold. Reviewing a 1999 revival of “Banda” by the Dance Theater of Harlem, Anna Kisselgoff wrote in The Times, “Mr. Holder is a terrific showman, and his mix of Afro-Caribbean rituals, modern dance and even ballet’s pirouettes is potent and dazzling.”

Other Holder dance classics were “Prodigal Prince” (1971), a dreamlike re-creation of the life and work of Hector Hyppolite, the Haitian folk painter, for which he also composed the musical score; and “Dougla” (1974), an evocation of a mixed-race Caribbean wedding. (Dougla refers to people who are of African and Indian descent.)

In 1959, he published a book on Caribbean folklore, Black Gods, Green Islands, written with Tom Harshman and illustrated by Mr. Holder; in 1973, he produced Geoffrey Holder’s Caribbean Cookbook. He himself was the subject of books and documentaries, including “Carmen & Geoffrey” (2009), by Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob.

Mr. Holder said his artistic life was governed by a simple credo, shaped by his own experience as a West Indian child who had yet to see the world.

“I create for that innocent little boy in the balcony who has come to the theater for the first time,” he told Dance magazine in 2010. “He wants to see magic, so I want to give him magic. He sees things that his father couldn’t see.”

Correction: Oct. 6, 2014
An earlier version of this obituary misstated Mr. Holder’s age. He was 84, not 83. (His date of birth was correctly given as Aug. 1, 1930.) It also misstated his middle name. It was Lamont, not Richard.
Correction: Oct. 6, 2014

An earlier version of a picture caption with this obituary misstated Mr. Holder's surname as Holden.
Correction: Oct. 14, 2014

An obituary last Tuesday about the dancer, choreographer and actor Geoffrey Holder misstated his tenure as a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. It was from 1956 to 1958, not 1955 and 1956. The obituary also misstated the number of siblings Mr. Holder had. He was the youngest of five children, not “one of four children.”
A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 7, 2014, Section A, Page 19 of the New York edition with the headline: Geoffrey Holder, Multitalented Artist, Dies at 84. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Geoffrey Holder
Filmography
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0390305/

Actor (31 credits)
2008 Butterfield (Short)
Mr. Emory

2008 The Little Wizard: Guardian of the Magic Crystals
Narrator

2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Narrator (voice)

2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Video Game)
The Narrator (voice)

2002-2003 Cyberchase (TV Series)
Master Pi
- Double Trouble (2003) ... Master Pi (voice)
- Problem Solving in Shangri-La (2002) ... Master Pi (voice)

1997-2002 Bear in the Big Blue House (TV Series)
Ray the Sun
- Welcome to Woodland Valley: Part 2 (2002) ... Ray the Sun (voice)
- Welcome to Woodland Valley: Part 1 (2002) ... Ray the Sun (voice)
- Read My Book (1999) ... Ray the Sun (voice)
- Let's Get Interactive (1999) ... Ray the Sun (voice)
- I've Got Your Number (1999) ... Ray the Sun (voice)
(Total 41 episodes)

2002 Bear in the Big Blue House LIVE! - Surprise Party (Video)
Ray (voice)

1999 Goosed
Dr. Bowman

1998 Chance or Coincidence
Owner of Soutine's Bar

1995 Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller (Video Game)
Jean St. Mouchoir (voice)

1992 Boomerang
Nelson

1987 Where Confucius Meets the New Wave
Narrator

1987 Ghost of a Chance (TV Movie)
Johnson

1986 John Grin's Christmas (TV Movie)
Ghost of Christmas Future

1983 Great Performances (TV Series)
Cheshire Cat
- Alice in Wonderland (1983) ... Cheshire Cat

1982 Annie
Punjab

1980 ABC Weekend Specials (TV Series)
Jupiter
- The Gold Bug (1980) ... Jupiter

1976 Swashbuckler
Cudjo

1975 The Noah
Friday

1973 Live and Let Die
Baron Samedi

1973 The Man Without a Country (TV Movie)
Slave on ship

1972 Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask
Sorcerer

1970 It Takes a Thief (TV Series)
Paul Trion
- Nice Girls Marry Stockbrokers (1970) ... Paul Trion

1968 Krakatoa: East of Java
Sailor

1967-1968 Tarzan (TV Series)
Mayko / Zwengi
- A Gun for Jai (1968) ... Mayko
- The Pride of the Lioness (1967) ... Zwengi

1967 Doctor Dolittle
William Shakespeare X

1967 Androcles and the Lion (TV Movie)
Lion

1959 Porgy and Bess
Dancer (uncredited)

1958 The DuPont Show of the Month (TV Series)
Genie
- Cole Porter's 'Aladdin' (1958) ... Genie

1957 Carib Gold
Voodoo Dancer (as Geoffery Holder)

1957 The United States Steel Hour (TV Series)
Calypso Singer
- The Bottle Imp (1957) ... Calypso Singer

1942: Giancarlo Giannini is born--La Spezia, Liguria, Italy.
1965: Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE, is born--Reading, Berkshire, England.
1970: Robert Brownjohn dies at age 44--London, England. (Born 8 August 1925--Newark, New Jersey.)

Robert Brownjohn
American, 1925–1970
https://www.moma.org/artists/816?locale=en

While best known for his title sequences for the James Bond films From Russia with Love and Goldfinger, Robert Brownjohn had a short but influential career, which integrated design, advertising, film, photography, and music. A major figure in the New York advertising and design scene of the late 1950s, he later moved to London, where he was at the epicenter of the burgeoning music, art, and fashion scene of London’s “swinging ’60s.”

Born in New Jersey to British parents, Brownjohn later moved to Chicago, where during the mid-1940s he studied under former Bauhaus teacher Laszlo Moholy-Nagy at the Chicago Institute of Design. He quickly caught the attention of his teachers, who later brought him on as an instructor at the school. After moving to New York in 1951, he spent five years as a freelance designer for clients including George Nelson and Bob Cato. In 1956, he formed a partnership with Ivan Chermayeff, a designer and son of the modernist architect Serge Chermayeff (with designer Tom Geismar joining a year later). Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar quickly grew into one of the most innovative design and advertising firms in New York. Brownjohn’s many personal problems, caused primarily by the heroin addiction that later claimed his life, ultimately soured his New York relationships, precipitating his move to London in 1960.

In London, Brownjohn rapidly established himself as a designer of note. While working for the firm McCann Erickson, he designed the opening credits for the second James Bond film, From Russia with Love, his first foray into film. The following year he directed the film titles for Goldfinger. For both title sequences, he employed a surprising and attention-grabbing approach in which the credit texts and scenes from the films were projected onto scantily clad women, initiating the long-running Bond film tradition of elaborate title sequences featuring seductive women. Brownjohn’s treatment of type as dynamic, abstract forms in the title sequences illustrated both his mastery of graphic design and the enduring influence of Moholy-Nagy’s use of type and photography. His combination of sexually suggestive images and wry humor was a fitting accompaniment to the James Bond mythos. The broad acclaim he received for the Bond film titles led to more film and commercial work for clients ranging from Pirelli to Midland Bank to the Rolling Stones. Though he continued to produce original and challenging work, in the latter half of the 1960s, his life became increasingly unstable. He was moving from one partnership to another until he died in 1970, at the untimely age of 44.

Introduction by Paul Galloway, Collection Specialist, Department of Architecture and Design, 2016

Robert Brownjohn (1925–1970)
Miscellaneous Crew | Actor | Art Director
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0115226/
Filmography

Miscellaneous Crew (6 credits)

1969 Michael Kohlhaas - Der Rebell (titles)
1967 The Night of the Generals (title sequence designer)
1966 The Tortoise and the Hare (Short) (title designer)
1966 Where the Spies Are (title designer)
1964 Goldfinger (titles designed by)
1963 From Russia with Love (titles designed by)

Actor (1 credit)

1969 Otley
Paul

Art director (1 credit)

1963 A... is for Apple (Short)

1979: Moonraker released in Colombia.
1979: Moonraker released in Hong Kong.

1984: A View to a Kill principal photography kicks off at Pinewood with Roger Moore.
1990: Hodder & Stoughton publish John Gardner's Bond novel Brokenclaw.

Brokenclaw

BROKENCLAW is John Gardner's
ninth novel featuring Ian Fleming's
James Bond.

Bond is bored sitting at his desk,
pushing paper, and feels that M has let
him down, has left him to rot. When M
suggests that he take a holiday, Bond is
displeased but, in the California hills,
he catches sight of a man who intrigues
him immediately. His name is
Brokenclaw Lee.

When Bond discovers that the
enigmatic Brokenclaw heads a vast
conglomerate of underworld
operations, he wonders if M's idea that
he should go on holiday was the clear-
cut proposal it seemed. What has
happened to the five scientists whose
highly sensitive, secret work is crucial
to the security of the American state?
Why are Bond's investigations
compelling American agents to handle
him as though he were a common
criminal?

As ever, Bond finds a worthy partner in
a beautiful female agent -- Chi-Chi.
This time, however, he has the support
of the indomitable Ed Rushia of the
CIA. Just how much help will these two
be able to give Bond when he is pitted
against one of America's most powerful
villains?

BROKENCLAW is an intriguing and
stimulating thriller which will delight
old and new fans of Bond. It takes our
hero through the slimiest parts of San
Francisco to Brokenclaw's lair, a puzzle
house crammed with technological
devices, to a spellbinding ending in the
heartland of the American Indians.

John Gardner has written eight James
Bond books: Licence Renewed, For
Special Services, Icebreaker, Role of
Honour, Nobody Lives Forever, No Deals
for Mr Bond, Scorpius, Licence to Kill,
and, in 1989, Win, Lose or Die. All
these titles are available in Coronet
paperback.

2013: Cover reveal for William Boyd's Bond novel SOLO to be published by Random House.

2015: 007 Walk of Fame opens at Piz Gloria.

007 Walk of fame on the Schilthorn
https://myswitzerland.com/en-us/007-walk-of-fame-on-the-schilthorn.html

Secret Agent 007 is about to leave new traces on the Schilthorn, when Schilthorn Cableway opens the 007 Walk of Fame on 1 August 2015. This new attraction – a world first – will be inaugurated in the presence of stars and contributors to «On Her Majesty's Secret Service».

Personalitites from the world of Bond movies will be immortalized at the Schilthorn summit. Each protagonist will feature on an individual information plaque, displaying their photograph, signature and hand imprint in weathering steel, a personal message about the film's impact on their careers, and anecdotes and impressions of their time in Mürren and on the Schilthorn. These plaques will form a short circular trail that runs from the summit building to the Piz Gloria View vantage point back.

Guests:

George Lazenby (James Bond 007)
Terence Mountain (Raphael)
Sylvana Henriques (The Jamaican Girl)
John Glen (Regisseur)
Catherina von Schell (Nancy)
Jenny Hanley (The Irish Girl)
Stunt double Vic Armstrong (has doubled for all Bond actors with the exception of Daniel Craig)

Public Opening

1 August 2015

Thunderfinger

@RichardTheBruce , you have a typo re:AVTAK principal photography.

marketto007

RichardTheBruce wrote: »

August 1st

1946: Lana Wood is born--Santa Monica, California.

I think Lana Wood is from March 1st, isn't it?

RichardTheBruce

Thanks @Thunderfinger and @marketto007, both corrections made. So I should get it right a year from now.

RichardTheBruce

August 2nd

1910: Jack Whittingham is born--Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England.
(He dies 3 July 1972 at age 61--Valletta, Malta.)

Tuesday, July 01, 2008
The Name’s Whittingham, Jack Whittingham
http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2008/07/names-whittingham-jack-whittingham.html
EDITED BY J. KINGSTON PIERCE

With Sebastian Faulks’ Devil May Care sitting pretty atop British bestseller lists, espionage fiction seems to be all the rage. There is, however, another book, also featuring iconic British secret agent James Bond, that’s had an evolution almost as complex as one of Ian Fleming’s plots. That book is of course the revised second edition of Robert Sellers’ The Battle for Bond, a controversial work detailing the legal wrangling over the rights to Thunderball (1961).

The first edition, which contained a foreword by Raymond Benson (who was the last Bond writer prior to Faulks), was withdrawn from sale shortly after its 2007 release due to legal action from the Fleming family and estate. There a few copies of this collector’s item knocking around, but you’ll need a big checkbook to secure one. If you haven’t done so yet, though, I am pleased to report that Sellers and the independent publisher Tomahawk Press have finally released the second edition, sans the sections that caused the Fleming estate to complain. This revision features a foreword Len Deighton, who concentrates in his essay on long-ago charges of plagiarism leveled against author Fleming. This is a topic that should be familiar those of you who pay attention to the Rap Sheet, since we recalled the case in an obituary of Kevin McClory, the Thunderball collaborator who died in 2006. That case’s resolution included a provision stipulating that all future editions of the novel Thunderball include the writing credit “based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming.”

Very little has been written about the relatively enigmatic Whittingham. But earlier this week the London Times carried a longish report focusing on his daughter, Sylvan Whittingham Mason, who apparently provided much of the background mosaic for Seller’s book. As writer Giles Hattersley explains:

Like a latterday Ms. Moneypenny, she holds the secrets of James Bond. Her name is Whittingham. Sylvan Whittingham.

Is she Ian Fleming’s daughter? God, no. Fleming’s name is anathema here. Her father was Jack Whittingham, a celebrated screenwriter of the 1950s and 1960s. It was Jack, she claims, who gave us Bond as we know him.

In 1959, Whittingham’s father had been brought in by the film producer Kevin McClory to work on an original screenplay based on Fleming’s famous secret agent. (Fleming had had an earlier bash at writing his own, but forgot to put any action in it.)

The problem of how to film Bond had rumbled on for years. What passed for steely cool in the books would come off as charmless froideur on screen. But man-about-town Jack turned out to be the fire to Fleming’s ice. In a tobacco-stained study at his Surrey home, the dashing, hard-drinking ladies’ man produced a thrilling tale called Thunderball. And he injected Fleming’s uptight gentleman spy with quippy humour, arch sexuality and plenty of action. Rather like Jack, in fact.

“I always say that Daddy was an honourable man,” says Whittingham, now 64, in a voice that seems to come courtesy of Diana Rigg. “Except when it came to women, of course.” She smiles.

“But he was a marvellous writer and they’d had real trouble with Fleming’s novels. The violent, sadistic, colder, misogynistic Bond of the books didn’t work on the big screen. The audience, back then, didn’t want it. There was no humour, no charm. Daddy turned Bond into the suave hero they needed.”

This is a fascinating article, really, detailing the playboy similarities between Bond, Fleming, and Wittingham. In the Times, Mason quite clearly credits her father (who died in 1972) with molding 007 into the man who could support a successful long-running film franchise.

... Jack had been toughened by a Bond-like life of fast cars and faster women. Born the son of a Yorkshire wool merchant, he had oozed confidence as a young man and made a splash with the ladies when he went up to Oxford.

“He met Betty Offield there, heir to the Wrigley’s gum fortune,” says Sylvan. “They fell in love and she invited him over to America to stay. They used to go shark-fishing off her island in California. Later, he bought a solitaire diamond ring and went to Chicago to propose--but by the time he got there, she’d fallen for somebody else.

“In a bar, drowning his sorrows, he met a female gangster called Texas Guinan--a glamorous blonde--who took him on. She sent him all over town with deliveries for her, probably drugs. He became her pet for a while, before he sold the ring so he could afford to get home.”

After a stint in Iceland during the war--where he was permanently sloshed and would often fall down on parade--Jack returned to England and his wife, Margot, whom he had married in 1942. He was never faithful. “My mother was stunningly beautiful, with a frightened-rabbit look in her eyes, which were violet. She was a lost soul: mental problems, breakdowns, depression,” Sylvan says.

Posted by Ali Karim at 11:53 AM

1949: Madeline Smith is born--Garfield, Sussex, England.
1961: First flight of the Wallis WA-116 Agile, a British autogyro.

jamesbondlifestyle.com/product/little-nellie-wallis-wa-116-agile-series-1-gyroplane

2016: Funny or Die releases James Bond: Secret Pokémon Go Agent.

2017: Dynamite Entertainment releases James Bond comic Black Box #6 of 6 available in print and online.

RichardTheBruce

August 3rd

1937: Steven Berkoff is born--Stepney, London, England.
1977: The Spy Who Loved Me released in the US.

US Lobby Cards

1981: Warner Brothers releases "For Your Eyes Only" as a 7" single.

B-side instrumental.

1989: Licence to Kill released in Iceland.
2007: John Edmund Gardner dies at age 80--Basingstoke, Hampshire, England.
(Born 20 November 1926--Seaton Delaval, Northumberland, England.)

John Gardner
Prolific thriller writer behind the revival of James Bond and Professor Moriarty
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/nov/02/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries
Mike Ripley - 3 Nov 2007 19.53 EDT

John Gardner, who has died aged 80, was the consummate thriller writer, producing more than 50 novels. But he owed his reputation to James Bond. His early success came with send-ups of the Bond genre, and he was to find greater fame, if not satisfaction, in reinventing Agent 007 almost 20 years after the death of the secret agent's creator, Ian Fleming.

Born in Seaton Delaval, then in Northumberland, Gardner was the only child of an Anglican priest - the family moved south when his father became chaplain at St Mary's, Wantage, Berkshire, where Gardner attended King Alfred's school. During the second world war, he joined the Home Guard aged only 14. He then served in the Fleet Air Arm in 1944 and the Royal Marine commandos in the Middle and Far East. After the war, he read theology at St John's College, Cambridge, and entered the Anglican priesthood, but after five years and a crisis of faith, he turned to journalism as drama critic of the Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, and to drink.

By the age of 33, he realised that his intake of gin qualified him as an alcoholic. As part of his therapy, he wrote Spin the Bottle (1963), a memoir about his relationship with alcohol. He claimed never to have touched booze since 1959, and the memoir - his only non-fiction book - launched him on a writing career.

Gardner's first novel, The Liquidator, a spoof of the Bond books, was published in 1964, the year of Fleming's death. The anti-hero, Boysie Oakes, had one drawback as a licensed-to-kill man of action: he was a coward who hated violence and sub-contracted parts of his missions to an assassin.

The book was filmed by Jack Cardiff, with Rod Taylor in the Oakes role and Eric Sykes as the hit man. Gardner was unimpressed with the result, but he was far less complimentary about Michael Winner's 1973 film The Stone Killer, starring Charles Bronson, adapted from his novel, A Complete State of Death (not one of the Oakes series), which he wrote in 1969 under the pen name Derek Torry.

Seven more Oakes books followed, including Amber Nine (1966), in which the villain turned out to be Hitler's long-lost daughter. By 1974, though, Gardner was ready for a change and launched a new series based on the diaries of Professor James Moriarty, the nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. He intended a trilogy, but after the appearance of The Return of Moriarty (1974) and The Revenge of Moriarty (1975), he could not agree a publishing deal for a third book, and, in any case, Bond was about to intervene once more.

While living in tax exile in Ireland, Gardner was approached by crime novelist and president of the Detection Club Harry Keating, on behalf of the Fleming estate. The proposition was to reinvent the Bond books for the late 1970s. Gardner, by now the author of 17 novels and two collections of short stories, was at first reluctant to commit. But in the end he convinced himself he could "round out" the character.

Licence Renewed (1976) was the first in a franchise which lasted 20 years. There was a media frenzy at the return to the page of a more politically correct Bond - and an outcry that 007 was now driving a Saab 900 Turbo.

Although they brought him wealth and a worldwide audience, Gardner never seemed comfortable with the Bond franchise, though he remained proud of one title, The Man From Barbarossa. Within three years, he had launched a series of five much grittier, hardboiled espionage thrillers, starting with The Nostradamus Traitor (1979) starring "Big" Herbie Kruger, a character shaped by the second world war - as Gardner had been.

Gardner wrote more Bond books than Fleming - a total of 16, two based on the films Licensed [sic] to Kill (1989) and GoldenEye (1995) - but in the same period, he also produced the Kruger books, another trilogy of spy stories and six stand-alone thrillers.

Gardner moved to America in 1989, but ill-health forced him to relinquish the Bond franchise to Raymond Benson in 1996. Medical bills for treating cancer of the oesophagus forced his return to England in reduced circumstances, only to suffer further when his wife of more than 40 years, Margaret, died suddenly the following year.

Now living quietly in an almshouse in Basingstoke, he turned to his own memories of wartime Britain for his final series of thrillers, featuring Detective Sergeant Suzie Mountford. The first, Bottled Spider, was published in 2002. The leading character was based on Gardner's youthful romance with a nurse named Patricia Mountford, who, some 50 years after their last meeting, contacted him after reading about her namesake. The couple enjoyed a romantic reunion.

In the field of espionage fiction, Gardner lacked the intellectual complexities of John le Carré or the stylistic innovations of Len Deighton or Anthony Price, but he was a prolific and reliable deliverer to a thrill-seeking audience. Harsher critics have suggested he fed off the creations of others. He always knew that Bond would overshadow everything, and longed to be remembered as more than the man who brought back 007. In that, despite 52 novels, he probably failed.

The fifth Suzie Mountford book, No Human Enemy, has just been published. The third Moriarty book, The Redemption of Moriarty, completed shortly before Gardner's death, will be published posthumously. He is survived by the son and daughter of his marriage, Simon and Alexis; Miranda, the daughter of his relationship with Susan Wright; and Patricia Mountford, to whom he was engaged.

· John Edmund Gardner, writer, born November 20 1926; died August 3 2007

John Gardner (British Writer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gardner_(British_writer)

Works

Autobiography

Spin the Bottle (1964)

Boysie Oakes novels

The Liquidator (1964)
Understrike (1965)
Amber Nine (1966)
Madrigal (1967)
Founder Member (1969)
Traitor's Exit (1970)
The Airline Pirates (1970) - published in the US as Air Apparent
A Killer for a Song (1975)

Two Boysie Oakes short stories appear in The Assassination File (A Handful of Rice, Corkscrew).
Two Boysie Oakes short stories appear in Hideaway (Boysie Oakes and The Explosive Device, Sunset At Paleokastritsa).

Derek Torry novels

A Complete State of Death (1969) - reissued in the US as The Stone Killer
The Corner Men (1974)

Professor Moriarty novels

The Return of Moriarty (1974)
The Revenge of Moriarty (1975)
Moriarty (2008)

Herbie Kruger novels

The Nostradamus Traitor (1979)
The Garden of Weapons (1980)
The Quiet Dogs (1982)
Maestro (1993)
Confessor (1995)

Herbie Kruger also appears in The Secret Houses and The Secret Families.

The Railton family novels

The Secret Generations (1985)
The Secret Houses (1988)
The Secret Families (1989)

James Bond novels

Licence Renewed (1981)
For Special Services (1982)
Icebreaker (1983)
Role of Honour (1984)
Nobody Lives for Ever (1986)
No Deals, Mr. Bond (1987)
Scorpius (1988)
Win, Lose or Die (1989)
Licence to Kill (1989) – novelization of a film script
Brokenclaw (1990)
The Man from Barbarossa (1991)
Death is Forever (1992)
Never Send Flowers (1993)
SeaFire (1994)
GoldenEye (1995) – novelization of a film script
Cold (1996) – published in the US as Cold Fall

Detective Sergeant Suzie Mountford novels

Bottled Spider (2002)
The Streets of Town (2003)
Angels Dining at the Ritz (2004)
Troubled Midnight (2005)
No Human Enemy (2007)

Other novels

The Censor (1970)
Every Night's a Bullfight (1971) (Published in the US in a bowdlerized edition as Every Night's a Festival in 1972.)
To Run a Little Faster (1976)
The Werewolf Trace (1977)
The Dancing Dodo (1978)
Golgotha (1980) - (Published in the US as The Last Trump)
The Director (1982) (A re-working of his 1971 novel Every Night's a Bullfight.)
Flamingo (1983)
Blood of the Fathers (1992) (as by "Edmund McCoy". Later published under his own name in 2004.)
Day of Absolution (2000)

Short story collections

Hideaway (1968) (Contains two Boysie Oakes stories.)
The Assassination File (1974) (Contains two Boysie Oakes stories.)

RichardTheBruce

August 4th

1901: Louis Armstrong is born--New Orleans, Louisiana.
(He dies 6 July 1971 at age 69--New York City, New York.)

Louis Armstrong
https://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/biography/

Biography

Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. He was raised by his mother Mayann in a neighborhood so dangerous it was called “The Battlefield.” He only had a fifth-grade education, dropping out of school early to go to work. An early job working for the Jewish Karnofsky family allowed Armstrong to make enough money to purchase his first cornet.

On New Year’s Eve 1912, he was arrested and sent to the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys. There, under the tutelage of Peter Davis, he learned how to properly play the cornet, eventually becoming the leader of the Waif’s Home Brass Band. Released from the Waif’s Home in 1914, Armstrong set his sights on becoming a professional musician. Mentored by the city’s top cornetist, Joe “King” Oliver, Armstrong soon became one of the most in-demand cornetists in town, eventually working steadily on Mississippi riverboats.

In 1922, King Oliver sent for Armstrong to join his band in Chicago. Armstrong and Oliver became the talk of the town with their intricate two-cornet breaks and started making records together in 1923. By that point, Armstrong began dating the pianist in the band, Lillian Hardin. In 1924, Armstrong married Hardin, who urged Armstrong to leave Oliver and try to make it on his own. A year in New York with Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra proved unsatisfying so Armstrong returned to Chicago in 1925 and began making records under his own name for the first time.

Hotter Than That

The records by Louis Armstrong and His Five–and later, Hot Seven–are the most influential in jazz. Armstrong’s improvised solos transformed jazz from an ensemble-based music into a soloist’s art, while his expressive vocals incorporated innovative bursts of scat singing and an underlying swing feel. By the end of the decade, the popularity of the Hot Fives and Sevens was enough to send Armstrong back to New York, where he appeared in the popular Broadway revue, “Hot Chocolates.” He soon began touring and never really stopped until his death in 1971.

The 1930s also found Armstrong achieving great popularity on radio, in films, and with his recordings. He performed in Europe for the first time in 1932 and returned in 1933, staying for over a year because of a damaged lip. Back in America in 1935, Armstrong hired Joe Glaser as his manager and began fronting a big band, recording pop songs for Decca, and appearing regularly in movies. He began touring the country in the 1940s.

Ambassador Satch

In 1947, the waning popularity of the big bands forced Armstrong to begin fronting a small group, Louis Armstrong and His All Stars. Personnel changed over the years but this remained Armstrong’s main performing vehicle for the rest of his career. He had a string of pop hits beginning in 1949 and started making regular overseas tours, where his popularity was so great, he was dubbed “Ambassador Satch.”

In America, Armstrong had been a great Civil Rights pioneer for his race, breaking down numerous barriers as a young man. In the 1950s, he was sometimes criticized for his onstage persona and called an “Uncle Tom” but he silenced critics by speaking out against the government’s handling of the “Little Rock Nine” high school integration crisis in 1957.

Armstrong continued touring the world and making records with songs like “Blueberry Hill” (1949), “Mack the Knife” (1955) and “Hello, Dolly! (1964),” the latter knocking the Beatles off the top of the pop charts at the height of Beatlemania.

Good Evening Everybody

The many years of constant touring eventually wore down Armstrong, who had his first heart attack in 1959 and returned to intensive care at Beth Israel Hospital for heart and kidney trouble in 1968. Doctors advised him not to play but Armstrong continued to practice every day in his Corona, Queens home, where he had lived with his fourth wife, Lucille, since 1943. He returned to performing in 1970 but it was too much, too soon and he passed away in his sleep on July 6, 1971, a few months after his final engagement at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band (first recording for Louis Armstrong), Gennett Studios, Richmond, Indiana, 1923.

And his last.

1960: In a letter to artist Richard Chopping, Ian Fleming requests his services for 200 guineas.

"I will ask [the publisher] to produce an elegant
skeleton hand and an elegant Queen of Hearts.
As to the dagger, I really have no strong views.
I had thought of the ordinary flick knife as used
by teenagers on people like you and me, but if
you have a nice dagger in mind please let us use it.
The title of the book will be Thunderball.
It is immensely long, immensely dull and only
your jacket can save it!"

1967: You Only Live Twice released in Ireland.
1969: John Barry signs on to score On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
2001: Pierce Brosnan weds Keely Shaye Smith at Ballintubber Abbey, County Mayo, Ireland.

2008: Sony Ericsson reveals its James Bond themed C902 phone and Pocket Gamer.

Sony Ericsson unveils James Bond themed C902 phone
Complete with preloaded spying game
pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Mobile/Sony+Ericsson+C902/news.asp?c=8175
Product: Sony Ericsson C902 | Manufacturer: Sony Ericsson
by Stuart Dredge

Getting excited about upcoming James Bond flick Quantum of Solace yet? We're still boggling at the rubbish name, to be honest.

But anyway, Sony Ericsson is excited, because its C902 handset will feature in the film, possibly during a scene where Bond whiles away several hours in a Haitian jail cell by playing Tower Bloxx Deluxe. Or not.

To celebrate, the company is launching a limited-edition silver edition of the phone, with all manner of 007 branding and content.

That includes the official James Bond: Top Agent game, as well as the new film's trailer, video interviews with its stars, and wallpapers and screensavers.

It's the second Sony Ericsson Bond mobile, following 2006's silver K800i model. The C902 is more focused on photography than gaming, but Sony Ericsson's track record means it'll be good for the latter, too.

The Bond edition goes on sale in November, when the film comes out. If you're wondering why the photo above isn't silver, well, SE hasn't released a shot of the new one yet.

2017: ITV promotes Daniel Craig in Casino Royale but airs the 1967 version, disappointing many.

ITV4 has James Bond fans shaken and stirred
by airing the wrong Casino Royale
Somebody at MI6 is getting fired...
By Justin Harp | 04/08/2017

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/james-bond-007/news/a834825/itv4-airs-wrong-james-bond-film-casino-royale/

RichardTheBruce

August 5th

1906: John Marcellus Huston is born--Nevada, Missouri.
(He dies 28 August 1987 as an Irish citizen--Middletown, Rhode Island.)

John Huston
American director, writer, and actor
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Huston
Written By: Michael Barson
Last Updated: Aug 1, 2019 See Article History

John Huston, in full John Marcellus Huston, (born August 5, 1906, Nevada, Missouri, U.S—died August 28, 1987, Middletown, Rhode Island), American motion-picture director, writer, and actor whose taut dramas were among the most popular Hollywood films from the early 1940s to the mid-1980s. Many of his films were literary adaptations or tough action tales with an existential spin. Indeed, his own life—in which Huston starred as a boxer, painter, horseman, gadabout, rebel, and international ladies’ man (who married six times)—was at least as engaging as many of his movies.
Early work

Huston was born in a small town in Missouri that his grandfather claimed to have won in a poker game. Huston’s father, Walter Huston, had given up stage acting for work as a civil engineer that took his family to Texas and Indiana before he decided to return to acting in 1909. Within a few years Huston’s parents were divorced, and he spent his childhood moving between his father, who initially returned to vaudeville, and his mother, Reah, who worked as a journalist and taught him to both ride and bet on horses. Although he suffered from kidney disease and an enlarged heart, Huston overcame a frail, often bedridden youth to become so robust a teenager that he was the amateur lightweight boxing champion of California (with a distinctive broken nose to show for it). After briefly studying painting in Los Angeles, Huston moved to New York City in 1924 to become an actor and performed with the Provincetown Players in Greenwich Village. In 1925, while vacationing in Mexico, he became an honorary member of the Mexican cavalry.

Returning to New York in 1929, Huston took a job as a reporter at the New York Graphic, where his mother was then working. He also began writing and publishing short stories, most notably “Fool,” which appeared in the literary magazine The American Mercury. In 1931 Huston went to Hollywood. After a false start as a contract writer with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), he moved to Universal, contributing to the screenplays of a pair of films starring his father, A House Divided (1931) and Law and Order (1932). During this period of hard drinking and carousing, a car that Huston was driving hit and killed a pedestrian. Consumed with guilt, he moved to London, where he intended to write for the British studio Gaumont but instead lived a ne’er-do-well existence. After a stint in Paris painting, he returned to the United States.

In 1934 Huston played the lead in the Chicago Works Progress Administration production of Robert E. Sherwood’s play Abe Lincoln in Illinois. By 1937 Huston was back in Hollywood, where Warner Brothers signed him to a screenwriting contract. This time his career was on track. Huston collaborated on the scripts for William Wyler’s Jezebel (1938), Anatole Litvak’s The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938), and William Dieterle’s Juárez (1939) before directing his father in A Passage to Bali on Broadway in 1940.

Films of the 1940s

Huston then cowrote three exceptional films: Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet (1940) for Dieterle, High Sierra (1941) for Raoul Walsh, and Sergeant York for Howard Hawks, the last of which earned Huston his first Academy Award nomination, for best original screenplay in 1941.

That year Huston was also nominated for an Academy Award in another screenwriting category for his adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s detective mystery The Maltese Falcon (1941), which was Huston’s first film as a director—perhaps the most-impressive debut in Hollywood during the 1940s. The Maltese Falcon had already been filmed by Warner Brothers in 1931 and 1936, but Huston’s proto-film noir had the advantage of Huston as the screenwriter, Humphrey Bogart as the amoral private eye Sam Spade, Mary Astor as the immoral Brigid O’Shaughnessey, and Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre as a pair of lovable cutthroats. It was nominated for the Academy Award for best picture.

After directing the melodrama In This Our Life (1942), Huston was unable to complete his next project, the high-seas espionage tale Across the Pacific (1942), because he was drafted. For the U.S. Army’s Pictorial Service, Huston directed and narrated the renowned World War II documentaries Report from the Aleutians (1943), The Battle of San Pietro (1945), and Let There Be Light, the last a disturbing study of emotionally unstable veterans in a Long Island hospital that was so powerful that it was not given a public release until the early 1980s. Huston was discharged from the army in 1945 with the rank of major and awarded the Legion of Merit for making his films under perilous battle conditions.

Back in the United States, he worked on the scripts for Robert Siodmak’s The Killers and Orson Welles’s The Stranger (both 1946). Huston also directed Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit on Broadway in 1946. In 1947, as the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) geared up for its initial wave of hearings into the Hollywood community’s past or present communist affiliations, Huston joined with director William Wyler and screenwriter Philip Dunne in establishing the Committee for the First Amendment. Huston was part of a delegation of industry liberals—including Bogart and Lauren Bacall—who flew to Washington, D.C., to support those witnesses who had taken a confrontational stand when called to testify before the HUAC. Like other members of the delegation, however, Huston was put off by the aggressive belligerence of the “unfriendly” witnesses who would become known as the Hollywood Ten, though he remained disgusted by the proceedings as a whole.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) was Huston’s return to motion-picture directing in Hollywood. Adapted by Huston from an obscure novel by the mysterious, reclusive writer B. Traven and shot on location in Mexico, it starred Bogart in the decidedly unheroic role of a paranoid prospector, Fred C. Dobbs. As good as Bogart was in depicting Dobbs’s descent into madness, most critics believed that he was out-acted by Walter Huston as the grizzled, sagacious Howard, who tries in vain to keep greed from consuming the little treasure-seeking band. (This was the first time that Huston had cast his father in a major role, though he had appeared in unbilled cameos in The Maltese Falcon and In This Our Life.) Although The Treasure of the Sierra Madre would become one of Huston’s greatest critical triumphs and continues to be widely considered one of the best films of its time, it was a box-office disaster, perhaps because of its grim ending and the daring casting of Bogart against type. Still, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture, Huston won the awards for best director and best screenplay, and his father was named best supporting actor.

Humphrey Bogart (centre) and Walter Huston (right) in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).
Courtesy of Warner Brothers, Inc.

Bogart, Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, and Claire Trevor starred in Huston’s next film, Key Largo (1948), a suspenseful adaptation of a Maxwell Anderson play that is regarded as a classic film noir. With a screenplay by Huston and Richard Brooks, it is set in a small hotel in the Florida Keys that is taken over by a gangster (Robinson) who has made a clandestine return from deportation to Cuba. Trevor won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her portrayal of the gangster’s mistress. Cuba was then the setting for We Were Strangers (1949), an atmospheric account of revolutionaries’ attempt to overthrow the government, which starred Jennifer Jones and John Garfield.

Films of the 1950s

Huston thought of himself as a writer-director and almost always had a hand in the screenplays for his films, though he preferred working in collaboration with other writers. A lover of literature from the time he learned to read at age three, he drew the stories for his films primarily from novels and plays. The Asphalt Jungle (1950) was based on the hard-boiled crime novel of the same name by W.R. Burnett, who had provided the source novels for High Sierra and Mervyn LeRoy’s Little Caesar (1931). Sam Jaffe, Sterling Hayden, and James Whitmore starred in that caper film noir as a gang plotting the multimillion-dollar robbery of a jewelry exchange. A thrilling exercise in fatalism, The Asphalt Jungle was one of Huston’s most expertly structured films and earned him and cowriter Ben Maddow an Academy Award nomination for their screenplay.

Huston was less fortunate with his 1951 adaptation of Stephen Crane’s literary classic The Red Badge of Courage. Real-life World War II hero Audie Murphy starred in this story of a young Union soldier who deserts his company during the American Civil War. With the Korean War raging, MGM executives felt that the film’s antiwar message was too blatant and cut The Red Badge of Courage down to 69 minutes. (The undoctored version was among Huston’s favourites of his films.) Nevertheless, what remained, including some magnificently staged battle scenes, was impressive enough to have been called a minor masterpiece by Lillian Ross of The New Yorker magazine; she published the book Picture (1952), which chronicled the film’s making.

Much of Huston’s next film, The African Queen (1951), was shot on location in Uganda and Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Novelist and pioneering film critic James Agee worked with Huston on the adaptation of C.S. Forester’s popular novel (as did the uncredited John Collier and Peter Viertel). The performances delivered by Bogart and Katharine Hepburn were among their most memorable, as drunken boat captain Charlie Allnut and as Rosie Sayer, the impossibly prim spinster who convinces him to take her on his rattletrap steamer down the Congo River to civilization at the outset of World War I. This splendid romance-comedy-adventure has remained one of the most popular Hollywood movies of all time. Huston was again nominated for Academy Awards for best director and best screenplay; Bogart won the award for best actor.



In 1952 Huston traveled to France to shoot Moulin Rouge (1952), a gorgeously mounted, sentimental biography of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (played José Ferrer), the crippled artist who became the toast of Montmartre for his lively artworks. Moulin Rouge was nominated for the Academy Award for best picture, and Huston was nominated for best director, the fourth time in five years that he had been nominated for that award. He would have to wait 33 years before the Academy nominated him again, as he entered the extended hit-or-miss phase of his career.

Written with Truman Capote and cofinanced by Bogart’s Santana production company, Beat the Devil (1954) was filmed in Italy. A delightful spoof of The Maltese Falcon, it featured Bogart, Lorre, Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley, and Gina Lollobrigida as a motley shipboard assembly of adventurers, frauds, and con artists trying to locate a uranium mine while enduring a variety of comic disasters. Capote later said that they made up the story as they went along, an irreverent approach perhaps better suited to sensibilities in the 21st century than to those of the 1950s. Beat the Devil was a box-office disaster and precipitated a split between Bogart (who called the film “a mess”) and Huston after many years of fruitful collaboration.

Moby Dick (1956), Huston’s epic adaptation of Herman Melville’s novel, was shot in Ireland, where Huston had gone to live in 1952, largely because he had become disgusted by the political climate of the United States during the McCarthy era. Although some critics found the stolid Gregory Peck badly suited to the role of the fiery, obsessed Captain Ahab, Huston and Ray Bradbury captured much of the poetry of Melville in their script, and the sea storm and whaling sequences were impressively staged. Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), a much quieter affair, starred Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr as a marine and a nun stranded on a Pacific island during World War II. Kerr received an Academy Award nomination for best actress, and Huston’s and John Lee Mahin’s screenplay was also nominated.

Huston began working on David O. Selznick’s remake of A Farewell to Arms (1957) but departed the production to instead direct the undistinguished period film The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958). Filmed in French Equatorial Africa with Errol Flynn and Trevor Howard, The Roots of Heaven (1958) followed and drew mixed reviews.

Films of the 1960s

Something of a return to form for Huston, The Unforgiven (1960) starred Audrey Hepburn in the only western role of her career, as a Native American who has been raised by a Texas settler family. The troubled history of the making of Huston’s next film, The Misfits (1961), became a staple of Hollywood lore. Playwright Arthur Miller adapted his own short story for that very different kind of western as a vehicle for Marilyn Monroe (his wife, though their marriage was collapsing). Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, and Eli Wallach portrayed aging modern-day cowboys who capture wild horses and sell them to be slaughtered for dog food. Monroe played a divorced former stripper who questions the wranglers’ morality as she falls for one of them (Gable). With her personal life in a tailspin, Monroe reportedly drove Huston to distraction during the filming, showing up on the set late, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and blowing her lines. This was her last completed role before her death in August 1962. Moreover, eight days after shooting was completed on the film, Gable died of a heart attack.

Huston himself narrated the somber Freud (1962), in which Clift (in one his last roles) played the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. The playful mystery The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) featured a roster of big-name stars (including Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, and Tony Curtis) who were all but unrecognizable under layers of makeup. Their performances were less memorable, however, than Huston’s portrayal the same year of a Roman Catholic cardinal in another film, Otto Preminger’s The Cardinal. That performance earned Huston an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor and started a new parallel career for him as an actor.

Huston’s The Night of the Iguana (1964), shot in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, offered another all-star cast (Kerr, Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Sue Lyon) in an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s play of the same name that was steeped in psychoses, thwarted desires, and carnal confusion. Huston then decided to make The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966); however, the nearly three hours of Old Testament melodramatics he offered were little appreciated by audiences and critics (though Huston himself turned in an estimable performance as Noah). Huston’s 1967 film version of Carson McCullers’s 1941 novella Reflections in a Golden Eye was a commercial failure but has come to be more widely appreciated with the passage of time. Marlon Brando gave one of his uniquely odd performances as a repressed homosexual army officer whose Southern belle wife (Elizabeth Taylor) becomes involved with another officer (Brian Keith).

In 1967 Huston acted in and was one of five directors who had a hand in guiding Casino Royale, a parody of Ian Fleming’s first James Bond thriller. His string of lacklustre films continued with A Walk with Love and Death (1969), a forgettable medieval drama that is most-notable today for having provided daughter Anjelica Huston with her first lead role in a movie; Sinful Davey (1969), with John Hurt; and the Cold War thriller The Kremlin Letter (1970).

Last films

Fat City, an adaptation of Leonard Gardner’s novel about small-time boxers, significantly reversed Huston’s fortunes as a director and was one of 1972’s most-acclaimed motion pictures. Here Huston had a chance to draw upon his experiences as a boxer in California five decades earlier, and he deftly teased out the downbeat story’s essence. Stacy Keach played a washed-up boxer in Stockton, Susan Tryrell earned an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress for her portrayal of his drink-besotted girlfriend, and Jeff Bridges was terrific as a younger fighter with a less-than-promising future.

Huston’s follow-up was the revisionist western The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1973), a loose biography of the notorious self-appointed hanging judge Roy Bean, which featured Paul Newman in the title role, an irreverent screenplay by John Milius, and a supporting cast that included Anthony Perkins, Ava Gardner, and Huston himself. Newman starred again in the Walter Hill-scripted espionage thriller The Mackintosh Man (1973). Then Huston managed to set a new acting standard for himself in Roman Polanski’s classic film noir Chinatown (1974) as the loathsome, evil Noah Cross.

For decades Huston had thought about making The Man Who Would Be King (1975). In the 1950s he had wanted Bogart and Gable to play the intrepid explorers at the centre of Rudyard Kipling’s short story; in the 1960s he had envisioned Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole as the leads. In the event, Sean Connery and Michael Caine, two of the biggest stars of the 1970s, got the roles and traveled to Morocco, which stood in for the story’s Afghanistan locale. Both Connery, as the swaggering Danny, who is taken for a god and comes to believe it himself, and Caine, as his slightly dim sidekick Peachy, gave marvelous performances. Although the film was not particularly successful at the box office and received respectful but restrained reviews, it proved to be a morality tale of unusual resonance and came to be regarded as among Huston’s finest films.

Four years passed before Huston was able to bring to the screen another favourite project, Wise Blood (1979). Brad Dourif played a fanatical Southern evangelist in this adaptation of Flannery O’Connor’s darkly comic novel of the same name. Huston’s next film, the low-budget Hitchcockian thriller Phobia (1981), was arguably the nadir of his directorial career. Much better received was the World War II drama Victory (1981), which featured Caine, Sylvester Stallone, and football (soccer) great Pelé as Allied prisoners of war who engineer an escape from the Parisian stadium in which their team of prisoners is playing a German all-star team. Huston’s uneven big-budget adaptation of the Broadway hit Annie (1982) was his one and only musical. Filmed in Mexico, Under the Volcano (1984) was a valiant but ultimately failed attempt to capture Malcolm Lowry’s difficult novel.

Far more satisfying was Prizzi’s Honor (1985), a stylized version of Richard Condon’s novel (adapted by Condon and Janet Roach) about the Mafia. Jack Nicholson delivered what many critics considered to be among his best performances as mob hit man Charley Partanna. He falls for a woman (Kathleen Turner) who turns out not only to share his profession but to become his target. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for best picture, Huston for best director, and Nicholson for best actor, while Anjelica Huston won the award for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Charley’s mistress. Throughout the 1970s and early ’80s Huston continued to act periodically in others’ films, perhaps most notably in Winter Kills (1979), a thriller based on another Condon novel.

In 1987 Huston joined Anjelica and his oldest son, Tony Huston, to make what would be his final movie, The Dead (Anjelica acted in it, and Tony was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay). Based on the short story “The Dead” from James Joyce’s Dubliners, the film focused on a holiday party hosted by a pair of elderly sisters and their niece in turn-of-the-20th-century Dublin. Poignant, stately, and expertly acted, The Dead was just completed when the ailing Huston (who directed the film from a wheelchair, breathing from an oxygen tank) died at age 81. More than a few critics saw The Dead as a fitting epitaph for this prodigiously gifted storyteller.

Michael Barson

John Huston
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Huston
Filmography

Director

1941
The Maltese Falcon
-Nominated-Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay
1942
In This Our Life
Across the Pacific
1946
Let There Be Light Documentary
1948
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Academy Award for Best Director
-Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
-Golden Globe Award for Best Director
-New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director
-Nominated—Venice Film Festival Grand International Award
Key Largo
1949 We Were Strangers

1950
The Asphalt Jungle National Board of Review Award for Best Director
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Director
-Nominated—Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film
-Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Director
-Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director
-Nominated—Venice Film Festival Golden Lion

1951
The Red Badge of Courage
The African Queen
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Director
-Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director
1952
Moulin Rouge Venice Film Festival Silver Lion
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Picture
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Director
-Nominated—Venice Film Festival Golden Lion
1953
Beat the Devil
1956
Moby Dick
-Silver Ribbon for Best Foreign Film
-National Board of Review Award for Best Director
-New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director
-Nominated—Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film
1957
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
-Nominated—Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film
1958
The Barbarian and the Geisha
The Roots of Heaven

1960
The Unforgiven
The Misfits
-Nominated—Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film
1962
Freud
-Nominated—Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film
-Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Director
-Nominated—Golden Bear for Best Motion Picture
1963
The List of Adrian Messenger
1964
The Night of the Iguana
-Nominated—Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film
-Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Director
1966
The Bible
-Nominated—David di Donatello for Best Foreign Director
1967
Reflections in a Golden Eye
Casino Royale
1969
Sinful Davey
A Walk with Love and Death
1970
The Kremlin Letter
1972
Fat City
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
1973
The Mackintosh Man
1975
The Man Who Would Be King
1976
Independence, Documentary
1979
Wise Blood
-Nominated—Gold Hugo for Best Feature
-Nominated— San Sebastián International Film Festival for Best Film

1980
Phobia
1981
Victory
-Nominated—Moscow International Film Festival Golden Prize
1982
Annie
1984
Under the Volcano
-Nominated—Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or
1985
Prizzi's Honor
-Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director
-Golden Globe Award for Best Director
-National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director
-New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director
-Venice Film Festival Golden Ciak for Best Film
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Director
-Nominated—David di Donatello for Best Foreign Director
-Nominated—Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film
-Nominated—Silver Ribbon for Best Foreign Director
-Nominated—Venice Film Festival Golden Lion
1987
The Dead
-Bodil Award for Best Non-European Film
-French Syndicate of Cinema Critics for Best Foreign Film
-Independent Spirit Award for Best Director
-London Film Critics Circle Award for Director of the Year
-Silver Guild Film Award for Best Foreign Film
-Nominated—David di Donatello for Best Foreign Film
-Nominated—David di Donatello for Best Foreign Director
-Nominated—National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director
-Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director
-Nominated—Tokyo International Film Festival Grand Prix

Screenwriter

1930
The Storm, William Wyler (written with Charles Logue, Langdon McCormick, Tom Reed, and Wells Root)
1931
A House Divided, (written with John B. Clymer, Olive Edens, and Dale Van Every)
1932
Murders in the Rue Morgue, Robert Florey (written with Tom Reed, and Dale Van Every)
1932
Law and Order, Edward L. Cahn (written with Tom Reed, and Richard Schayer)
1935
Death Drives Through, Edward L. Cahn (written with Katherine Strueby, and Gordon Wellesley)
It Happened in Paris, Robert Wyler
Carol Reed (written with Katherine Strueby, H. F. Maltby)
1938
The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, Anatole Litvak (written with John Wexley)
Jezebel, William Wyler (written with Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel, and Robert Buckner)
1940
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, William Dieterle (written with Norman Burnstine and Heinz Herald)
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
1941
High Sierra, Raoul Walsh (written with W. R. Burnett)
The Maltese Falcon, Himself
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
Sergeant York, Howard Hawks (written with Abem Finkel, Harry Chandler, and Howard Koch)
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
1946 The Killers, Robert Siodmak (written with Anthony Veiller)
(uncredited)
The Three Strangers, Jean Negulesco (written with Howard Koch)
1948
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Himself
-Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
-National Board of Review Award for Best Screenplay
-Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Western
-Nominated—Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Drama
Key Largo, (written with Richard Brooks)
-Nominated—Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Drama
1949
We Were Strangers, (written with Peter Viertel)

1950
The Asphalt Jungle, (written with Ben Maddow)
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
-Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay
-Nominated—The Robert Meltzer Award (Screenplay Dealing Most Ably with Problems of the American Scene)
-Nominated—Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Drama
1951
The African Queen, (written with James Agee)
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
1952
Moulin Rouge, (written with Anthony Veiller)
-Nominated—Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Drama
1953
Beat the Devil, (written with Truman Capote)
1956
Moby Dick, (written with Ray Bradbury)
-New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay (2nd place)
1957 Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (written with John Lee Mahin)
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
-Nominated—Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Drama
1961
The Asphalt Jungle, Herman Hoffman (written with Ben Maddow; teleplay by George Bellak)
Television; episode "The Professor"
1964
The Night of the Iguana, Himself (written with Anthony Veiller)
-Nominated—Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Drama
1970
The Kremlin Letter, (written with Gladys Hill)
1975
The Man Who Would Be King, (written with Gladys Hill)
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
-Nominated—Writers Guild of America Award for Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium
1988
Mr. North, Danny Huston (written with Janet Roach and James Costigan)

Actor

1929
The Shakedown, Extra Directed by William Wyler
Hell's Heroes

1930
The Storm
1948
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, American in Tampico in White Suit Also director
Uncredited
1949
We Were Strangers, Señor Muñoz

1951
The Red Badge of Courage, Grizzled union veteran
1956
Moby Dick, Barman / ship's lookout (voice)

1961
The Misfits, Extra in Blackjack scene
1962
Freud: The Secret Passion, Narrator
The List of Adrian Messenger, Lord Ashton
1963
The Cardinal, Cardinal Lawrence Glennon Directed by Otto Preminger
-Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
-Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
-Nominated—Laurel Award for Top Male Supporting Performance
1966
The Bible, Noah Also director
The Legend of Marilyn Monroe, Narrator, Directed by Terry Sanders
1967
Casino Royale, M / General McTarry, Also co-director
1968
Candy, Dr. Arnold Dunlap, Directed by Christian Marquand
1969
De Sade, The Abbe, Directed by Cy Endfield
A Walk with Love and Death, Robert the Elder, Also director
1970
The Kremlin Letter, Admiral
Myra Breckinridge, Buck Loner, Directed by Michael Sarne
1971
The Bridge in the Jungle, Sleigh, Directed by Pancho Kohner
The Deserter, General Miles, Directed by Burt Kennedy
Man in the Wilderness, Captain Henry, Directed by Richard C. Sarafian
1972
Appointment with Destiny, Narrator, Episode: "The Crucifixion of Jesus"
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Grizzly Adams, Also director
1973
Battle for the Planet of the Apes, The Lawgiver, Directed by J. Lee Thompson
1974
Chinatown, Noah Cross, Directed by Roman Polanski
-Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
-Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor
-Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
1975
Breakout, Harris Wagner, Directed by Tom Gries
The Wind and the Lion, John Hay, Directed by John Milius
1976
Sherlock Holmes in New York, Professor Moriarty, Directed by Boris Sagal
1977
The Rhinemann Exchange, Ambassador Henderson Granville, Directed by Burt Kennedy
Tentacles, Ned Turner, Directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis
Angela, Hogan, Directed by Boris Sagal
The Hobbit, Gandalf, Directed by Arthur Rankin, Jr., Jules Bass
1978
The Greatest Battle, Sean O'Hara, Directed by Umberto Lenzi
The Bermuda Triangle, Edward, Directed by René Cardona, Jr.
The Word, Nathan Randall, TV miniseries
1979
The Visitor, Jerzy Colsowicz, Directed by Giulio Paradisi
Winter Kills, Pa Kegan, Directed by William Richert
Wise Blood, Grandfather, Also director
Jaguar Lives! Ralph Richards, Directed by Ernest Pintoff

1980
The Return of the King, Gandalf, Directed by Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Head On, Clarke Hil,l Directed by Michael Grant
1982
Cannery Row, Narrator, Directed by David S. Ward
Annie, Actor on radio, Also director
Uncredited
1983
Lovesick, Larry Geller, M.D., Directed by Marshall Brickman
A Minor Miracle, Father Cardenas, Directed by João Fernandes
1985
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Carlos
Narrator Episode: "Pilot"
Segment: "Man from the South"
Epic, Narrator, Directed by Yoram Gross
The Black Cauldron, Directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich
1986
Momo, Meister Hora, Directed by Johannes Schaaf
1987
Mister Corbett's Ghost, Soul collector, Directed by Danny Huston
2018
The Other Side of the Wind, Jake Hannaford, Directed by Orson Welles. [Scenes filmed in 1974–1975].

Casino Royale (1967)

1963: Ian Fleming appears on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs. His choice: War and Peace.

[img][/img]

07 May 2017
Desert Island Discs: the 40 greatest guests
27 of 40
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/desert-island-discs-40-greatest-guests/ian-fleming/

Ian Fleming (August 5, 1963)

Sadly, only a 10 minute fragment of the James Bond
author's 1963 appearances on the series remains; but we do
know that his -- characteristically cryptic -- choice of book
was a German-language edition of Leo Tolstoy's War and
Peace. A coded message to the real spooks at MI5,
perhaps?

Listen to Ian Fleming on Desert Island Discs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009y5b3

1981: Solo per i tuoi occhi (Only For Your Eyes) released in Italy.

1983: Octopussy released in Austria and Switzerland.

Austria

1983: James Bond 007 - Octopussy released in West Germany.

1987: I skuddlinjen (In the Firing Line) released in Norway.

Semic Comic
[img][/img]

1988: Licence to Kill films Q helping OO7 on his way to the Wavecrest.
2015: News reports say Pierce Brosnan is stopped by airport security in Burlington, Vermont, for having a knife.

RichardTheBruce

August 6th

1962: Jamaica transitions from British colony to independent country.

1962: Michelle Yeoh is born--Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
1970: Al servicio secreto de Su Majestad (To the Secret Service of His Majesty) released in Mexico.

1973: Live and Let Die released in Hong Kong.
1977: Title song "Nobody Does It Better" charts in the UK, eventually reaching number 7.

1981: For Your Eyes Only released in Hong Kong.
1981: James Bond 007 - In tödlicher Mission (James Bond 007 - In a deadly mission) released in Germany.

1986: Licence withdrawn--producer Albert R. Broccoli withdraws the Bond role offer from Pierce Brosnan.
2012: Marvin Frederick Hamlisch dies at age 68--Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
(Born 2 June 1944--New York City, New York.)

Marvin Hamlisch, Whose Notes Struck Gold, Dies at 68
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/arts/music/marvin-hamlisch-composer-dies-at-68.html
By ROB HOERBURGER | AUG. 7, 2012

Marvin Hamlisch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer who imbued his movie and Broadway scores with pizazz and panache and often found his songs in the upper reaches of the pop charts, died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 68 and lived in New York.

He collapsed on Monday after a brief illness, a family friend said.

For a few years starting in 1973, Mr. Hamlisch spent practically as much time accepting awards for his compositions as he did writing them. He is one of a handful of artists to win every major creative prize, some of them numerous times, including an Oscar for “The Way We Were” (1973, shared with the lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman), a Grammy as best new artist (1974), and a Tony and a Pulitzer for “A Chorus Line” (1975, shared with the lyricist Edward Kleban, the director Michael Bennett and the book writers James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante).

All told, he won three Oscars, four Emmys and four Grammys. His omnipresence on awards and talk shows made him one of the last in a line of celebrity composers that included Henry Mancini, Burt Bacharach and Stephen Sondheim. Mr. Hamlisch, bespectacled and somewhat gawky, could often appear to be the stereotypical music school nerd — in fact, at 7 he was the youngest student to be accepted to the Juilliard School at the time — but his appearance belied his intelligence and ability to banter easily with the likes of Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin. His melodies were sure-footed and sometimes swashbuckling. “One,” from “A Chorus Line,” with its punchy, brassy lines, distills the essence of the Broadway showstopper.

Marvin Hamlisch

“A Chorus Line,” a backstage musical in which Broadway dancers told their personal stories, started as a series of taped workshops, then evolved into a show that opened at the Public Theater in 1975 and moved to Broadway later that year. It ran for 6,137 performances, the most of any Broadway musical until it was surpassed by “Cats.”

“I have to keep reminding myself that ‘A Chorus Line’ was initially considered weird and off the wall,” Mr. Hamlisch told The New York Times in 1983. “You mustn’t underestimate an audience’s intelligence.” The lyricist Alan Jay Lerner called “A Chorus Line” “the great show business story of our time.”

Mr. Hamlisch had a long association with Barbra Streisand that began when, at 19, he became a rehearsal pianist for her show “Funny Girl.” Yet he told Current Biography in 1976 that Ms. Streisand was reluctant to record what became the pair’s greatest collaboration, “The Way We Were,” the theme from the 1973 movie of the same name in which Ms. Streisand starred with Robert Redford.

A rehearsal of “A Chorus Line,” with music by Marvin Hamlisch, from 1975. Credit Martha Swope

“I had to beg her to sing it,” he said. “She thought it was too simple.”

Mr. Hamlisch prevailed, though, and the song became a No. 1 pop single, an Oscar winner and a signature song for Ms. Streisand. They continued to work together across the decades; Mr. Hamlisch was the musical director for her 1994 tour and again found himself accepting an award for his work, this time an Emmy.

Ms. Streisand said in a statement through her publicist that the world will always remember Mr. Hamlisch’s music, but that it was “his brilliantly quick mind, his generosity and delicious sense of humor that made him a delight to be around.”

Mr. Hamlisch had his second-biggest pop hit with “Nobody Does It Better,” the theme from the James Bond film “The Spy Who Loved Me,” written with the lyricist Carole Bayer Sager. Carly Simon’s recording of the song reached No. 2 in 1977. Thom Yorke, the lead singer of the band Radiohead, which has performed the song in concert more recently, called it “the sexiest song ever written.”

Mr. Hamlisch with Barbra Streisand. Credit Alex J. Berliner/Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, via Associated Press

Yet for all Mr. Hamlisch’s pop success — he and Ms. Bayer Sager also wrote a No. 1 soul hit for Aretha Franklin, “Break It to Me Gently” — his first love was writing for theater and the movies. His score for “The Sting,” which adapted the ragtime music of Scott Joplin, made him a household ubiquity in 1973.

Despite the acclaim he often said he thought his background scores were underappreciated. He said he would love for an audience to “see a movie once without the music” to appreciate how the experience changed. He would go on to write more than 40 movie scores.

Marvin Frederick Hamlisch was born June 2, 1944, in New York . His father, Max, was an accordionist, and at age 5 Mr. Hamlisch was reproducing on the piano songs he heard on the radio; Juilliard soon followed. According to his wife, Terre Blair, he was being groomed as “the next Horowitz,” but when all the doors were closed and everyone was gone he would play show tunes. He performed some concerts and recitals as a teenager at Town Hall and other Manhattan auditoriums, but soon gave up on the idea of being a full-time performer.

A scene from the final performance of the Broadway musical "A Chorus Line" in 1990. Marvin Hamlisch won a Tony Award for his score to the show. Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

“Before every recital, I would violently throw up, lose weight, the veins on my hands would stand out,” he told Current Biography.

He had no such reaction, though, when his song “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows,” with lyrics by Howard Liebling, became a Top 20 hit in 1965 for Lesley Gore, when Mr. Hamlisch was 21. The movie producer Sam Spiegel heard him playing piano a few years later at a party and as a result Mr. Hamlisch scored his first film, “The Swimmer.”

Mr. Hamlisch soon moved to Los Angeles, and the successes snowballed. But he remained a New Yorker through and through. He once said he liked New York because it was the one place “where you’re allowed to wear a tie.”

Marvin Hamlisch, right, at the piano with the lyricist Howard Ashman in 1986. Credit Nancy Kaye/Associated Press

Mr. Hamlisch is survived by Ms. Blair, a television broadcaster and producer, whom he married in 1989. His sister, Terry Liebling, a Hollywood casting director and the wife of his former collaborator Howard Liebling, died in 2001.

After “A Chorus Line,” Mr. Hamlisch scored another Broadway hit, “They’re Playing Our Song,” based on his relationship with Ms. Bayer Sager (who wrote the lyrics), in 1979. It ran for 1,082 performances. After that, the accolades subsided but the work didn’t. He worked with various lyricists on subesequent musicals, including “Jean Seberg” (1983), which was staged in London but never reached Broadway, and “Smile” (1986), which did reach Broadway but had a very brief run. His most steady work continued to come from the movies. He wrote the background scores for “Ordinary People,” “Sophie’s Choice” and, most recently, “The Informant.” His later theater scores included “The Goodbye Girl” (1993), “Sweet Smell of Success” (2002) and “Imaginary Friends” (2002). He had also completed the scores for an HBO movie based on the life of Liberace, “Behind the Candelabra,” and for a musical based on the Jerry Lewis film “The Nutty Professor,” which opened in Nashville last month.

According to his official Web site, Mr. Hamlisch held the title of pops conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and others.

In more recent years, Mr. Hamlisch became an ambassador for music, traveling the country and performing and giving talks at schools. He often criticized the cuts in arts education.

“I don’t think the American government gets it,” he said during an interview at the Orange County High School of the Arts in Santa Ana, Calif. “I don’t think they understand it’s as important as math and science. It rounds you out as a person. I think it gives you a love of certain things. You don’t have to become the next great composer. It’s just nice to have heard certain things or to have seen certain things. It’s part of being a human being.”

Despite all his honors, Mr. Hamlisch was always most focused on, and most excited about, his newest project. Ms. Blair said. And, she said, he was always appreciative of his gift: “He used to say, ‘It’s easy to write things that are so self-conscious that they become pretentious, that have a lot of noise. It’s very hard to write a simple melody.’ ”

Marvin Hamlisch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Hamlisch

Work

Symphony

Hamlisch was the primary conductor for the Pittsburgh Pops from 1995 until his death.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra performed a rare Hamlisch classical symphonic suite titled Anatomy of Peace (Symphonic Suite in one Movement For Full Orchestra/Chorus/Child Vocal Soloist) on November 19, 1991. It was also performed at Carnegie Hall in 1993, and in Paris in 1994 to commemorate D-Day. The work was recorded by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1992. The Anatomy of Peace was a book by Emery Reves which expressed the world-federalist sentiments shared by Albert Einstein and many others in the late 1940s, in the period immediately following World War II.

Theatre

Seesaw (1973) [Dance Arrangements]
A Chorus Line (Pulitzer Prize for Drama & Tony Award for Best Score) (1975)
They're Playing Our Song (1978)
Jean Seberg (1983)
Smile (1986)
The Goodbye Girl (1993)
Sweet Smell of Success (2002)
Imaginary Friends (2002)
The Nutty Professor (2012)

Film

The Swimmer (1968)
Take the Money and Run (1969)
The April Fools (1969)

Move (1970)
Flap (1970)
Something Big (1971)
Kotch (1971)
Bananas (1971)
The War Between Men and Women (1972)
The World's Greatest Athlete (1973)
Save the Tiger (1973)
The Way We Were (1973)
The Sting (1973)
The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977)
Same Time, Next Year (1978)
Ice Castles (1978)
Starting Over (1979)
Chapter Two (1979)

Seems Like Old Times (1980)
Ordinary People (1980)
Gilda Live (1980)
Sophie's Choice (1982)
Henry The Horse: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1982)
I Ought to Be in Pictures (1982)
Romantic Comedy (1983)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1984)
D.A.R.Y.L. (1985)
A Chorus Line (1985)
When the Time Comes (1987)
Three Men and a Baby (1987)
The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1987)
Sam Found Out: A Triple Play (1988)
Little Nikita (1988)
David (1988)
The January Man (1989)
Shirley Valentine (1989)
The Experts (1989)

Women and Men: Stories of Seduction (1990)
Switched at Birth (1991)
Missing Pieces (1991)
Frankie and Johnny (1991)
Seasons of the Heart (1994)
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
The Informant! (2009)
Behind the Candelabra (2013)

RichardTheBruce

August 7th

1914: Ted Moore is born--Western Cape, South Africa. (He dies 1987 at age 72--Surrey, England.)

Ted Moore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Moore

Born 7 August 1914, Benoni, Gauteng, South Africa
Died 1987 (aged 72–73), Surrey, England, U.K.
Nationality South African, British
Occupation Cinematographer, camera operator
Years active 1939–1982

Ted Moore, BSC (7 August 1914 – 1987) was a South African-British cinematographer known for his work on seven of the James Bond films in the 1960s and early 1970s. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Fred Zinnemann's A Man for All Seasons, and two BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography for A Man for All Seasons and From Russia with Love.

Biography

Born in South Africa, Moore moved to Great Britain at the age of sixteen, where he served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. During the war he joined the film unit and began honing his craft.

After serving as a camera operator on such films as The African Queen, The Red Beret, Hell Below Zero, and The Black Knight, he was given the cinematography job for 1956's High Flight, set among a familiar scene for Moore, the Royal Air Force.

He worked on a number of films for Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli's Warwick Films, including Cockleshell Heroes, Zarak, Johnny Nobody and No Time to Die, as well as their more high-minded 1960 production The Trials of Oscar Wilde.

In 1962 Broccoli and director Terence Young chose him as the cinematographer for an adaptation of Ian Fleming's Dr. No. Moore would go on to make another six Bond films; From Russia with Love (for which he won a BAFTA award), Goldfinger, Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, and portions of The Man with the Golden Gun, on which he was replaced due to illness by Oswald Morris.

In addition, Moore won a BAFTA and an Oscar for his camerawork for 1967's Best Picture, A Man for All Seasons, becoming the first South African to win an Academy Award. He also worked on the 1962 cult classic The Day of the Triffids, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Orca, and Clash of the Titans.

Moore died in 1987.

Filmography

April in Portugal (1954)
A Prize of Gold (1955)
The Gamma People (1955)
Odongo (1956)
Zarak (1957)
Interpol (1957)
How to Murder a Rich Uncle (1957)
High Flight (1957)
No Time to Die (1958)
The Man Inside (1958)
Idol on Parade (1959)
The Bandit of Zhobe (1959)
Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959)
Jazz Boat (1960)
Let's Get Married (1960)
The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960)
In the Nick (1960)
Johnny Nobody (1961)
The Hellions (1961)
Mix Me a Person (1962)
Dr. No (1962)
The Day of the Triffids (1962)
Nine Hours to Rama (1963)
Call Me Bwana (1963)
From Russia with Love (1963)
Goldfinger (1964)
The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965)
Thunderball (1965)
A Man for All Seasons (1966)
The Last Safari (1967)
Prudence and the Pill (1968)
Shalako (1968)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
The Chairman (1969) (uncredited)

Country Dance (1970)
She'll Follow You Anywhere (1971)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Psychomania (1973)
Live and Let Die (1973)
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974)
The Story of Jacob and Joseph (1974) (television film)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
Orca (1977)
Dominique (1978)

The Martian Chronicles (1980) (miniseries; 3 episodes)
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Priest of Love (1981)

Awards and nominations

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- Best Cinematography
- - A Man for All Seasons (won)

British Academy of Film and Television Arts
- Best Cinematography
- - From Russia with Love (won)
- - A Man for All Seasons (won)

British Society of Cinematographers
- Best Cinematography
- - From Russia with Love (won)

1977: Christopher Wood's novelization James Bond and The Spy Who Loved Me spends a week at number 6, London Times paperback bestsellers list.

Panther Paperback


Jonathan Cape hardcover

1969: Roger Moore and Claudie Lange appear in Cine Revue Magazine promoting their film Crossplot.

1978: Roger Moore and Lois Chiles are photographed in Paris, a week before filming of Moonraker begins.

1979: Simon Kassianides is born--Athens, Greece.
1981: For Your Eyes Only released in Austria.
1986: EON names Timothy Dalton the fourth James Bond. Filming shifts to late September.

Timothy Dalton Chosen As New James Bond
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/07/movies/timothy-dalton-chosen-as-new-james-bond.html
Reuters AUG. 7, 1986

The British actor Timothy Dalton has been named to replace Roger Moore as James Bond in the 25th anniversary film about Ian Fleming's dashing secret agent, producer Albert Broccoli said today.

Mr. Dalton, 38 years old, a Shakespearean actor who has also appeared in 11 films and on television, will be the fifth actor to portray Agent 007 in the popular series when shooting of ''The Living Daylights'' begins in London late next month.

The other leading candidate to take over the role of James Bond, who along with Mr. Moore has been played by Sean Connery, George Lazenby and David Niven, was the Irish-born actor Pierce Brosnan. They said Mr. Brosnan was unable to win release from his contract as television's romantic private detective ''Remington Steele.'' The series was renewed by NBC two months after it had been canceled, and filming for the new season has already begun.

''The Living Daylights'' will be directed by John Glen for United Artists at Pinewood Studios, with locations set for Austria, Morocco and Gibraltar.

Mr. Dalton, who was born in Wales and whose physique and accent fit the fictional mold of Mr. Fleming's dashing hero, was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and then became a member of the National Youth Theater.

2019: Aston Martin Rapide S AMR spotted in Monaco.

Aston Martin Rapide S AMR
https://www.autogespot.com/aston-martin-rapide-s-amr/2019/08/07

Spotdetails
Spotter carspotterjvdl
Spotted in Monaco, Monaco
Date 2019-08-07 01:00

Auto details
Topspeed 330 km/u
Acceleration 0-100 km/u 4.40 s
Power 603 pk
Torque 630 Nm @ 4000 tpm
Weight 1990 kg

RichardTheBruce

August 8th

1925: Robert Brownjohn is born--Newark, New Jersey. (He dies 1 August 1970 at age 44--London, England.)

Robert Brownjohn
American, 1925–1970
https://www.moma.org/artists/816?locale=en

While best known for his title sequences for the James Bond films From Russia with Love and Goldfinger, Robert Brownjohn had a short but influential career, which integrated design, advertising, film, photography, and music. A major figure in the New York advertising and design scene of the late 1950s, he later moved to London, where he was at the epicenter of the burgeoning music, art, and fashion scene of London’s “swinging ’60s.”

Born in New Jersey to British parents, Brownjohn later moved to Chicago, where during the mid-1940s he studied under former Bauhaus teacher Laszlo Moholy-Nagy at the Chicago Institute of Design. He quickly caught the attention of his teachers, who later brought him on as an instructor at the school. After moving to New York in 1951, he spent five years as a freelance designer for clients including George Nelson and Bob Cato. In 1956, he formed a partnership with Ivan Chermayeff, a designer and son of the modernist architect Serge Chermayeff (with designer Tom Geismar joining a year later). Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar quickly grew into one of the most innovative design and advertising firms in New York. Brownjohn’s many personal problems, caused primarily by the heroin addiction that later claimed his life, ultimately soured his New York relationships, precipitating his move to London in 1960.

In London, Brownjohn rapidly established himself as a designer of note. While working for the firm McCann Erickson, he designed the opening credits for the second James Bond film, From Russia with Love, his first foray into film. The following year he directed the film titles for Goldfinger. For both title sequences, he employed a surprising and attention-grabbing approach in which the credit texts and scenes from the films were projected onto scantily clad women, initiating the long-running Bond film tradition of elaborate title sequences featuring seductive women. Brownjohn’s treatment of type as dynamic, abstract forms in the title sequences illustrated both his mastery of graphic design and the enduring influence of Moholy-Nagy’s use of type and photography. His combination of sexually suggestive images and wry humor was a fitting accompaniment to the James Bond mythos. The broad acclaim he received for the Bond film titles led to more film and commercial work for clients ranging from Pirelli to Midland Bank to the Rolling Stones. Though he continued to produce original and challenging work, in the latter half of the 1960s, his life became increasingly unstable. He was moving from one partnership to another until he died in 1970, at the untimely age of 44.

Introduction by Paul Galloway, Collection Specialist, Department of Architecture and Design, 2016

Robert Brownjohn (1925–1970)
Miscellaneous Crew | Actor | Art Director
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0115226/
Filmography

Miscellaneous Crew (6 credits)

1969 Michael Kohlhaas - Der Rebell (titles)
1967 The Night of the Generals (title sequence designer)
1966 The Tortoise and the Hare (Short) (title designer)
1966 Where the Spies Are (title designer)
1964 Goldfinger (titles designed by)
1963 From Russia with Love (titles designed by)

Actor (1 credit)

1969 Otley
Paul

Art director (1 credit)

1963 A... is for Apple (Short)

1959: The Moonraker comic strip ends its run in The Daily Express. (Started 30 March 1959. 226-339 )
John McLusky, artist. Henry Gammidge, writer.

Swedish Semic Comic 1979
https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/semic_1979.php3?s=comics&id=02181

Swedish Semic Comic 1974
https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/semic_1974.php3?s=comics&id=01800


Danish 1975 https://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/jb007-dk-no31-1975/




Danish 1966 https://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/jb007-dk-no-7-1966/

1977: Time Magazine reviews The Spy Who Loved Me.

Cinema: Giggles, Wiggles, Bubbles and Bond
By Christopher Porterfield - Monday, Aug. 08, 1977

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
Directed by LEWIS GILBERT Screenplay by CHRISTOPHER WOOD and RICHARD MAIBAUM

Jottings found on the screening-room floor after a critics' viewing of the new James Bond film:

They'll never top first stunt: skier hurtles off precipice. Long breathtaking plunge. Shucks off skis in midair, free-falls for a while, then opens parachute and floats earthward. Wow.

Does anybody know this flick has nothing to do with 1962 novel of same name, since Ian Fleming nixed sale of anything but title to movies? Does anybody care? All that's left of Bond formula here...

1991: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) appoints Roger Moore as Goodwill Ambassador
and its special representative for the film arts.

https://unicef.org/

1997: BOND 18 films the showdown between OO7 and Carver.
2014: The Sun proposes Sam Smith is in talks to write and perform the title song for BOND 24, a film scheduled to be released October-November 2015. (Sam Smith denies it 13 August 2014. And again 3 July 2015, 6 July 2015, 28 July 2015, and as late as 3 September 2015.)

Sam Smith: The Many, Many Times He Lied About Singing The New Bond Theme
https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/sam-smith-the-many-many-times-he-lied-about-singing-the-new-bond-theme-764351
Larry Bartleet | Sep 8, 2015 3:18 pm

Did any of us see it coming? Er, not exactly. There have definitely been significant signposts since August 2014 that Sam Smith would be singing the theme for the latest James Bond film, Spectre, but his brilliant and kinda shameless lying skills have consistently made it difficult to trust what we’ve seen. Why? Well, because there were more mischievous misdirection devices in Smith’s year of flat-out denial than you’d expect from your average politician. He is singing the theme for Spectre, and it’s called ‘Writing’s On The Wall’. But for a long time we were all fooled, in the face of information from ultimately trustworthy ‘insider sources’ and the like. This is how…


August 8, 2014: The Sun publishes an article claiming Smith is in negotiations with MGM movie bosses to record the new Bond theme. We are curious; we have no reason to disbelieve. It is the start of a tumultuous, nerve-frazzling, 13-month journey.

August 13, 2014: NME is naturally very happy to be able to exclusively break the news that this is false. We ask Smith if he’s singing the new Bond theme, and he tells us, as if what he’s saying is true or something: “No, I have no idea what that was about and I know as much as you do. You probably know more than me; I didn’t even read the article. I think it’s something everyone would love to do, but yeah, it was all news to me. I won’t say any more on it.”

November 4, 2014: The New York Post reveals a secret weapon: an insider source! An insider source that cattily reveals to everyone that Lana Del Rey “had lobbied hard” for the opportunity, but lost out to Smith, who had met with Bond producer Barbara Broccoli and been labelled a “clear winner”. So, it is on?

December 4, 2014: We begin to think Smith might have been lying to us when the betting odds indicate he’ll be singing the theme. But odds are lowest not just for Smith, but also for Adele and Rihanna (all are 4/1), so we’re still not really sure.

June 9, 2015: Speculation is reignited, fuelled by gossip sites. But who believes gossip sites, man?

July 3, 2015: Smith continues to parrot his ‘not me’ line, here to Capital FM: “People seem to think I’m doing it but I have no idea what’s going on. I’m being deadly serious. I think I would know by now.” But then he says something else, something a little bit worse. “I heard Ellie Goulding was going to do it. It’s definitely not me.” Ellie Goulding, he says, like a tattletale. And we still kind of believe him.

July 3, 2015: Later that day, The Mirror reports that Ellie’s management have said it is a “wind up” and that there’s no truth to the claims. It’s a pretty humourless move, considering they could have had some fun with it.

July 6, 2015: Just three days later, Smith denies it again on Absolute Radio. “It’s the funniest thing just to sit back and watch everyone confirming something I know nothing about,” he says. “I’ve heard loads of rumours. I would have loved to have done it. But definitely not.” So… who is doing it, then? He looks away, shamefaced. “I’ve no idea.” He pauses. “Ellie Goulding?” And then his lip quivers slightly – just slightly – with the merest hint of mirth. You can see the moment below. We should have known. We should have known!

July 28, 2015: Ellie Goulding appears either to be in on the joke or to have been woefully misinterpreted, when she posts this Instagram photo at London’s Abbey Road – where Adele recorded ‘Skyfall’. We’re convinced that Smith was telling the truth – that Goulding is in fact singing the theme – and if this is her going along with the ruse, good on her. Good work. If she’s just recorded something else there, well, we don’t really care so much about that.

September 3, 2015: Five days ago. Just five days before he makes the announcement, and he’s still lying, still on camera, and to Jo Whiley of all people. How do you lie to Jo Whiley? There’s something inhuman about that.

If we’ve learned one thing from all this, it’s that Sam Smith is not to be trusted. If you encounter a Sam Smith in your local area, your best chance of survival is to run or hide, and tell the police. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

2017: Blanche Lindo Blackwell dies at age 95--London, England. (Born 9 December 1912--San José, Costa Rica.)

Jamaica
Blanche Blackwell obituary
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/29/blanche-blackwell-obituary
Heiress who became the ‘Jamaican wife’ of James Bond creator Ian
Fleming and was supposedly the model for Goldfinger’s Pussy
Galore
Ian Thomson | Tue 29 Aug 2017 12.26 EDT

Blanche Blackwell and Ian Fleming.
Photograph: Taken from the biography of Ian Fleming by Andrew Lycett

Blanche Blackwell, who has died aged 104, was a divorcee in her 40s when in 1956 she met Ian Fleming, her neighbour in Jamaica and the creator of James Bond; and soon they became lovers. Cracks had by then begun to show in Fleming’s marriage to Ann Charteris. Ann was ashamed of her husband’s success as a thriller writer (the Bond novels were “pornography”, she told friends), and had begun to stay away from their Jamaican home, Goldeneye.

Blackwell’s friendship with Fleming intensified when Ann began an affair with the politician Hugh Gaitskell. Ann became suspicious of “Ian’s Jamaican wife” after Anthony Eden’s wife, Clarissa, mentioned how helpful Blackwell had been at Goldeneye when the prime minister recuperated there in 1956 after the debacle of Suez. In an attempt to make Goldeneye more welcoming for the Edens, Blackwell had planted the garden with flowers; Ann later tore them out and threw them over the cliff.

Fleming wrote all 13 of his 007 novels in Jamaica, though only three (Dr No, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun) were set partly on the island. Noël Coward, another neighbour, dubbed Fleming’s home “Goldeneye, nose and throat” for its lack of creature comforts. It was in this Spartan retreat that Fleming immersed himself in a Bond-like life of tropical oblivion fuelled by vodka and cigarettes (like 007, Fleming smoked 70 a day).

Impishly, he included sketches of his friends (and enemies) in his fiction. Blackwell was supposedly a model for Pussy Galore, the trapeze artist turned leader of a team of lesbian cat burglars who passes herself off as an air stewardess in his novel Goldfinger; for the film, she is a pilot and martial arts expert. In Dr No, the guano-collecting ship was named the Blanche. Blackwell claimed not to have read any of the books, though: “I don’t like violence.”

Daughter of Hilda (nee Lindo) and Percy Lindo, cousins who married, she was born into a wealthy Jamaican family, descended from Sephardic Jews from western Europe who had settled in Kingston in the mid-18th century and came to control much of the island’s commerce. Her father had helped to consolidate the family fortune in Costa Rica – where Blanche was born, in San José – before returning to Jamaica, where he owned property and produced rum.

In 1936, in London, Blanche married Joseph Blackwell, a captain in the Irish Guards and heir to the Crosse & Blackwell foods fortune. Together they ran the family estates in Jamaica and owned a string of racehorses. In 1937 their son Christopher was born. Blanche was not happy in the marriage, however. The actor Errol Flynn (“a gorgeous god,” Blackwell called him) became one of her admirers.

By the time she and Joseph divorced in 1949, she had moved to Jamaica’s north coast, to a house equidistant between Coward’s and Fleming’s. “Noël became a special pal of mine,” Blackwell told me during an interview in 2007, and Coward was said to have based his play Volcano on island life, and one of its central characters, Adela, on Blackwell.

Fleming adored “Birdie” Blackwell and her darting, kingfisher mind. And Blackwell, in her turn, considered Fleming a “charming, handsome, gifted man”, but one plagued by self-doubt and self-hate. “Ian was an angel”, she told me. “Errol was another … Both lovely men – both exceptionally gifted and definitely not for domesticating.”

When Fleming died of a heart attack in 1964, Blanche was invited neither to the funeral nor the memorial service. For years, she kept watch over Goldeneye for Fleming’s son Caspar; and after Caspar’s death in 1975 the house was bought first by Bob Marley, and then by her son, Chris, the founder in 1959 of Island Records, who had “discovered” Marley.

Tough and good-humoured, in later life Blackwell wore her white hair bobbed round an animated, heart-shaped face. Her life, until she decamped in 2003 to a flat in Knightsbridge, London, had been one of island entertainments and literary friendships. Now, looked after by three Jamaican maids, Blackwell became an unlikely devotee of bingo. Each week her chauffeur took her to the Cricklewood Mecca to play. In Kingston, she had liked to bet on the horses, but London bingo was not without its thrills. “Cricklewood might seem a little dull to you,” she said. “It isn’t really. I could sit for hours in the Mecca. The tension as your number comes up. Bing-bing-bingo!”

She is survived by her son.
• Blanche Blackwell, born 9 December 1912; died 8 August 2017

This article was amended on 13 September 2017. The original description of Pussy Galore as a pilot and martial arts expert applies only to the film; in the novel she is a trapeze artist turned leader of a team of lesbian cat burglars who passes herself off as an air stewardess.

See also

Blanche Blackwell, mistress and muse of
James Bond's creator
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/blanche-blackwell-mistress-and-muse-of-james-bonds-creator-a7893731.html
Descended from a wealthy Jamaican family, she also enchanted Errol Flynn and inspired Noel Coward
Matt Schudel | Tuesday 15 August 2017 11:27

Vivacious and outdoorsy, Blackwell said she had lived a ‘marvelous life’

RichardTheBruce

August 9th

1927: Robert Archibald Shaw is born--Westhoughton, Lancashire, England.
(He dies 28 August 1978 at age 51--Tourmakeady, County Mayo, England.)

Actor Robert Shaw, Known for Menacing
Roles, Dies in Ireland
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1978/08/29/actor-robert-shaw-known-for-menacing-roles-dies-in-ireland/10011e2d-0410-4cb0-a10b-90457d2f89a5/
By Gary Arnold
August 29, 1978

Robert Shaw, 52, one of the most forceful and successful character actors on the contemporary English speaking screen, died Sunday near his home in Ireland.

According to a police spokesman, Mr. Shaw became ill while driving with his third wife, Virginia, and their 20-month-old son, Thomas, near the family's home in Tourmakeady, County Mayo. Mr. Shaw reportedly stopped the car, got out and died on the roadside.

Mr. Shaw first achieved movie prominence in 1964 as the sinister assassin with granite physique and short platinum haircut who stalked Sean Connery's James Bond in "From Russia With Love." Later, he made imposing invaluable contributions to a pair of Academy award-winning films-the 1966 "A Man for All Seaons" in which he won an Oscar nomination for his supporting portrayal of Henry VIII, and the 1973 "The Sting," in which he played a menacing Irish gangster-and to one of the greatest box-office sensations, "Jaws," in which he appeared as the fanatical shark-hunter Quint.

While pursuing a notable acting career in the theater and motion pictures. Mr. Shaw also wrote five novels and three plays. He was working on a sixth novel at the time of his death. In a recent interview he remarked. "I find acting much easier than writing, but writing is more important to me. I think as I get older I'd rather write, but acting is so much more profitable." Mr. Shaw's best-known literary effort was The Man in the Glass Booth, a novel the author himself later dramatized successfully.

Born in the Lancashire town of Westhoughton on Aug. 9, 1927. Mr. Shaw grew up in Cornwall and the Orkney Islands. His father, a doctor, committed suicide with an overdose of opium when Robert Shaw was 12.

As a youth, Mr. Shaw excelled at sports, especially rugby, squash and track where his specialty was the 400-meter dash. He spurned a scholarship to Cambridge and a career in the family profession of medicine to apply at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London in 1945. He later recalled RADA with fond horror as a hotbed of competition for aspiring actors in the post-war period, "closer to a concentration camp than a school."

After graduation from RADA, Mr. Shaw spent several years as a member of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon and the Old Vic. He made his professional debut at Stratford-on-Avon as Angus in "Macbeth." His most noteworthy West End credits were "Tiger at the Gates" in 1956 and "The Long and Short and the Tall" in 1959, the same year his first novel, "The Hiding Place," was published.

Mr. Shaw made his film debut in the 1955 British war melodrama "The Dam Busters." Ironically, he will star as the chief dam-buster in "Force 10 from Navarrone" an adventure melodrama about World War II commandoes scheduled for release at Christmas. He also had completed a starring role as a defecting KGB agent in "Avalance Express" at the time of his death. This spy thriller, which costars Lee Marvin, is tentatively scheduled for release in the spring of 1979.

Alert moviegoers might have spotted Mr. Shaw early in 1964 as one of the fascinating misfits in "The Guest" the movie version of Harold Pinter's play "The Caretaker." With in a few months the success of "From Russia With Love" brought mass audience recognition to Mr. Shaw, and fame soon caught up with his costars from "The Caretaker," Donald Pleasence and Alan Bates.

Mr. Shaw's theatrical career has been linked closely with Pleasence and Pinter. He made his Broadway debut in a production of Pinter's "The Physicists" and later costarred in Pinter's "Old Times." Pleasense enjoyed a Broadway triumph in the title role of "The Man in the Glass Booth," which was directed by Pinter.

In an interview with Clarke Taylor that appeared in the Washington Post two years ago, Mr. Shaw stated, "My time is real development, both personally and professionally, came in working with Harold Pinter. He's the most interesting talent working in the theater today. It was a great creative, happy period for me."

A prolific actor and author, Mr. Shaw also extended himself as a paterfamilias. He had four daughters by his first marriage, to Jennifer Bourke, then two sons and two daughters by his second marriage, to actress Mary Ure, who died in 1975 from a fatal combination of alcohol and barbiturate poisoning. Mr. Shaw's third wife, the former Virginia Jansen, had worked as the secretary to the actor and Miss Ure for many tears. Mr. Shaw adopted Jansen's son by a previous marriage, and their own son was born in December 1976.

Mr Shaw frequently cited this brood as a spur to his creative or merly mercenary activity. Discussing his choice of certain film roles with Taylor, Mr. Shaw confided, "Money isn't the sole reason. But I do seem to spend more than I earn. And it takes a lot of money to raise these children of mine.

"I don't spend much on myself, maybe a drink. And I like to travel and stay at really fine hotels. I have an interest in fast cars, and I now have a Mercedes 450SL, but it's not like before, when I woned Rolls Royce convertibles and Astin Martins [sic]. Of course, the tax situation in Britain is impossible.

"I wake up in the middle of the night, frequently, with pain and humiliation and a great deal of shame at some of the work I've done in films. And I would do a good movie any day, regardless of the money. Unfortunately, there aren't many, and . . . if you are not successful now and again, nobody asks you to be in any movies at all. For years the studios would say 'Shaw's pictures make no money, he's not an international star.'"

Despite his vital participation in such hits as "The Sting" and "Jaws," Mr. Shaw never quite established credibility as a bankable star. Usually at his best as a menace, he may have had too much authority for conventional heroic leads. At any rate, he failed to bring a satisfying heroic or romantic presence to such starring vehicles as "Custer of the West," "Swashbuckler" and "Black Sunday." His physically and technique had a rather intimidating potency. He was frequently an impressive performer but rarely an ingratiating one.

Assessing his work, Mr. Shaw remarked. "Most of the time, in movies, I'm about 50 times larger than the part." While justified by the evidence, self-criticism like this was no doubt instrumental in earning the rugged, outspoken actor a reputation for insufferable vanity from some segments of the press.

Moviegoers and film-makers can attest to the authenticity of that larger-than-life quality. Mr Shaw's most gripping sustained scene on film is probably Quint's description of the shark attack on survivors of the U.S.S. Indianapolis that anticipates the thrilling finale of "Jaws."

Director Steven Spielberg has recalled that Mr. Shaw's first reading of Quint's speech, which the actor had helped rewrite, "devastated the set." Ironically, "the effect was so overwhelming that it threatened to capsize everyone prematurely. We had to do it again, with more restraint. In terms of the finished film, the reading was even better because Bob was imposing more controls on his emotions."

The larger-than-life identity seems certain to endure, but Mr. Shaw did submerge himself in the role of a victimized man in "The Caretaker" and a frustrated man in "The Luck of Ginger Coffrey." Irvin Kershner's fine, unjustly neglected movie version of Brian Moore's novel. Mr. Shaw also was prominently, if indecisively, featured in such movies as "Young Winston" (where he played Lord Randolph Churchill). "The Battle of Britain," "The Birthday Party." "Robin and Marian" (as the Sheriff of Nottingham) and "The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3."

He achieved considerable success in England as the lead in a television series called "The Buccaneers." He made a brief, unsuccessful attempt at the Broadway musical stage in 1970 as a singing Elmer Gantry in a failed song-and-dance adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel.

Three years ago, Mr. Shaw bought a 150-year-old mansion near a troutfilled lake in Tourmakeady and moved in with his wife and most of the Shaw progeny. According to friends, he described the location as "the nearest point on earth to heaven" and added. "When I go, I hope it will be from here."

Robert Shaw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Shaw_(actor)

Work

Stage

The Caretaker (1962)
The Physicists (1964)
The Man in the Glass Booth (1968)
Gantry (1970)
Old Times (1971)
The Dance of Death (1974)

Filmography

The Cherry Orchard (1947)

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) – Chemist at Police Exhibition (uncredited)
The Dam Busters (1954) – Flight Sgt. J. Pulford
Double Cross (1956) – Ernest
A Hill in Korea (1956) – Lance Corporal Hodge
The Buccaneers (1956–1957, TV Series) – Captain Dan Tempest
Rupert of Hentzau (TV, 1957) – Rupert of Hentzau
Sea Fury (1958) – Gorman
Libel (1959) – First Photographer

The Four Just Men (1960, TV Series) – Stuart
The Dark Man (TV, 1960) – Alan Regan
Danger Man (1961) – TV episode – Bury The Dead – Tony Costello
The Winter's Tale (1961) – Leontes
The Valiant (1962) – Lieutenant Field
The Father (1962) – The Captain
Tomorrow at Ten (1962) – Marlowe
The Caretaker (1963) – Aston
The Cracksman (1963) – Moke
From Russia with Love (1963) – Donald 'Red' Grant
Hamlet (1964) – Claudius, King of Denmark
The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964) – Ginger Coffey
Carol for Another Christmas (1964) – Ghost of Christmas Future
Battle of the Bulge (1965) – Col. Martin Hessler
A Man for All Seasons (1966) – King Henry VIII
Custer of the West (1967) – Gen. George Armstrong Custer
Luther (TV, 1968) – Martin Luther
The Birthday Party (1968) – Stanley Webber
Battle of Britain (1969) – Squadron Leader "Skipper"
The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969) – Francisco Pizarro

Figures in a Landscape (1970) – MacConnachie (also adapted for the screen)
A Town Called Bastard (a.k.a. A Town Called Hell) (1971) – The Priest
Young Winston (1972) – Lord Randolph Churchill
A Reflection of Fear (a.k.a. Labyrinth) (1973) – Michael
The Hireling (1973) – Steven Ledbetter
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) – The Oracle of All Knowledge (uncredited)
The Sting (1973) – Doyle Lonnegan
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) – Mr. Blue – Bernard Ryder
Jaws (1975) – Quint
The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) – Writer only
End of the Game (a.k.a. Der Richter und sein Henker, Murder on the Bridge, Deception, and Getting Away with Murder) (1975) – Richard Gastmann
Diamonds (a.k.a. Diamond Shaft) (1975) – Charles / Earl Hodgson
Robin and Marian (1976) – Sheriff of Nottingham
Swashbuckler (a.k.a. Scarlet Buccaneer) (1976) – Ned Lynch
Black Sunday (1977) – Major David Kabokov
The Deep (1977) – Romer Treece
Force 10 from Navarone (1978) – Major Keith Mallory
Avalanche Express (1979) – General Marenkov (final film role)

Writing

The Hiding Place (1960)
The Sun Doctor (1961)
The Flag (1965)
Situation Hopeless... But Not Serious (screenplay adaptation of The Hiding Place, 1965)
The Man in the Glass Booth (1967)
The Man in the Glass Booth (play adaptation, 1968)
A Card from Morocco (1969)
Figures in a Landscape (1970) (screenplay adaptation of novel)
Cato Street (play, 1971)

Awards

He became the second actor to be nominated to the 39th Academy Awards for playing Henry VIII of England in the film A Man for All Seasons (1966). He was also nominated to the 24th Golden Globe Awards for the same role.

1979: Moonraker: Misión espacial (Moonraker: Special Mission) released in Argentina.

1985: Agent 007 i skudlinien (Agent 007 in the Firing Line) released in Denmark.

https://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/avtak-dk-poster-1985/

1985: 007 ja kuoleman katse (007 and a Look at Death) released in Finland.

1985: James Bond 007 – Im Angesicht des Todes (James Bond 007 - In the Face of Death) released in West Germany.

1987: The New York Times prints a letter written by Raymond Benson.

To the Editor:

As the vice president of the James Bond 007 Fan Club and author of ''The James Bond Bedside Companion,'' which studies the Bond phenomenon, Ian Fleming's life and the James Bond character, I feel I am qualified to comment on Janet Maslin's review, ''Film: 'Living Daylights,' With the New Bond'' [ July 31 ] . She has mildly criticized Timothy Dalton's performance as being almost ''too serious.''

I would like to point out that up to this point, we have never seen a ''purist's'' characterization of the Bond character on the screen, i.e., one who embodies Ian Fleming's original character from the novels. Sean Connery was magnificent in the role; he added a sardonic, cynical amusement to the character that sold 007 to audiences around the world, but this was not necessarily a trait of the literary Bond. George Lazenby merely attempted to emulate Connery's performance and failed. Roger Moore, who publicly admitted ignoring the Fleming books, made the character his own by turning Bond into a superficially charming international playboy who uses one-liners and a raised eyebrow to escape dangerous situations.

Timothy Dalton, on the other hand, has gone back to Fleming and has attempted (and in my opinion, succeeded very well) in creating the author's Bond - a real flesh-and-blood man who has doubts and feelings. James Bond is not a superman; he detests killing and does it because it's his job; he is not ''witty'' and ''dapper'' as the films have so often portrayed him; he is somber and reflective, basically cold-hearted, ruthless, and he takes his job very seriously. When it comes to food and drink, he is a gourmand - he simply appreciates what he likes; because he must usually ''dine alone,'' he insists on his meals and drinks prepared a specific way. Mr. Dalton is presenting to us the most accurate interpretation of the literary character we've ever seen on screen.

As for the new film's treatment of Bond's womanizing (he only sleeps with one woman in this one), this was a conscious decision on the film makers' part as a response to the current AIDS crisis. It just wouldn't do to have Bond hop from bed to bed in this day and age, even if it is a bit out of character.

I feel that ''The Living Daylights'' is the most mature and most ''adult'' Bond film since the 60's.

RAYMOND BENSON New York City

2007: Ian Fleming Publications honors the passing of John Gardner.

All at Ian Fleming Publications Limited were saddened
and shocked to hear of the death of John Gardner
on Friday 3rd August.

John was a highly respected and admired member of the
Bond family and he will be great missed.

Our thoughts at this time are with his family.

Ian Fleming Publications, 8 August

RichardTheBruce

August 10th

1918: Martin Benson is born--London, England.
(He dies 28 February 2010 at age 91--Markyate, Hetfordshire, England.)

Martin Benson obituary
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/may/06/martin-benson-obituary
Often cast as villains, he appeared in Goldfinger and The King and I
Gavin Gaughan
Thu 6 May 2010 13.49 EDT

Martin Benson in the 1985 TV wartime drama Arch of Triumph Photograph: ITV / Rex Features

The actor Martin Benson, who has died aged 91, occupied a screen category filled in its time by Herbert Lom, with whom he acted on several occasions, and previously Conrad Veidt – that of the worldly, sophisticated, foreign villain. With jet-black hair, dark colouring and pronounced eyebrows on a thin face, he never seemed properly dressed without a tuxedo. As well as remaining furiously busy during six decades as an actor, he pursued several artistic disciplines.

Born into a Jewish family in London, he seemed briefly destined to become a pharmacist. As a gunner in the army during the seond world war, he organised entertainment for the troops, and produced a tour of Gaslight in aid of a fund to replace HMS Dorsetshire. By 1944, he had been promoted to captain and was posted to Alexandria, Egypt, where he built a theatre from scratch, assisted by his sergeant-major, another aspiring actor – Arthur Lowe.

Among Benson's earliest screen roles was an unbilled part for Alfred Hitchcock in Under Capricorn (1949). The King and I had its British stage premiere at Drury Lane in October 1953, with Lom as the King, and Benson as his court chancellor, Kralahome. Benson played the part again opposite Yul Brynner in the Hollywood film version in 1956. He also played the King himself in February 1955, when Lom was ill. Benson later asserted that "despite the reputation which Yul Brynner continues to enjoy, the more intelligent as well as intelligible performance came from Herbert Lom, notwithstanding a good deal less swagger".

Back in Britain and in modestly budgeted monochrome thrillers, he was on characteristic form in Soho Incident (1956) as a "big boss" running crooked boxing and horse-racing schemes. Venturing into television, Benson was among a repertory company of actors in the half-hour anthology Douglas Fairbanks Presents (1953-57), aimed at US television, shown in Britain as cinema shorts and as schedule-fillers in ITV's early days. Benson also worked on the scripts, where as many foreign settings were included as possible. Another rep company member was Christopher Lee, who called it a valuable training ground. He and Benson made up a comic double act for one segment, The Death of Michael Turbin (1953), as slow-witted east Europeans.

He was a regular, as the villainous Duke de Medici, in Sword of Freedom (1957-58). In 1958 and 1959, he played a barrister in the unscripted courtroom series The Verdict Is Yours and, in On Trial (1960), which recreated celebrated cases, Micheal MacLiammoir played Oscar Wilde, with Benson as his prosecutor, Edward Carson.

After a role in Cleopatra (1963), he was an American gangster coerced into taking a doomed car ride with the henchman Oddjob, in Goldfinger (1964). He was among a houseful of suspects in Peter Sellers's second outing as Clouseau, A Shot in the Dark (1964).

From 1960 to 1985, Martin Benson Films, based in Radlett in Hertfordshire, made more then 100 educational and training films, which Benson directed, wrote and occasionally narrated. Some were for Save the Children.

For Lew Grade's ITC series, the logical successors to the Fairbanks shows, he variously played corrupt South American ministers, Algerian majors, ruthless Turkish policemen and cigar-smoking gamblers. Submerged under green makeup, Benson played the Vogon Captain, an excruciatingly bad poet, in Douglas Adams's The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981).

Benson began painting in his stage dressing room, and in 1993 he staged an exhibition of his Shakespearean paintings at the Shakespeare Globe Centre, the subjects including Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Alec Guinness.

His later credits included Alan Parker's adaptation of Angela's Ashes (1999) and a 2005 episode of Casualty.

His wife Joy, son and three daughters, two stepdaughters and one stepson survive him.

• Martin Benson, actor, born 10 August 1918; died 28 February 2010

Martin Benson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Benson_(actor)

Filmography

Suspected Person (1942) as minor role (uncredited)[citation needed]
The Blind Goddess (1948) as Count Stephan Mikla
But Not in Vain (1948) as Mark Meyer
Trapped by the Terror (1949) as Prison Governor[citation needed]
Under Capricorn (1949) as Man Carrying Shrunken Head (uncredited)[citation needed]
The Adventures of PC 49: Investigating the Case of the Guardian Angel (1949) as Skinny Ellis

I'll Get You for This (1951) as Frankie Sperazza
Assassin for Hire (1951) as Catesby
Night Without Stars (1951) as White Cap
The Dark Light (1951) as Luigi
Hotel Sahara (1951) as Minor Role (uncredited)[citation needed]
Mystery Junction (1951) as Steve Harding
Judgment Deferred (1952) as Pierre Desportes
The Frightened Man (1952) as Alec Stone
Wide Boy (1952) as Rocco
Ivanhoe (1952) as Minor Role (uncredited)[citation needed]
The Gambler and the Lady (1952) as Tony - Pat's Dance Partner
Top of the Form (1953) as Cliquot
Wheel of Fate (1953) as Riscoe
Recoil (1953) as Farnborough
Always a Bride (1953) as Hotel Desk Clerk (uncredited)[citation needed]
Black 13 (1953) as Bruno
Escape by Night (1953) as Guillio
You Know What Sailors Are (1954) as Agrarian Officer (uncredited)[citation needed]
West of Zanzibar (1954) as Dhofar
Knave of Hearts (1954) as Art (uncredited)[citation needed]
Passage Home (1955) as Gutierres
Doctor at Sea (1955) as Head Waiter (uncredited)[citation needed]
Soho Incident (aka Spin a Dark Web) (1956) as Rico Francesi
23 Paces to Baker Street (1956) as Pillings
The King and I (1956) as Kralahome
Istanbul (1957) as Mr. Darius
Doctor at Large (1957) as Maharajah of Rhanda
Interpol (1957) as Captain Varolli
The Flesh Is Weak (1957) as Angelo Giani
Man from Tangier (1957) as Voss
Windom's Way (1957) as Samcar, Rebel Commander (uncredited)[citation needed]
The Strange World of Planet X (1958) as Smith
Sea of Sand (1958) as German Half-track Officer (uncredited)[citation needed]
The Two-Headed Spy (1958) as Gen. Wagner
Make Mine a Million (1959) as Chairman
Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959) as Ali

Once More, with Feeling! (1960) as Luigi Bardini
Oscar Wilde (1960) as George Alexander
Sands of the Desert (1960) as Selim
The Gentle Trap (1960) as Ricky Barnes[citation needed]
The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960) as Flimnap
Exodus (1960) as Mordekai
Gorgo (1961) as Dorkin
Five Golden Hours (1961) as Enrico
A Matter of WHO (1961) as Rahman
The Silent Invasion (1962) as Borge
Satan Never Sleeps (1962) as Kuznietsky
Village of Daughters (1962) as 1st Pickpocket
Captain Clegg (1962) as Mr. Rash (innkeeper)
I tre nemic (1962) as Prof. Otto Kreutz[citation needed]
The Fur Collar (1962) as Martin Benson
Cleopatra (1963) as Ramos
Mozambique (1964) as Da Silva
The Secret Door (1964) as Edmundo Vara
A Shot in the Dark (1964) as Maurice
Behold a Pale Horse (1964) as Priest
Goldfinger (1964) as Mr. Solo
The Secret of My Success (1965) as Rex Mansard
A Man Could Get Killed (1966) as Politanu
The Magnificent Two (1967) as President Diaz
Battle Beneath the Earth (1967) as Gen. Chan Lu

Pope Joan (1972) as Lothair
Tiffany Jones (1973) as Petcek
The Omen (1976) as Father Spiletto
Mohammad, Messenger of God (1976) as Abu-Jahal
Al-risâlah (1976) as Kisra[citation needed]
Jesus of Nazareth (1977, TV mini-series) as Pharisee
Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979) as Dr. Ivanov
The Human Factor (1979) as Boris
The Sea Wolves (1980) as Mr. Montero
Sphinx (1981) as Muhammed
Young Toscanini (1988) as Comparsa (uncredited)[citation needed]

The Camomile Lawn (1992) as Pauli Erstweiler
Angela's Ashes (1999) as Christian brother

1928: Jimmy Dean is born--Plainview, Texas. (He dies 13 June 2010 at age 81--Varina, Virginia.)

Jimmy Dean dies at 81; country music star and sausage king
https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-jimmy-dean-20100615-story.html
By Dennis McLellan
| Los Angeles Times | Jun 15, 2010 | 12:00 AM


Jimmy Dean helped bring country music into the mainstream in the 1960s. (CBS TV)

When the Country Music Assn. announced in February that Jimmy Dean would be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame later this year, Dean joked, "I thought I was already in there."

"Seriously, it brought a huge grin to my face," he said in a news release. "I am honored."

Dean already had been inducted into the Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Texas Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

That's not to mention his 2009 induction into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame.

Indeed, Dean, who died Sunday evening at his home in Henrico County, Va., at age 81, may be better known by some today as "the sausage king" of TV commercial fame than a hit-making country music star and one-time TV show host who helped bring country music into the mainstream in the 1960s.

The Texas-born entertainer and businessman, who began his recording career in the 1950s, scored a No. 1 hit on both the country and pop singles charts in 1961 with his spoken-narrative song about a coal miner — "a giant of a man" — who saves fellow workers from "a would-be grave" after their mine collapses.

"Big Bad John," which Dean said he wrote in an hour and a half on a flight from New York to Tennessee, earned a Grammy Award for best country and western recording.

The 1960s were the down-home entertainer's heyday.

He went on to record hits including "Dear Ivan," "Little Black Book," "P.T. 109" (inspired by the Naval vessel commanded by John F. Kennedy during World War II) and "The First Thing Ev'ry Morning (And the Last Thing Ev'ry Night)."

From 1963 to '66, he hosted "The Jimmy Dean Show," an hourlong TV musical variety show that ran on ABC and featured singers including Roger Miller, George Jones and Buck Owens. The show also regularly featured Dean's humorous banter with a "dog" named Rowlf, the first of Jim Henson's Muppets to attract national attention.

Along with headlining in Las Vegas and performing in venues such as Carnegie Hall and the London Palladium, Dean played fur trapper Josh Clements on Fess Parker's "Daniel Boone" series in the late '60s and had the supporting role of a reclusive billionaire in the 1971 James Bond film "Diamonds Are Forever."

He launched the Jimmy Dean Meat Co. in the late '60s, after previously buying a hog farm in his native Texas.

"Everything was fine and dandy until hog prices dropped out," he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2004. "One morning I was having breakfast at a little old diner in Plainview — sausages and eggs — and reached up and plucked a [large] piece of gristle out of my teeth."

It was then, he said, that he became determined to produce a quality sausage.

"It was not something I just put my name on," he said. "It was my money and my sausage and my work — and those commercials that they think are so funny."

After selling his meat company to what later became known as the Sara Lee Corp. in 1984, he remained as chairman of the board and TV spokesman. After he was dropped as spokesman in 2003, Dean reportedly stopped eating the products that bear his name and changed his license plates that read SSG KING.

Dean was born Aug. 10, 1928, in Olton, Texas, and grew up in Plainview. He and his brother Don were raised on a farm by their mother after their father left when Dean was still a child. They were so poor, he once said, he wore shirts that his mother made out of sugar sacks.

Poverty, Dean told the Times-Dispatch, "was the greatest motivating factor in my life."

He began singing early on, and his mother taught him to play his first chord on the piano when he was 10. He later taught himself to play the harmonica, guitar and accordion.

Dropping out of high school at 16, he joined the Merchant Marines and later served in the Air Force. While stationed at a base in Washington, D.C., Dean and three other airmen formed a country music quartet that played local honkytonks.

After his discharge in 1948, Dean formed the Texas Wildcats. He began developing a following with a show on an Arlington, Va., radio station and had his first country top 10 hit, "Bumming Around," in 1953.

Dean and the Texas Wildcats moved to local television in 1955, and from 1957 to 1959 he hosted the first version of "The Jimmy Dean Show," a half-hour daily variety series on CBS.

Thirty Years of Sausage, Fifty Years of Ham: Jimmy Dean's Own Story, a 2004 autobiography, was co-written with his second wife, Donna Meade Dean, a singer and songwriter he married in 1991.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children from his first marriage, Garry Dean, Connie Dean Taylor and Robert Dean; and two granddaughters.

[email protected]

1960: Diamonds Are Forever comic strip begins its run in The Daily Express. (Ends 30 January 1960. 340-487)
John McLusky, artist. Henry Gammidge, writer.

Swedish Semic 1972
https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/semic_1972.php3?s=comics&id=01759


Swedish Semic 1988
https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/semic_1988.php3?s=comics&id=02331






Danish 1967 https://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/jb007-dk-no9-1967/

1963: Sean Connery finishes all filming for From Russia With Love, ending with the shot in Rhoda’s truck.
1981: Agent 007 – Strengt fortroligt (Agent 007 - Strictly Confidential) released in Denmark.

"Agent 007 - strictly confidential" or "Agent 007: Strict Confidence"

1982: Octopussy first unit filming begins at the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie.
1987: The Living Daylights released in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.

1989: Lizenz zum Töten released in West Germany.

2003: The Washington Post proposes literary Bond can "Live or Let Die".

Live or Let Die? A Midlife Crisis for the James Bond Novels
https://washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2003/08/10/live-or-let-die-a-midlife-crisis-for-the-james-bond-novels/5e266f5e-651e-4fc4-bd1a-2c820dbcb6e0/?utm_term=.a22c9e6b2b3a
By Bob Bryant August 10, 2003

-- For seven years, Raymond Benson was James Bond's boss. Benson planned the secret missions, scoped out the death traps, plumbed the dark hearts of 007's enemies from 1996 through 2002.

Bond went where Benson willed, did as Benson wished, took lives or spared them as Benson saw fit. Such is the power of a James Bond novelist.

Benson, who lives in the Chicago suburbs, was only the fourth man -- and the first American -- to write a series of Bond novels since Britain's Ian Fleming created the character. "It was terrifying and exciting, all at the same time," Benson, 47, says of his six original Bonds and three movie novelizations. "It was a roller coaster."

But as Bond celebrates his 50th year in literature -- half a century since Fleming published "Casino Royale" in the spring of 1953 -- the 007 series is at a small crossroads.

Benson has left the series to write his own novels, and no new Bond novelist has been named. After five decades and 35 original Bond books (not counting movie novelizations) that have sold nearly 100 million copies in all, where do the Bond books go from here?

Whoever writes the Bond novels "is going to be in the hot seat," Benson said in a telephone interview. "Whoever is in this spot is going to be under a microscope."

One reason for that is the passion of Bond fans, many of whom have built sharply opinionated Internet sites about 007. Another is the small number of people in the Bond Novelists Club.

Fleming wrote 14 "Bonds" before he died in 1964 at age 56. There was a one-shot 1968 Bond novel by Kingsley Amis. It was more than a decade after that when Fleming's heirs authorized another British novelist, John Gardner, to write a new Bond series, and Gardner did 14 novels. Then came Benson and six more original Bonds.

Benson said he had no idea who might be in line to be the next Bond novelist or in what direction the books might go. The novelists typically have set the books in the present day, whenever that might be -- the '60s through the '90s -- but Benson's wish is that the novels "stay in the Cold War. I'd like to see Bond frozen in time."

It's unlikely the literary series can again explode as it did in the 1960s, when Fleming paperbacks, fueled by the Bond movies' success, sprouted bold covers on every drugstore rack. And no one should expect that, says Los Angeles writer-producer John Cork, co-author of "James Bond: The Legacy," a coffee-table book published last year.

Fleming -- ex-reporter, ex-British Naval Intelligence officer, world traveler, unabashed womanizer -- started it all with a slim, grim novel called "Casino Royale."

No spectacular action scenes here -- it's about one spy trying to bankrupt another at the gambling tables. Fleming wrote the book in about six weeks at his Jamaican retreat, Goldeneye, then casually offered "this miserable piece of work . . . this dreadful oafish opus" to a novelist friend with publishing connections. It sold.

Fleming kept going back, year after year, to his main character, James Bond, 007, licensed to kill in the name of Her Majesty the Queen.

Bond was Fleming's "dream self," a Fleming biographer said. Bond shared Fleming's tastes, smoked Fleming's cigarettes (70 a day for both agent and author).

The Bond movies always kept Fleming's titles -- those titles were gold. But ever since Fleming's heirs resurrected the Bond novels in 1981, the books and the films have run on separate tracks. None of the 20 "modern" Bond novels by Benson or Gardner has been made into a film; all of Fleming's were.

Partly because of that, none of the new novels has enjoyed a fraction of the fame Fleming's work has.

Gardner's first Bond novel, restarting the series in 1981, updated the politics by abolishing the Double-O branch of the Secret Service -- the spies licensed to kill -- except for Bond, who stayed on as a global "troubleshooter."

Gardner gave up the series in 1996.

"His early novels were on the New York Times bestseller list," said Bryan Krofchok, who runs a Bond site on the Internet (www.bondian.com) and teaches computer science at Sacramento (Calif.) City College. "[But] the general public's interest in new Bond novels seems to have petered out midway through Gardner's series, at least here in the United States."

Gardner, already an established novelist when he took the Bond job, remembers his time as "the most difficult years of my professional life."

In an e-mail interview from his home in Hampshire, England, the author, now 76, said it was a struggle to find the right style while trying to satisfy the Fleming heirs and to quell the "strange hostility and mistrust" of Bond fans. "My consistent nightmare," Gardner said, "is that I shall be remembered only as the author who took James Bond through the '80s and into the '90s. Yet I am proud of my work on the Bonds and believe that the books did the job."

Benson's Bond books, starting in 1997, brought a faster pace and a more fallible 007.

"Sometimes I wonder why I bother," a beat-up Bond muses in "High Time to Kill" (1999). "In the old days, the enemy was clear cut. Communism was a worldwide threat. . . . Today it's different. I feel as if I've become a glorified policeman. There must be a better way to die."

Benson, who got the Bond job after writing a book called "The James Bond Bedside Companion" in the 1980s, said he never pictured his 007 as one of the movie Bonds but instead as "a shadowy, non-specific guy."

Benson said he would look at a map of the world and ask, "What locales would Britain have an interest in?" That might lead to a story. Then he would submit a detailed outline to Glidrose Publications, which holds the Bond copyrights: "I never had one rejected."

Then Benson would travel to the locations on Bond's itinerary -- "Walk in Bond's footsteps." (Fleming did the same, laden with small notebooks.) Benson's travel phase might take one to four weeks. The actual writing might take four to five months, Benson said. Then editing by the publishers and the Fleming interests. Bond essentially was a full-time job, he said.

And the reaction from readers? The hard-core Bond fans, the Internet fans, were the loudest voices Benson heard. "They either loved me or hated me," he said. "It was a challenge dealing with the fans. They're so opinionated."

Bond fans such as Krofchok acknowledge that the series is serving "a niche market" of longtime 007 fans -- and at the same time facing competition from mainstream thrillers. "There are now many other authors writing 'Bondian'-style novels -- but without James Bond," Krofchok said. (Who is Tom Clancy's hero, Jack Ryan, but an American Bond?)

The new Bond books also are competing with the very similar, but very different, new Bond movies, Cork noted. One solution, he said, could be along the lines of Benson's suggestion -- to permanently put the literary Bond in a Cold War setting.

The books' future seems wide open. There's no announced heir to the Fleming throne -- Fleming's family has announced no successor to Benson. Representatives of Ian Fleming Publications couldn't be reached for comment. Cork said his impression was that in this 50th-anniversary year, they preferred to put the focus back on Fleming's novels, which are being reissued as trade paperbacks with 1950s-style pulp-art covers.

Gardner, who has written more Bond books than any other living man, thinks the bell has tolled for the Bond novels. Don't "play games" with Cold War flashbacks, he said -- the new novels "should end now."

And if the literary Bond heads into more happy decades of martinis, girls and guns? In that case, Gardner said, "I pray that they find a Brit who is a professional novelist with a track record."

"The sad thing today," he said, "is that people talking of Bond usually talk of the films and not the books. And the films, alas, seem to have gone down the road to Dumbville."

American Raymond Benson is the latest official James Bond novelist, but after six books with 007, he's giving up the job.Ian Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, "Casino Royale," in 1953. Kingsley Amis, under the pseudonym Robert Markham, took up the Bond series for one novel.

RichardTheBruce

August 11th

1948: Harold Sakata wins the silver medal in the light-heavyweight division of the weightlifting competition at the Summer Olympic Games, London, England.

1948 Summer Olympic awards for light-heavyweight weightlifting competition:
Harold Sakata of the USA (silver), Stanley Stanczyk of the USA (gold) and Gosta Magnusson of Sweden (bronze).

1959: Ian Fleming's letter to Ivar Bryce declares... "Richard Burton would be by far the best James Bond!"
1964: After dining with friends at a hotel in Canterbury, Ian Fleming suffers a heart attack.
1978: Principal photography kicks off for Moonraker at Château Vaux-Le-Vicomte in France.

1986: People magazine showcases Pierce Brosnan as "The Spy Who's Loved Too Much".

The Spy Who's Loved Too Much
https://people.com/archive/cover-story-the-spy-whos-loved-too-much-vol-26-no-6/
Laura Sanderson Healy and Mary Ann Norbom - August 11, 1986 12:00 PM


“It was,” says Pierce Brosnan, “too much like a job.” Admittedly a good job, with more than good pay. In a series that made an obscure Irish actor into an American TV star. With a role that painted him debonair and slightly devilish. And an image that made him the perfect, obvious, only choice to become the next Bond, James Bond. Although Brosnan had prospered as the roguish title character on NBC’s detective series Remington Steele, “I had just had enough,” he says. In fact, “I’d had enough after two years, but I’d signed a seven-year contract.” Brosnan was relieved—”really relieved”—when Remington Steele was cancelled last May.

But wait. Put the emphasis on the past tense: was cancelled, was relieved. For just when it seemed that Brosnan, 35, had snagged one of the most sought-after and profitable roles in movie history, he now finds himself once again tied to Remington Steele, and he is not pleased.

For most of the last two months, Brosnan thought he had fulfilled an ambition of long standing, to replace Roger Moore as 007. He had settled in London. Thinking he had closed a chapter of his career, he had taken to occasionally trashing Remington Steele and the high life in L.A. He had all but signed for The Living Daylights, the $40 million Bond film originally scheduled to begin shooting this month. Then, ironically, the prospect of Brosnan as Bond revived NBC’s interest in its show. The network saw a promotional windfall in beaming the man who would be Bond into America’s living rooms—particularly so after more than 1000 furious fans phoned and wrote NBC protesting the cancellation. This summer, Remington has greatly improved its ratings during reruns. In the halls of NBC, programming chief Brandon Tartikoff joked about his booboo, “Anybody can cancel a show in 59th place. It takes real guts to cancel one in ninth place.” Consequently, just last month, three days before options on the Remington cast expired, NBC made it official: The show was renewed for six episodes as a midseason replacement.

Since then, the legendary producer and protector of the James Bond film properties, Cubby Broccoli, has been making like Dr. No. Although he had been negotiating a three-picture deal with Brosnan, Broccoli didn’t want his 007 tainted by television. “He’s not going to have another company riding on our publicity,” says a Broccoli aide. To accommodate the movie’s schedule, MTM, the production company responsible for Steele, even suggested shooting the season’s first episode in Europe. “Obviously it would be to our benefit to have Pierce playing Bond, and we’re not giving up on the idea,” says Steele executive producer Michael Gleason. “Anything we can do, we are more than willing to do.” But Broccoli has remained decidedly cool to stopgap measures. The net result for Brosnan is a career catch-22: Because Remington was cancelled, Brosnan could do Bond. But because he might be Bond, Remington was uncancelled. And because Remington was uncancelled, Brosnan may not be able to be 007. The choice for Brosnan seems clear: Bond or bondage.

The network’s decision has started a worldwide scramble for another Bond, while shooting on The Living Daylights has been postponed to late September. The producers talked to 60 aspirants in one recent week alone. Earlier Mel Gibson and Bryan Brown were considered but not screen-tested. Australian model Finlay Light was tested and so was Sam (Kane & Abel) Neill, who was a front runner at last check. But the players change constantly. After Broccoli saw The Taming of the Shrew in London, new rumors surfaced last week that actor Timothy Dalton was the first choice. If you are a handsome, breathing male with a British accent, you are a candidate.

Brosnan has not talked publicly about his dilemma since Remington’s revival created it. But he was positively voluble when last interviewed in London, basking in the afterglow of what he considered a pro forma screen test for Bond—and in the midst of filming a kind of warm-up for the part, Frederick Forsyth’s thriller The Fourth Protocol, in which Brosnan plays a KGB bad guy. Had Steele been renewed, he said, “I would have risen to the occasion, but I would have gone back to work reluctantly, just gritting my teeth…. Under the circumstances [of the Bond offer], if it had gone a fifth [season], I would have been pissed off…. No risks were being taken. I wanted the show to get a little more hard-edged, but they wanted to keep it like it was.” He was particularly distressed by Moonlighting, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Remington. In fact that show was created by Glenn Gordon Caron, a former Remington writer. “Moonlighting [is] a direct steal which has just done it in a different, much fresher way,” Brosnan said. “At least they take risks.” Co-star Stephanie Zimbalist apparently agrees. “Now those people are doing at Moonlighting exactly what we’re supposed to be doing at Remington Steele.”

Brosnan’s trouble on Remington apparently involved more than creative differences: Almost from the start, stories of discord between Brosnan and Zimbalist were common. Although the series was conceived primarily as a vehicle for her, he got more mail and publicity. To create the character, Brosnan said, “I’d look at old Cary Grant movies, steal a little bit from him and mix in my own personality. In some respects, it was a cross between John Cleese, Cary Grant and James Bond.” Zimbalist was clearly dissatisfied with the show’s shifting focus. “I have to do something,” she told one interviewer in 1983, “or when this show goes off the air, all anybody is going to remember is that Pierce Brosnan starred in it.” If her relations with Brosnan were occasionally frosty, they were positively frigid with his wife, actress Cassandra Harris, who reportedly saw Steele as a stepping-stone to superstardom for her husband.

In a show that relies on character chemistry, there was little combustion. As Brosnan put it, they “were never progressing in the relationship…. There was all this kind of cat and mouse, old movie rubbish…. The people who were behind it were never courageous enough to say, ‘Well, let’s just throw it up in the air, what we can do next, how we can keep it alive.’ ” On that he and Zimbalist were agreed, and the producers’ notable idea for invigorating the show—having them get married—infuriated both of them. During production earlier this year, Zimbalist said: “If they decide to marry Remington and Laura, they can find themselves someone else to play Laura. That is not the character I signed to play.” And, of course, in the season’s last episode, Laura and Steele were married. Brosnan recalls, “There was a lot of tension about that.” Exec producer Gleason observes: “Pierce and Stephanie are both quite vocal when it comes to their characters.” Although weddings are usually Nielsen bonanzas, the union did nothing for Remington ratings.

For Brosnan, television was no longer the most becoming medium. “You learn bad habits as an actor [on TV]. As the season goes on, you take short cuts, fatigue sets in. Then your confidence goes.” With it goes some measure of esteem. “The word ‘star’ doesn’t mean an awful lot to me. ‘Good actor’ and having the respect of one’s peers means more. You don’t really get much of that doing a show like Remington Steele.”

By the end of last season, Brosnan wanted to leave Los Angeles as well as the show. Despite the comforts of a home in the hills, “I was becoming so Hollywood. All it became was money—get as much as you possibly can. I just find that you can become a very boring person living in L.A. I tell you, living there on a day-to-day basis is vacuous, terribly fake.” So he particularly liked the prospect of shooting back-to-back features in London: “It’s extremely civilized working here.”

Brosnan has long considered playing Bond a career goal, but only recently has he pursued that prospect with passion. In fact, when he was first mentioned as a candidate he was reticent. “I said, ‘Why do I want to do it? It’s become an institution.’ ” But the idea kept coming back. Roger Moore told a newspaper that Pierce was his hand-picked successor. The mushrooming attention made Brosnan reconsider. So, no doubt, did the lack of attention given Brosnan’s feature Nomads, a quick fizzle released last March. Finally, he said, “I thought, if I don’t do Bond and some other guy gets it and I’ve been such a strong contender, I’m going to be really pissed off.”

Brosnan had begun to feel almost as if fate had assigned him the role. Bond, he said, was “part of my upbringing.” Among the first films he saw when he moved from Ireland to England in the early ’60s were Bond flicks. “For an Irish boy, age of 11, really green, very naive, sheltered Catholic upbringing, it was just mindblowing.” Some 20 years later, he would meet the maker of those movies face-to-face. It was 1981, and Brosnan’s miniseries, The Manions of America, was set to premiere in America. He and wife Cassie had had to borrow $3,500 to pay for their trip to L.A., but soon he was cast as Remington Steele (after Anthony Andrews turned down the role). Cassie, it so happened, was playing one of Bond’s girls in the 1981 flick For Your Eyes Only—and they were invited to dinner at Broccoli’s estate. “I remember turning to Cassie that night in this old Rent-a-Wreck car, and I was joking the whole way home saying, ‘My name’s Bond, James Bond.’ I said, ‘This is it, darling, there’s no looking back now’—little knowing that five years on, one would be stepping into the role. There are a lot of funny things that happen in one’s life.”

So there are. A few weeks ago, Brosnan returned to L.A., and there, barring strikes or other acts of a merciful God, he will begin shooting Remington Steele next October.

1989: Licença Para Matar released in Portugal.

2010: 24/7 reviews a book proposing writer Roald Dahl was a real-life James Bond.

Roald Dahl was real-life James Bond: Book
https://emirates247.com/roald-dahl-was-real-life-james-bond-book-2010-08-11-1.277710
Children's author Dahl was a dashing, bed-hopping spy, according to a new book (FILE)
By Staff - Published Wednesday, August 11, 2010

He may be best-known as the author of chaste children's books, but Roald Dahl was a secret service agent with a "whole stable" of women and a license to kill, in the manner of fictional spy James Bond, according to an explosive new book.

The British author slept with countless high society women while gathering intelligence in the US in the 1940s, says Donald Sturcock in his new book "Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl".

Dahl's life as a young, handsome and dashing RAF officer in the early 1940s is recreated in the book through interviews with many associates and lovers, reported the UK's The Telegraph newspaper.

Antoinette Haskell, a wealthy friend of Dahl's who looked up to him as a brother even thought he was "drop dead gorgeous", said the Charlie And The Chocolate Factory author was a relentless womaniser. "He was very arrogant with his women, but he got away with it. The uniform didn't hurt one bit and he was an ace pilot. I think he slept with everybody on the east and west coasts that had more than USD 50,000 a year," Haskell is quoted as saying in the book.

Dahl had fought as a fighter pilot earlier in the war, until injuries grounded him. He then worked for a secret service network based in the United States called British Security Coordination (BSC).

It was during this time that he worked with such other well known agents as Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond and David Ogilvy.

It is not known exactly how Dahl was recruited as a British agent, but it is thought he was working loosely for BSC by the first four months of 1944 when, officially, he had a public relations role at the British Embassy in Washington DC.

Yet Dahl's secretive role too ended soon as it went against the grain because he was a terrible gossip who frequently betrayed confidence, according to his family and friends.

Dahl, who died in 1990 aged 74, remains one of the world's bestselling fiction authors, with sales estimated at 100 million and counting.

RichardTheBruce

August 12th

1964: Ian Lancaster Fleming dies at age 56--Canterbury, Kent, England.
(Born 28 May 1908--Mayfair, London, England.)

Ian Fleming Dead; Created James Bond
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/08/13/archives/ian-fleming-dead-created-james-bond.html
AUG. 13, 1964

LONDON, Aug. 12 — Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, Agent 007 of the British Secret Service, died early today in a hospital at Canterbury after suffering a heart attack. He was 56 years old.

Mr. Fleming was stricken last night at his hotel in Sandwich, where he was spending a golfing vacation with his wife, Anne Geraldine Fleming, and their son, Caspar, who became 12 years old today.

The novelist suffered a coronary thrombosis three years ago. It forced him to curtail his activities and reduce his daily quota of gold‐tipped cigarettes, which Bond also smoked incessantly, from 60 to 20.

In little more than a decade James Bond became the world's best known secret agent.

Countless readers avidly followed his undercover war against .Soviet master spies and terrorists and later against a mysterious international crime syndicate.

Mr. Fleming equipped his hero with an impeccable social background, good looks, bravery, toughness and a disillusional sort of patriotism.

More important, the double‐O identification number, carried by only three men in the British Secret Service, authorized him to kill in the line of duty. It was a privilege Bond exercised frequently and sometimes reluctantly, most often with a .25‐caliber Beretta automatic that he carried in a chamois shoulder holster.

President Kennedy and Allen Dulles, while he was the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, said that they enjoyed Mr. Fleming's books. In fact, it was probably the President's praise in 1961 that was largely responsible for their enormous popularity here. In Britain, Prince Philip led the cheering section.

Mr. Fleming wrote 12 books, all but two about Bond, and was working on the 13th when he died. All told, they sold more than 18 million copies, mostly in paperback editions, and were translated into 10 languages.

Two highly profitable films. “Doctor No” and “From Russia With Love,” were made from his novels, a third, “Goldfinger,” was recently completed and is awaiting release and others are planned.

Mr. Fleming had made $2.8 million from his books, according to his agent, Peter Janson Smith. In March, in a complex transaction for tax purposes, he sold a 51 per cent interest in his future income to a British holding company for $280,000.

Critics differed on the merits of his works. Some said he was an aristocratic Mickey Spillane, pandering to the public's taste for sadism and sex. A critic in London's New Statesman called “Doctor No,” which tells of how Bond destroys a missile‐sabotage center in the Caribbean, “the nastiest book” he had ever read.

“There are three basic ingredients in ‘Doctor No,‘” he said, “all unhealthy, all thoroughly English: the sadism of a schoolboy bully, the mechanical, two‐dimensional sex‐longings of a frustrated adolescent, and the crude snob‐cravings of a suburban adult.

“Mr. Fleming has no literary skill. But the three ingredients are manufactured and blended with deliberate, professional precision.”

On the other hand, the contemporary novelist Kingsley Amis, in a 40,000‐word study, described Bond as tender rather than sadistic, classless rather than snobbish and a moderate Tory rather than a Fascist.

On the whole, American critics did not take Mr. Fleming quite so seriously, regarding his books as thrillers that had tended to become less thrilling in recent years.

Mr. Fleming said he thought of them as entertainment of no special significance. He attributed their popularity to a hunger for larger‐than‐life heroes that was left unsatisfied by most contemporary fiction.

At the same time Bond's adventures slaked a public thirst for information about espionage that had been whetted by such events as the trial of Dr. Klaus Fuchs, the Burgess‐McLean case, the U‐2 incident and the growing awareness of the work of the C.I.A.

The first of the novels, “Casino Royale,” published in London without fanfare in 1953, described Bond's destruction of Le Chiffre, the head of the French branch of Smersh, the Soviet espionage and terror ring, Bond's nearly fatal torture and his discovery that the woman he had fallen in love with was a Soviet agent.

Mr. Fleming later said he wrote the book because he needed to keep his mind off his impending marriage, marking the end of his bachelor days.

“Writing about 2,000 words in three hours every morning, he said, “‘Casino Royale’ dutifully produced itself. I wrote nothing and made no corrections until the book was finished. If I had looked back at what I had written the day before I might have despaired.”

Other novels followed rapidly. In “Goldfinger” Bond foils a plot to rob Fort Knox; in “Moonraker” he prevents the firing of a missile into the heart of London; in “Live and Let Die” he destroys Smersh's chief agent in the United States, a Negro dabbler in voodoo and racketeering known as Mr. Big.

In “From Russia With Love,” Bond escapes from Smersh's plot to destroy him but appears to be dying of poison as the book ends. Concern over his fate mounted among the public. His publishers finally stated, “After a period of anxiety the condition of No. 007 shows definite improvement.”

Mr. Fleming liked to point out that Smersh, although often thought to be a fictional organization, existed as a Soviet counterespionage organization during and after World War II Its name is the combined form of the Russian words “smyert spionam,” meaning death to spies.

When Smersh was disbanded, Mr. Fleming set up SPECTRE, as Bond's opponent. It was unquestionably fictional, the word being formed from the initials of Special Executive for Counter‐intelligence Terror, Revenge and Extortion.

Under the leadership of Ernest Stavro Blofeld, whose career began as a double or triple agent in prewar Warsaw, SPECTRE has enlisted the services of former Gestapo agents, disenchanted Smersh operatives, members of the Mafia, the Red Lightning Tong and other Master criminals.

In “Thunderball” Bond balks the organization's plot to extort millions of dollars from the United States with a stolen nuclear bomb. He continues his pursuit of Blofeld in “On His Majesty's Secret Service” [sic] and appears to have destroyed him in his most recent adventure, “You Only Live Twice,” both of which were serialized in the magazine Playboy.

Mr. Fleming was often accused of making Bond a thinly disguised projection of himself. In their love of fast cars, golf, gambling and gourmet cooking, in their skill with firearms and cards, the two men were indeed similar, but Mr. Fleming once said, “Apart from the fact that he wears the same clothes that I wear, he and I really have little in common. I do rather envy him his blondes and his efficiency, but I can't say I much like the chap.”

Mr. Fleming said he had conceived Bond as “a hero without any characteristics who was simply the blunt instrument in the hands of his government.”

However, as with most authors, Fleming's experiences largely shaped those of his creation.

Mr. Fleming was born on May 28, 1908. His father, Major Valentine Fleming, at one time a Conservative member of Parliament, was killed while fighting on the Somme in 1916. His obituary in The Times of London was written by Winston Churchill.

The boy was educated at Eton, Britain's most exclusive school, and Sandhurst, the military academy. While there he was a member of the rifle team and competed in a match against the United States Military Academy.

He earned a commission, but resigned before beginning active service in the largely inactive British Army of the 1820's. He also said later that he regarded tanks and trucks as a step downward from horses and sabers.

Planning to enter the diplomatic service, he learned excellent French and German at the Universities of Munich and Geneva. He stood seventh on the service's entrance examinations, but since there were only five vacancies he decided to try journalism.

He joined Reuters, the international news agency, and in 1929 was appointed its Moscow correspondent.

“Reuters was great fun in those days,” he said. “The training there gives you a good straightforward style. Above all, I have to thank Reuters for getting my facts right.”

There was a difference of opinion about this among Bond fans. They delighted in finding errors in the novels, such as the sending of a woman gang leader to Sing Sing, a men's prison.

After four years he was offered the post of assistant general manager of Reuters in the Far East, but feeling the need for money, he decided to join a private bank in London. In 1935 he became a stockbroker and remained one until the outbreak of war in 1939.

Mr. Fleming was commissioned in the Royal Navy and became in time personal assistant to Rear Admiral T. H. Godfrey, director of naval intelligence. The admiral was the prototype of “M,” the retired seadog who heads Bond's secret service.

More important, it was Mr. Fleming's wartime service, from which he emerged as a commander, that provided the insights into the technique and practice of intelligence work that his readers found enthralling.

After the war, he became foreign manager of The Sunday Times of London. His contract provided for two months of vacation a year, which he spent at Goldeneye, his home near Oracabessa in Jamaica. Mr. Fleming did most of his writing there and the island provided the background for many of his novels.

Like Bond, Mr. Fleming was , tall (6‐foot‐1) and slender (168 pounds). His curly hair was graying, his complexion was ruddy and his nose had been broken.

The novelist was a collector of first editions and rare books and published The Book Collector, the bibliophilic magazine.

Besides his widow, whose marriage to Viscount Bothermere ended in divorce in 1952, and his son, Mr. Fleming is survived by two brothers, Peter, the explorer and writer, and Richard, a banker.

1977: Spionen der elskede mig released in Denmark.

1983: Octopussy – mustekala (Octopussy - Soft-bodied Cephalopods Squid/Octopus/Cuttlefish) released in Finland.

2034: Where the Copyright Extension Act of 1998 is applied, the Fleming books could enter the public domain.

RichardTheBruce

August 13th

1961: The East German government starts construction of the Berlin Wall.

j_w_pepper wrote: »

Re August 13th

...today the East German government, with probably a slight prodding from their big brothers in Moscow, started building the Berlin Wall, in effect the centerpiece of the Iron Curtain, separating East and West for the next 28 years and about three months, not to mention being sort of prominently displayed in OCTOPUSSY. Famous quote from then Chairman of the East German Communists, Walter Ulbricht, in June 1961: "No one has the intention of erecting a wall." Two months later, it was there.

1971: Diamonds Are Forever films Sean Connery's last scene with OO7 in a crematorium.
1979: Moonraker released in Denmark.

1987: Su nombre es peligro (His Name Is Danger) released in Argentina.

1987: James Bond 007 – Der Hauch des Todes (The Breeze Of The Death) released in West Germany.

2012: A Coca-Cola ad campaign related to Skyfall is revealed in the press. Slogan: "Unlock the 007 in You".

Coca-Cola Zero releases Skyfall campaign continuing its partnership with the James Bond franchise
By Staff Writer-13 August 2012 11:57am

The Coca-Cola Company has announced its Coca-Cola Zero brand is to team up with the 23rd installment of the James Bond series, Skyfall, as part of promotions for the films worldwide release this autumn.

Coca-Cola Zero products will undergo a Bond themed makeover

The announcement continues Coca-Cola and James Bond’s successful partnership, which began in 2008 through the brand’s association with Quantum of Solace. This time the campaign will be asking fans to “Unlock the 007 In You.”

The association will see all Coke Zero products undergoing a special Bond themed makeover. The limited edition designs will feature across multiple pack formats, including cans, PET bottles and an aluminum bottle, all of which will showcase the famous Bond ‘gun barrel’ design.

Marketing Director for Coca-Cola Great Britain, Zoe Howorth, commented: “Skyfall is without a doubt one of this year’s most anticipated film releases, and we are very excited to be a part of it and to continue our relationship with the world’s favourite movie franchise.

“James Bond is a global cultural icon who consistently takes action to create what’s possible, making this the perfect partnership for Coca-Cola Zero.”

The campaign is set to roll out across TV, cinema, PR and outdoor advertising. Digital and social media campaigns, as well as on-pack promotions are also planned.

2015: The Telegraph reports that The Guardian reports that (black actor) David Oyelowo will be Bond.

Telegraph Culture Books What to Read
David Oyelowo to be James Bond (sort of)


David Oyelowo to play James Bond in 'Trigger Mortis'
Credit: Rex/Richard Saker - Catherine Gee
13 August 2015 • 10:04am

British actor David Oyelowo is to play James Bond – though in voice only. The Guardian reports that the 39-year-old is set to read the audio edition of Trigger Mortis, a new novel commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate and written by Anthony Horowitz.

It’s set during the space race in 1957, two weeks after the events in Goldfinger. It will also contain previously unpublished material written by Fleming for Murder on Wheels, a television series that was never made. Oyelowo’s invitation to play Bond came directly from the Fleming estate.

“I am officially the only person on planet Earth who can legitimately say: ‘I am the new James Bond’ — even saying that name is the cinematic equivalent of doing the ‘to be or not to be’ speech,” he said. “I was asked specifically by the Fleming estate, which is really special.”

Oyelowo was born in Oxford and began his career on the stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company and became the first black actor to portray the title role in Henry VI in 2001. Last year he was a regular screen presence with roles in the HBO TV film Nightingale, Interstellar and A Most Violent Year.

The Bafta, Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actor was also widely acclaimed for his role as Martin Luther King in Selma.

In a statement, Horowitz said: “What an honour to have an actor as talented as David to read my take on Bond. He has a brilliant voice and talent for bringing out the nuances of dialogue and characters.”

Oyelowo is not the first black actor to play the role of Bond in audio form. In 2012, Hugh Quarshie read the audiobook of Dr No as part of a box set.

The casting of cinema's next 007 is still yet to be announced, although rumours continue to circulate that Idris Elba will become the first black Bond – despite Elba ruling himself out. Daniel Craig is contractually obliged to play Bond in one more film after Spectre, which is released in November, but reports suggest he may be released from his contract early.

Trigger Mortis will be released on 8 September.

Revelator

His Name Is Danger wouldn't be an awful title for Bond 25.

RichardTheBruce

August 14th

1962: The Thames Ditton factory delivers a 1962 AC Aceca Coupe to Ian Fleming.

Ian Fleming sports car under hammer at Goodwood Revival
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-11340815
17 September 2010

The car was delivered in the same year that
the writer finished The Spy Who Loved Me

A sports car once owned by James
Bond creator Ian Fleming is being
auctioned at the Goodwood Revival
in West Sussex.

The 1962 AC Aceca Coupe is said to be one of six surviving Ford-powered Acecas in the world.

Bonhams which is running the auction said the car had a pre-sale estimate of £100,000 to 130,000.

The two-seater, which is dark blue with a red leather interior, is recorded as having left the factory in Surrey in 1962 for delivery to Ian Fleming.

The car was delivered from the Thames Ditton factory to the writer on 14 August. It was the same year that he completed The Spy Who Loved Me.

According to Bonhams, Fleming kept the car for a year before selling it in 1963. Since then, it has changed hands several times.

Another car in the auction, with a sale estimate of £20,000 to £24,000, is a 1988 Jaguar XJ-S V12 soft-top convertible that once belonged to the Duchess of York.

And a 1953 Jaguar C-Type, the same make and model that won the Le Mans 24-Hours race twice in 1951 and 1953, will also be auctioned with a guide price of between £800,000 and £1m.

The auction is being held at the racing festival near Chichester on Friday evening.

1964: Agent 007 jages (Agent 007 Hunted) re-released in Denmark.

1964: Salainen agentti 007 Istanbulissa (Secret Agent 007 in Istanbul; also Swedish Den hemliga agenten 007 i Istanbul/The Secret Agent 007 in Istanbul) released in Finland.

1966: Halle Berry is born--Cleveland, Ohio.
1978: Filming of Moonraker begins in France.
1987: Spioner der ved daggry (Spies Die at Dawn) released in Denmark.

1987: The Living Daylights released in Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
1993: Domark publishes video game James Bond 007: The Duel--developed by The Kremlin, for use with Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Master System and Game Gear consoles. Timothy Dalton's last appearance in the role.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0483987/videoplayer/vi1346813209

2002: Peter Roger Hunt dies at age 77--Santa Monica, California. (Born 11 March 1925--London, England.)

Peter Hunt
The man who cut down 007
https://theguardian.com/news/2002/aug/16/guardianobituaries.filmnews
Ronald Bergan - Thu 15 Aug 2002 20.16 EDT

The film editor and director Peter Hunt, who has died aged 77, was associated with the huge success of the James Bond movies, the longest-running series in the history of the cinema. He edited the first five Bond films - generally considered the best - creating a style of sharp cutting that has been emulated by many editors and directors of action movies.

He also directed one, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), mistakenly thought of as the worst of the Bond films because of George Lazenby's forgettable 007. The inexperienced Australian model carried the can for the film's comparative box-office failure, but Hunt was praised for his pacy, and seemingly effortless, direction.

Already with a decade of editing behind him, Hunt only reluctantly agreed to edit the first Bond film, Dr No (1962). "I was really not interested in doing it at all," he recalled. "But, then I thought, well, if the director is Terence Young, and I know him well enough, and I find him rather nice, maybe it will be alright." Previously, Hunt had suggested to Harry Saltzman that, in his search for an actor to portray James Bond, the producer look at the film he had just edited, the feeble army comedy On The Fiddle (1961), in which Sean Connery played a Gypsy pedlar.

The editing style of the Bond movies was established because, "if we kept the thing moving fast enough, people won't see the plot holes," what editors call "chets", or cheated editing tricks. "On Dr No, for example, there was a great deal missing from the film when we got back from shooting in Jamaica, and I had to cut it and revoice it in such a way as to make sense."

It was from then that Hunt decided to use jump cuts and quick cutting, and very few fade-ins, fade-outs and dissolves, which "destroy the tension of the film". The fight between Connery and Robert Shaw on board the Orient Express, in From Russia With Love (1963), took a total of 59 cuts in 115 seconds of film.

Born in London, Hunt learned his craft from an uncle who made government training and educational films. His first claim to fame was, in fact, appearing on a recruiting poster for the Boy Scouts Association when he was 16, and he read the lesson at Lord Baden-Powell's funeral. At 17, he joined the army, and was almost immediately shipped off to Italy, where he took part in the battle of Cassino.

After the war, he returned to work with his uncle, before becoming assistant cutter for Alexander Korda, and a fully fledged editor with Hill In Korea (1956). He worked with both Terence Young and Lewis Gilbert on a number of films prior to editing their Bond efforts.

Besides editing, Hunt directed some second-unit work on the Bond films, as well as the title sequence for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). "I had a terrible time in the cutting room on You Only Live Twice (1967), with Donald Pleasance as Blofeld. Lewis [Gilbert] had made him into a camp, mini sort of villain. If you look at the film very carefully, Pleasance doesn't walk anywhere, because he had this mincing stride. He was so short that he looked like a little elf beside Connery. I used every bit of editing imagination I could so that he could be taken seriously as a villain."

Many purist Bond fans regret that Hunt never directed another 007 movie. His determination to be more faithful to the Ian Fleming original, even down to the death of the heroine (Diana Rigg) and the scaling down of gadgetry, puts On Her Majesty's Secret Service above many subsequent films in the series. It also happened to be the best picture he directed.

There followed two overlong adventure yarns set in Africa with Roger Moore, Gold (1974) and Shout At The Devil (1976); a couple of macho movies with Charles Bronson, Death Hunt (1981) and Assassination (1986); and the dispensable Wild Geese II (1985). But the work began to dry up, a situation that depressed the normally ebullient and energetic Hunt. In 1975, he settled in southern California with his partner Nicos Kourtis, who survives him.

Peter Roger Hunt, film editor and director, born March 11 1925; died August 14 2002

2008: Heineken renews its product placement in the Bond film franchise.

Heineken beer in James Bond movie Quantum of Solace
007museum.com/HeinekenQOS.htm
Amsterdam, 14 August 2008 - Heineken International today announced that it will launch a worldwide promotional campaign for the 22nd James Bond film, “Quantum of Solace,” a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures’/Columbia Pictures’ release of EON Productions. The film, which will be released in movie theatres worldwide in November 2008, is Heineken’s 5th consecutive global partnership with one of the most successful and longest running movie franchises in history.

Stefan Orlowski, Group Commerce Director, Heineken N.V., said of the partnership: “Our long association with James Bond has helped enhance the profile of the Heineken brand across the world. The partnership supports our commitment to extend the brand’s leadership position within the international premium beer segment. Our global campaign offers a great opportunity to drive sales growth and to help build the value of Heineken's brand equity."

The new marketing campaign provides the opportunity for consumers to experience the premium, stylish and international world of James Bond. The campaign features leading lady Olga Kurylenko and was shot using actual film sets and scenes from the film. It includes TV and print advertising and on- and off-premise promotions, interactive and digital activities, radio promotions, consumer competitions and tie-ins with local premiere events. The campaign will be launched globally across an estimated 40 countries in October in conjunction with the worldwide release of the film.

Olga Kurylenko, who plays the role of Camille in the upcoming film, commented: “I am delighted to support Heineken’s global “Quantum of Solace” marketing campaign. Heineken has done a great job in making James Bond, Camille and the world of Bond connect with their iconic international brand.”

Melinda Eskell, Manager Heineken Brand Communication said: “We worked in close partnership with Eon and Columbia Pictures to ensure the global campaign remained authentic to the film and the James Bond franchise. The involvement of Olga Kurylenko combined with the use of other authentic Bond assets provides Heineken the unique opportunity to allow our consumers worldwide to experience the world of Bond.”

In “Quantum of Solace,” Daniel Craig reprises his role as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007.The film is directed by Marc Forster, the screenplay is by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Paul Haggis and Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli producer.

2019: Dynamite Entertainment releases James Bond Origins #12.

https://www.dynamite.com/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?PRO=C72513027244712011

RichardTheBruce

August 15th

1944: Barbara Bouchet is born--Liberec, Czechia.

1947: Jenny Hanley is born--Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England.

Jenny Hanley about her work on On Her
Majesty’s Secret Service
http://iluminar.tv/jenny-hanley-about-her-work-on-on-her-majestys-secret-service/
March 16, 2019

This interview originally appeared on From Sweden with Love
https://jamesbond007.se/eng/intervjuer/jenny_hanley_on_her_majestys_secret_service_interview

By Mark Cerulli

FSWL contributor and LA correspondent Mark Cerulli talks to English actress
Jenny Hanley, the Irish girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) starring
George Lazenby as Ian Fleming’s 007 that celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year.

A Girl On The Mountain

One of my first questions for the wonderful British actress Jenny Hanley was “When did you get bit by the acting bug?” Her answer was a total surprise – no “acting bug” bit, instead, she was born into show business…

“Both my parents were actors and my grandparents were professional photographers,” Jenny states. (One of their clients was none other than future-Bond, Sir Roger Moore) She studied child psychology and had her sights on a quiet career as a nanny. It was her brother who wanted to be an actor, and yet she got all the breaks – being sent to modeling school, being spotted and suddenly finding herself in front of the camera in commercials and on magazine covers. Not the easiest transition for the painfully shy young woman.

“I wasn’t a wall flower, I was lichen!” the actress remembers with a laugh.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was Jenny’s second film. (Her first was a one scene walk on in 1968’s hedonistic British drama Joanna) None other than Harry Saltzman spotted her in a commercial and wanted to include her in the stable of young women he was building for use in films. (During Hollywood’s “Golden” era, studios groomed young talent, giving them acting and voice lessons along with other training. The UK’s Rank Organization had a similar “charm school”.) Saltzman, as always thinking ahead, envisioned building a similar talent pool for Bond films and other projects.

Harry offered her a movie straight away, “But the part had a nude scene which I wouldn’t do…” Jenny recalled. Instead Saltzman suggested she “… go off to Switzerland [Schilthorn Piz Gloria] and have fun for a few weeks.” And just like that Jenny had a role in the next Bond film! The producer also told her that she had to wear a red wig as they already had several blondes in the cast.

Jenny felt right at home on the set as she had worked with many members of OHMSS’s female cast – including Joanna Lumley, Anouska Hempel (now one of the most successful interior designers in Europe) and her London neighbor, Catherine Schnell.

When asked about her memories of Harry Saltzman, Jenny mentioned going into his office, off London’s ritzy Park Lane: “It was a very masculine office, with dark furniture and a leather sofa that was so deep if you sat on it and leaned back, your feet were up off the floor like a child.” And if that weren’t intimidating enough, “Harry was behind an enormous desk up on a plinth, so he was definitely the King!” Of course he was – as half of the most successful producing team in movie history. The Bond films literally coined money and Saltzman and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli wielded immense power, yet both men treated her royally – “Harry was very sweet,” Jenny recalls, adding, “And Cubby was just as his name suggests, ‘Cuddly Cubby’.”

She also called director Peter Hunt “a gentle soul” although, “Peter didn’t have much to do with us because we didn’t have much to do.”

While she said Hunt wasn’t a “strong” director, “He made a really good film and he knew what he wanted. By gosh, the fight scenes, the skiing and car chases were brilliantly done!” Jenny also recalled an incident that shows how the Bond production team would let nothing stand in the way of getting a great shot: “There was a scene up on the mountain, and there wasn’t enough snow, so Peter sent a helicopter to another mountain and they filled up a huge upside-down parachute with snow and made several trips so we had enough snow! In a Bond movie, it was all possible to do…”

In terms of “character development”, there wasn’t a lot for Jenny’s Irish Girl – “I sat around and practiced my Irish accent and wound up not saying anything at all,” Jenny remembers with a chuckle. “I always say that a standard lamp could have done what I did in the film.” (A very beautiful standard lamp!)

For the Bond girls on location – every day began the same: “We were picked up in a horse drawn carriage, bundled in furs just to take us to the cable car to go up the mountain…. it was slightly surreal,” she marvels. Light workload or not, her memories of the set were nothing but positive… “Cubby wanted everything to be a family, which was sweet. And while we were out in Switzerland, his son was going to have his first haircut, which was to be a celebration and everyone was invited. It was great!”

Jenny also had a connection to the new Bond – George Lazenby – having met him when she was modeling. While he was friendly and fun to be around, Jenny recalled a bit of his strong personality coming out when he visited a local restaurant without a reservation. When told it was booked, he came back with, “Don’t you know who I am?” One hopes he got that table!

Of course, the pressure George was under was enormous, with the future of one of Cinema’s most valuable franchises riding on his relatively inexperienced shoulders. Fortunately, Lazenby had enough self-confidence for five men, so he was able to shrug the stress off and do the work.

“He carried the film and he did it beautifully… he had a good sense of humor and we got on well,” Jenny remembers.

The actress is also full of admiration for George’s famous independent streak.

“I remember his coming back for the premiere with long sideburns and facial fur (!) and being told, ‘That’s not Bond, got to a barber and get yourself shaved so you look like Bond’ and George said ‘No, I won’t.’ That was George!”

Looking back on On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Jenny has nothing but good feelings about the film. “It was good fun to do, ” she said, “And being a part of such an extraordinary franchise, Cubby made it like family and we are a family because we still meet up [at conventions] and EON [Productions] is very keen on keeping that family together.”

As On Her Majesty’s Secret Service turns 50 this year the film will be celebrated with two unique events in Portugal and Switzerland, the latter co-hosted by Schilthornbahn AG and Martijn Mulder’s On The Tracks of 007, in May and June.

1964: Ian Lancaster Fleming is buried in Sevenhampton, near Swindon, England.

Omnia perfunctus vitae praemia, marces, meaning
"Having enjoyed all life's prizes, you now decay."
On the Nature of Things (De rerum natura)

1983: Octopussy released in Denmark.

https://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/op-dk-poster-1983/

https://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/octopussy-dk-ad-sheet-1983/

1987: “If There Was a Man” by Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders charts in the U.K., eventually reaching #49.

2012: An official James Bond scent becomes available at Harrod's.

For your nose only: James Bond gets his first fragrance
By Oliver Franklin-Wallis
Friday 27 July 2012
https://gq-magazine.co.uk/article/james-bond-007-official-fragrance

Whether in Ian Fleming's novels or the film outings, 007 has never been subtle about his preference for particular brands of car, drink or tailor - but Bond was never particularly forthcoming about his choice of cologne. (The closest we get is Fleming's own preference for Floris No.89.) That's all set to change with the unveiling of the first official James Bond fragrance, arriving in September from P&G to mark the franchise's 50th anniversary. Thankfully, the scent eschews hints of Aston Martin leather and martini top notes for a modern take on classic Sixties fragrances, with hints of fresh apple, cardamom, sandalwood and vetiver. Because given what we've seen of Daniel Craig's motorcycle-riding, Bérénice-seducing, Heineken-swigging hero in Skyfall, he's going to need to freshen up...

£25 for 50ml. Available exclusively at Harrods from 15 August 15. Available nationwide from 19 September. 007.com

2017: Dynamite Entertainment publishes James Bond Kill Chain #2.

2017: Daniel Craig confirms his return for BOND 25.

RichardTheBruce

August 16th

1944: Maud Russell writes about Ian Fleming in her diary.

Spies, affairs and James Bond... The
secret diary of Ian Fleming's wartime
mistress
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/spies-affairs-james-bond-secret-diary-ian-flemings-wartime-mistress/

Wednesday 16 August, 1944

Ian dined on Monday and did he breathe a word of the invasion of
the Riviera which happened the next day? No, not a word, the beast.

1952: Lieutenant-Commander Ian Fleming's service in the RNVR (Special Branch) ends with his removal from the active list.
1952: Ian Fleming types out a letter to wife Ann.

"My love, This is only a tiny letter to try out my new typewriter
and to see if it will write golden words since it is made of gold."

1958: Madonna Louise Ciccone is born--Bay City, Michigan.
1966: The Times of London prints “Bulldog Drummond Was a Gentleman: Moral Decline Illustrated by James Bond.”
1973: Live and Let Die released in Hong Kong.
1977: Spionen som elsket meg released in Norway.

1984: Roger Moore and cast are photographed at Chantilly, France.

1985: Med doden i sikte (With Death in Sight) released in Norway.

1989: Permis de tuer released in France.

1995: Roger Moore comments on Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye.

"Both Sean Connery and I will be forgotten after everybody sees Pierce."

2007: Fourteen cameras film the Palio di Siena horse race, Siena, Italy.
2017: The press continue to overwhelmingly report Daniel Craig committing to BOND 25.

RichardTheBruce

14 August updated for the Dynamite Entertainment release of James Bond Origins #12.

RichardTheBruce

August 17th

1923: Julius Harris is born--Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
(He dies 17 October 2004 at age 81--Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.)

Julius Harris, 81; Broke Stereotypes of Movie Roles for Black Actors
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-oct-22-me-harris22-story.html
By Dennis McLellan, Times Staff Writer
Oct. 22, 2004

Julius Harris, the deep-voiced stage and screen actor who played the villainous Tee Hee in the James Bond film Live and Let Die and Ugandan President Idi Amin in the TV movie “Victory at Entebbe,” has died. He was 81.

Harris, a former member of the Negro Ensemble Company in New York City, died of heart failure Sunday at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills.

In an acting career that spanned four decades, Harris appeared in more than 70 film and television productions.

He played such diverse roles as a preacher who headed a slave group in the 1982 Civil War miniseries “The Blue and the Gray” and a gangster in the 1972 blaxploitation film classic “Superfly.”

“Even today, if I am walking in a black neighborhood, people call me by my ‘Superfly’ name -- Scatter,” Harris told The Times last October before being honored with a tribute by the Next Generation Council of the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s Legacy Film Series at the Directors Guild of America Theatre.

“His work helped African Americans break out of stereotypical movie roles and be seen as dynamic heroes and fully realized human beings,” actress Halle Berry said in a taped introduction to Harris’ film work.

A Philadelphia native whose mother was a Cotton Club dancer and whose father was a musician, Harris served as an Army medic during World War II. After leaving the service in 1950, he found work as an orderly and eventually became a nurse before moving to New York City.

As a regular at a Greenwich Village bar, he became friends with James Earl Jones, Yaphet Kotto, Al Freeman, Louis Gossett Jr. and other actors, whom he teased for being out of work.

“I would say to them, ‘You bums. You are always broke. What kind of actors are you? ... I can do your job with my arms tied behind my back,’ ” he recalled in The Times interview.

To back up his claim, he landed the small role of Ivan Dixon’s drunk, defeated father in “Nothing but a Man,” a critically acclaimed 1964 film about black life in the South starring Dixon and Abbey Lincoln.

“Not knowing the business, feeling I had to be in character, I got me a pint of bourbon, some of the worst rotgut stuff I could get,” Harris said.

When he arrived on the set, the producer and director took one look at him and said, “We can’t do anything with you today, Julius, but if you are the man we think you are, you’ll come back tomorrow.”

Harris said: “I was so embarrassed. So I went back home, sobered up and came back the next day and did the master [shot] in [one] take and close-ups in two [takes] and went home.”

In his review of the film, The Times’ Kevin Thomas deemed Harris’ performance superb.

He is survived by his children, Kimberly and Gideon.

A private memorial service will be held.

Julius Harris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Harris

Filmography

1964
Nothing But a Man, Will Anderson
1969
Slaves, Shadrach

1972
Shaft's Big Score, Capt. Bollin
Super Fly, Scatter
Trouble Man, Mr. Big
1973
Black Caesar, Mr. Gibbs
Live and Let Die, Tee Hee Johnson
Salty, Clancy Ames
Hell Up in Harlem, Papa Gibbs
Blade, Card Player
1974
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Inspector Daniels
1975
Let's Do It Again, Bubbletop Woodson
Friday Foster Monk Riley
1976
King Kong, Boan
1977
Islands in the Stream, Joseph
Alambrista!, 2nd Drunk
Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Black Cat
1979
Delta Fox, Tiny

1980
Gorp, Fred the Chef
First Family, Ambassador Longo
1981
Circle of Power, B.B.
Full Moon High, Hijacker uncredited
1983
Going Berserk, Judge
1984
The Enchanted, Booker T.
1985
Crimewave, Hardened Convict
1986
My Chauffeur, Johnson
Alternative title: My Chauffeur: Licensed to Love
Hollywood Vice Squad, Jesse
1988
Split Decisions, Tony Leone

1990
To Sleep with Anger, Herman
Darkman, Gravedigger
Prayer of the Rollerboys, Speedbagger
1991
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, Old Man Jiles
1993
Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence, Houngan Malfaiteur
Alternative titles: Maniac Cop 3
MC3: Maniac Cop 3
1994
Shrunken Heads, Aristide Sumatra

Television

1969
N.Y.P.D., Hector 1 episode

1973
The Bob Newhart Show, Mr. Billings 1 episode ("Blues for Mr. Borden")
1975
Harry O, Arthur "Art Sully" Daniels 1 episode
Cannon, Milner 1 episode
Ellery Queen, Doyle the Butler 1 episode
1976
Rich Man, Poor Man, Augie Miniseries
Victory at Entebbe, President Idi Amin Television movie
Good Times, Ben 1 episode
1977
Kojak, Joe Addison 1 episode
Sanford and Son, Doctor 1 episode
1978
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Mr. Dove 2 episodes
1979
The Incredible Hulk, Doc Alden 1 episode

1981
Thornwell, Frisco Television movie
1982
The Blue and the Gray, Swamp Preacher Miniseries
Voyagers!, Auctioneer 1 episode
1983
St. Elsewhere, Earl 1 episode
1983–1986
Cagney & Lacey, Bardo
Sergeant Major, Brennan 2 episodes
1984
Hart to Hart, Krohn 1 episode
Gone Are the Dayes, Man #1 Television movie
Benson, Uncle Buster 1 episode
The Jeffersons, Reverend Taylor 1 episode
1985
Hollywood Wives, Reverend Daniel Miniseries
Amazing Stories, Joe 1 episode
1986
Capitol, Papa Nebo Unknown episodes
1987
Outlaws, Butch 1 episode
A Gathering of Old Men, Coot Television movie
Alternative title: Murder on the Bayou
1989
Friday the 13th: The Series, Simpson 1 episode

1991
The Golden Girls, Mr. Lewis 1 episode
Murder, She Wrote, Jack Lee Johnson 1 episode
Civil Wars, Judge Adams 1 episode
1992
Eerie, Indiana, Prop Man 1 episode
1997
ER, Gramps 1 episode, (final appearance)

1964: Explorations airs its 27 minute documentary Ian Fleming: The Brain Behind Bond and his last interview.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1856624190/

1968: Helen McCrory is born--London, England.
1973: Live and Let Die released in Ireland.
1979: Kuuraketti (Swedish: Månraketen) released in Finland.

But not this one.

1979: Måneraketten released in Norway.
1984: Albert R. Broccoli is photographed with Bond Girls, Bond.

1999: Desmond Llewelyn launches the James Bond 007: A License To Thrill motion simulator, Trocadero, London.

2015: Premiere of the OMEGA Seamaster 300 Spectre Limited Edition wristwatch.

RichardTheBruce

August 18th

1957: Carole Bouquet is born--Neuilly-sur-Seine, Seine, France.
1960: Ian Fleming's letter to Richard Chopping instructs the design of the Thunderball book cover.

"Two cards will definitely be better than one,
and the second card should be an ace —
perhaps the Ace of Spades — if you can bear
the additional labour.

"Secondly, I think the Queen of Diamonds
would be better than the Queen of Hearts
as money is a keynote of the book."

1971: Robert Peter Fleming dies 18 August 1971 at age 64--Black Mount, Scotland.
Born 31 May 1907--Mayfair, London, England.
1973: John Barry conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl--"The James Bond Suite".
1979: Moonraker released in Sweden.

1979: The Moonraker soundtrack long play (LP) record makes the music charts.

1982: Octopussy films the auctioning of The Property of a Lady.

1988: The Licence to Kill production relocates from Mexico City to Key West, Florida.
2014: Tom Pevsner dies at age 87--Fife, Scotland. (Born 2 October 1926--Dresden, Germany.)

Tom Pevsner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Pevsner

Born Thomas C. Pevsner, 2 October 1926, Dresden, Germany
Died 18 August 2014 (aged 87), Fife, Scotland, United Kingdom
Nationality British
Alma mater University of Cambridge
Occupation Assistant film director and producer
Years active 1953–95
Parent(s) Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, Lola Pevsner

Tom Pevsner (2 October 1926 – 18 August 2014) was a British assistant film director and producer whose career spanned more than four decades.

He was the second of three children born to Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, an architectural historian of Russian-Jewish origin. The family emigrated from Germany in 1933 to escape the Nazi regime.

He served in the British Army from 1944 to 1948 before studying modern languages at the University of Cambridge, where he was a member of the St John's College Film Society. He was editor of The Cambridge Review; after graduating he went to work at the Film Finance Corporation.

Tom Pevsner's s notable credits include assistant director on The Ladykillers (1955) The Longest Day (1962) and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) and as producer for Dracula. He worked as associate, then executive producer on every James Bond film from For Your Eyes Only to GoldenEye. His contribution to the Bond series is acknowledged in the later Bond film Spectre, when Q states that he is staying at a hotel named Pevsner.

He died in 2014 aged 87. He was included in the In Memoriam tribute during the broadcast of the 87th Academy Awards on 22 February 2015.

RichardTheBruce

August 19th

1940: Jill St. John is born--Los Angeles, California.
1942: The Dieppe Raid in Northern France targeting cipher codes and Enigma repair parts, as planned by Ian Fleming and Admiral John Godfrey, plays out as an unnecessary failure.

Ian Fleming, Real-Life Secret Agent and World War II Commando
By Neely Simpson. Jan 21, 2015
https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/ian-fleming-real-life-secret-agent-and-world-war-ii-commando

Before he was Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, he was Commander Fleming, an intelligence officer in the Royal Navy and right-hand man to Admiral John Godfrey, Director of British Naval Intelligence. As such, Fleming was responsible for the creation of what came to be known as Assault Unit 30 (AU 30), a top-secret British commando unit specifically formed to gather intelligence. Fleming proposed the concept of AU 30 to Admiral Godfrey in a March 10, 1942 memo titled, "Proposal for Naval Intelligence Commando Unit."



The idea for AU 30 came out of a British intelligence crisis happening in 1942 for which Fleming sought a solution. Code-breaking specialists working in a secret location in Buckinghamshire called Bletchley Park had had - until 1942 - great success breaking coded messages sent by German Enigma Code machines. The Enigma machines had been invented by a German scientist, and the Germans wrongly believed the codes from Enigma machines were unbreakable. Essential to the war effort, the intelligence from the code-breakers of Bletchley Park kept British forces informed about the latest German military tactics. However, in 1942 the Germans advanced their technology, upgrading the Enigma machine to a 4-rotor wheel and leaving Bletchley Park code-breakers in the dark.



On August 19, 1942 Allied forces launched an attack on a German-occupied port in Northern France called Dieppe. Over 6,000 troops, predominantly Canadian, were deployed, and nearly 60 percent of those troops were killed, wounded, or captured. The Dieppe Raid, as it would come to be known, was considered a spectacular failure. Critics through the years said it was badly planned and of weak military strategy, leading to needless loss of life. The official objectives of the raid were to boost morale and to demonstrate to their allies Britain's commitment to opening a western front. However, new details brought to light by military historian, David O'Keefe, reveal that the primary and top-secret objective of the raid was to provide a diversion for Ian Fleming and Admiral Godfrey's newly formed 30 Assault Unit to steal cipher code books and spare parts of the German Enigma machine for the code-breakers of Bletchley Park.

A hotel in the town of Dieppe had been serving as the base for Nazi operations, and a German radar station was located in the cliffs around the port. The Dieppe Raid was 30 Assault Unit's very first mission; the hotel and the radar station were their primary targets. However, they were unsuccessful. Ironically, and perhaps tragically, a mere two weeks following the raid, the Bletchley Park code-breakers were able to break the new German Enigma codes without the cipher code books and spare parts housed in Dieppe.



Despite the nonsuccess of the Dieppe Raid, both Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten defended the raid years later saying that the lessons learned at Dieppe ultimately led to the victory of D-Day. Even though their first mission failed, Assault Unit 30 had great success throughout the rest of World War II, participating in both the invasion of Normandy and the liberation of Paris.

1981: James Bond comic strip Doomcrack ends its run in The Daily Express. (Started 2 February 1981. 1-174)
Harry North, artist (known for Mad magazine parodies). Jim Lawrence, writer.

Tamil Comic
https://tamilcomicsulagam.blogspot.com/2010/01/?m=1

1983: Octopussy released in Norway.
2014: Jimmy Fallon challenges Pierce Brosnan to a game of GoldenEye 007, N64 style.

RichardTheBruce

August 20th

1963: Ian Fleming writes "OO7 in New York" (original title "Reflections in a Carey Cadillac").

1964: Singer Shirley Bassey, guitarist Vic Flick, and songwriter John Barry record the title song for Goldfinger at London's CTS Studios in an overnight session. Note the EMI producer for the recording is George Martin.

1964: Dr. No released in Belgium.

1973: Roger Moore, performing on Broadway in 'The Play What I Wrote', is photographed with Yvonne Elliman of the Jesus Christ Superstar cast.

1981: James Bond comic strip The Paradise Plot begins in The Daily Express.
(Ends 4 June 1982. 175-378) John McLusky, artist. Jim Lawrence, writer.

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



https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/titan_tpp2.php3?s=comics&id=01748

2018: Aston Martin announces they'll produce 25 Aston Martin DB5s. With gadgets, not street legal.

Aston Martin to produce 25 Bond replica Goldfinger DB5s
Cars to have gadgets seen in films, but will not be road legal; they'll cost £3.3 million in the UK
https://autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/aston-martin-produce-25-bond-replica-goldfinger-db5s
Jimi Beckwith - 20 August 2018



Aston Martin will create 25 Goldfinger DB5s as part of its continuation projects, with these cars featuring working gadgets as seen in its six James Bond film appearances.

Three more cars in addition to the 25 will be created, with one being kept by Aston, one to go to Eon Productions (the firm behind the Bond film franchise) and another being auctioned for charity.

The gadgetry is being developed by Bond special effects supervisor Chris Corbould in collaboration with Aston’s Q bespoke department, having been officially sanctioned by Eon. They’ll be produced at Aston’s Newport Pagnell plant — the facility where the original DB5 was built.

The cars will be built to a specification true to that of the film car, including features such as revolving numberplates. Modifications over the original Bond DB5 are said to boost reliability and quality compared with the film props used on the original car.

Delivery of the 25 cars starts at the end of 2019, with each going for £2.75 million plus tax, putting the UK price of the car at £3.3 million.

Aston boss Andy Palmer said: "To own an Aston Martin has long been an aspiration for James Bond fans, but to own a Silver Birch DB5, complete with gadgets and built to the highest standards in the very same factory as the original James Bond cars? Well, that is surely the ultimate collectors’ fantasy. The skilled craftspeople at Aston Martin Works and the expert special effects team from the James Bond films are about to make this fantasy real for 25 very lucky customers.”

Previously, Aston produced a DB4 continuation run of 25 cars, each sold for £1.5 million before local taxes. Jaguar Land Rover's Classics division has also carried out continuation projects, starting with a run of Jaguar D-Types built in 2014, while Lister built continuation series of its Knobbly and Costin racers.

Aston produced a car in 2014 specifically for use in the Bond film Spectre but, despite wearing the DB10 moniker, it was never released to the public. That said, the car's look influenced the new Vantage.

2019: BOND 25 title reveal.

RichardTheBruce

August 21st

1916: Geoffrey Keen is born--Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England.
(He dies 3 November 2005 at age 89--Denville Hall, Northwood, Hillingdon, London, England.)

Geoffrey Keen
Mogul oil chief in 'The Troubleshooters' and a prolific actor in professional and authority-figure roles
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/geoffrey-keen-518287.html
Tuesday 6 December 2005 01:00

Geoffrey Ian Knee (Geoffrey Keen), actor: born London 21 August 1916;
married first Hazel Terry (marriage dissolved), second Madeleine Howell
(marriage dissolved), third Doris Groves (died 1989; one daughter); died
Watford, Hertfordshire 3 November 2005.

One of the screen's leading character actors for four decades, Geoffrey Keen was forever typecast as dour authority figures. After 20 years perfecting the type in British films, he landed a starring role on television in Mogul (1965), a topical drama about an oil conglomerate, at a time when drilling was just beginning in the North Sea.

Keen played the shrewd and ruthless Brian Stead, one of the company's bosses, in a 13-part series that gained increasing popularity - and sales to more than 60 countries, as well as many awards - after it was retitled The Troubleshooters (1966-72) and ran for a further 123 episodes. The BBC's initial publicity hailed:

Exciting stories about oilmen and the world they work in. The oilmen are everywhere. They walk in the corridors of power, drill wells in the desert, serve on the motorways. They sustain governments, dominate the Exchange, alter the face of the Earth, and keep most of the human race on the move. Oilmen are prospectors, tearing across rugged country in huge trucks; they also work in offices and have pension schemes. Some are scientists, some politicians, some are engineers, and some are very rich - and every oilman with a major company like the Mogul corporation is a subject of a vast feudal kingdom.

Over seven years, filming took place in glamorous locations as far-flung as Venezuela, Antarctica and New Zealand. Although Keen did some location shooting, he was often stuck at Mogul's head office in London, where he would be seen stepping in and out of his Rolls-Royce.

Stead, a widower who had to battle health problems - including two heart attacks - rose from his position as the company's deputy managing director and director of operations to become managing director, but the actor was frustrated at playing what he considered to be a dictator. So merciless was Stead that Keen's own daughter, Mary, refused to watch her father on television and would sit on the stairs with her hands over her ears. The actor also found the grind of making a weekly programme very hard. "At present, I have no domestic life at all - you have to give yourself completely to a series," he said at the time.

Keen soon switched back to films to play his most enduring screen role, as the Minister of Defence, Sir Frederick Gray, in six James Bond pictures. At the end of the first one, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), set at the Polaris submarine base in Scotland, he is seen peering into an escape pod to discover 007 under the sheets with a naked "Bond girl", Barbara Bach. "Bond, what do you think you're doing?" he asks. "Keeping the British end up, sir," Roger Moore retorts.

The sight of an embarrassed minister occurred several times over the following 10 years, as the dignified, by-the-book, upper-class Sir Frederick wrestled with Bond's playful attitude to his job and refusal to take missions seriously, in Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985) and The Living Daylights (1987, in which Timothy Dalton took over as Ian Fleming's secret agent).

Born Geoffrey Knee in London in 1916, he had a difficult childhood. His mother and father, Malcolm - a stage actor also seen in films as doctors, detectives and aristocrats - split up before his birth. (Father and son both changed their surname to Keen by deed poll.)

He and his mother moved to Bristol, where he attended the city's grammar school and worked briefly in a paint factory, before joining the Little Theatre there and spending a year in repertory productions, making his stage début as Trip in Sheridan's The School for Scandal (1932) at the age of 16.

Briefly unsure about acting as a career, Keen started studying at the London School of Economics but left after two months and was awarded a scholarship to Rada, where his father was teaching, and won the prestigious Bancroft Gold Medal (1936).

He then joined the Old Vic Theatre, playing Florizel in The Winter's Tale (1936) and Edgar in King Lear (1936), and continued on stage until fighting with the Royal Army Medical Corps as a corporal during the Second World War and performing with the Stars in Battledress concert party. During that time, he made his film début, directed by the legendary Carol Reed, as a corporal in The New Lot (1943), an army training film that starred Bernard Lee (later to play 007's boss, M, in the Bond films).

After the war, Reed cast Keen in two thrillers, as a soldier in Odd Man Out (starring James Mason, 1947) and a detective in The Fallen Idol (written by Graham Greene and featuring Ralph Richardson, 1948). Once he played an MP in The Third Man (another Reed-Greene collaboration), the actor was on the way to becoming typecast.

"It got around the studios that I only played the type of character who scowled and thumped tables," he explained, adding:

I accepted any role that came my way. This is a tough profession. You can't be too choosy - you may never get another chance.

As a result, he was seen as policemen in The Clouded Yellow (1950), Hunted (1952), Genevieve (1953), Portrait of Alison (1955), The Long Arm (1956), Nowhere to Go (1958), Deadly Record (1959), Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) and Lisa (1962), soldiers of all ranks in Angels One Five(1952), Malta Story (1953), Carrington V.C. (1954) and The Man Who Never Was (1955), the Assistant Chief of Naval Staff in Sink the Bismarck! (1959), a doctor in Storm Over the Nile (1955), priests in Yield to the Night (1956) and Sailor Beware!(1956), a solicitor in A Town Like Alice (1956), headmasters in The Scamp (1957) and Spare the Rod (1961), a prison governor in Beyond This Place (1959), the Prime Minister in No Love for Johnnie (1961), a magistrate in The Cracksman (1963) and a British ambassador in The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1980).

So prolific was Keen as a character actor, at the height of British film- making, that in one year, 1956, he appeared in 12 pictures. The following year, he and his father both acted together in Fortune Ii a Woman, playing the Young and Old Abercrombie in the crime drama starring Jack Hawkins.

Keen's starring role on television in Mogul and The Troubleshooters came as British cinema was passing its heyday. He had already acted many character parts on the small screen, including a short run as Detective Superintendent Harvey in Dixon of Dock Green during 1966, and later took the role of Gerald Lang, the managing director of a merchant bank, in The Venturers (1975). But he was less happy acting on television and, by the 1980s, was working little except for in the Bond films. He retired in 1987, after making The Living Daylights.

His first wife was the actress Hazel Terry and his third the actress Doris Groves, who died in 1989.

Anthony Hayward

Geoffrey Keen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Keen
Filmography

The New Lot (1943) as Corporal (uncredited)
Odd Man Out (1947) as Soldier (uncredited)
Riders of the New Forest (1948) as Mr. Rivers
The Fallen Idol (1948) as Detective Davis
It's Hard to Be Good (1948) as Sergeant Todd
The Small Back Room (1949) as Pinker
The Third Man (1949) as British Military Policeman (uncredited)

Chance of a Lifetime (1950) as Bolger
Treasure Island (1950) as Israel Hands
Seven Days to Noon (1950) as Alf
The Clouded Yellow (1950) as Police Inspector
Cheer the Brave (1951) as Wilson
Green Grow the Rushes (1951) as Spencer Prudhoe
High Treason (1951) as Morgan Williams
Cry, the Beloved Country (1951) as Father Vincent
His Excellency (1952) as Morellos
Hunted (1952) as Detective Inspector Deakin
Angels One Five (1952) as Station Personnel: Company Sergeant Major
Lady in the Fog (1952) as Christopher Hampden
The Long Memory (1953) as Craig
Genevieve (1953) as Policeman
Turn the Key Softly (1953) as Mr. Gregory
Malta Story (1953) as British Soldier (uncredited)
Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue (1953) as Killeran
Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953) as Mr. Lucifer (voice)
Face the Music (1954) as Maurie Green
The Maggie (1954) as Campbell
Doctor in the House (1954) as Dean
The Divided Heart (1954) as Marks
Carrington V.C. (1954) as President
The Awakening (1954) as The Supervisor
The Glass Cage (1955) as Harry Stanton
Passage Home (1955) as Ike the bosun
Doctor at Sea (1955) as Hornbean
Storm Over the Nile (1955) as Dr. Sutton
Portrait of Alison (1955) as Inspector Colby
A Town Like Alice (1956) as Noel Strachan
The Man Who Never Was (1956) as Gen. Archibald Nye
The Long Arm (1956) as Chief Superintendent Malcolm
Yield to the Night (1956) as Prison Chaplain
Loser Takes All (1956) as Reception Clerk
Sailor Beware! (1956) as Rev. Mr. Purefoy
House of Secrets (1956) as Col. Burleigh, CIA
Zarak (1956) as Carruthers (uncredited)
The Spanish Gardener (1956) as Dr. Harvey
Town on Trial (1957) as Charles Dixon
The Secret Place (1957) as Mr. Haywood
Fortune Is a Woman (1957) as Michael Abercrombie aka Young Abercrombie
Doctor at Large (1957) as Second Examiner
The Scamp (1957) as Headmaster
The Birthday Present (1957) as Col. Wilson
The Scamp (1957) as Headmaster
Nowhere to Go (1958) as Inspector Scott
Web of Evidence (1959) as Prison Governor
Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) as Supt. Graham
Deadly Record (1959) as Supt. Ambrose
The Boy and the Bridge (1959) as Bridge Master
The Scapegoat (1959) as Gaston
Devil's Bait (1959) as Joe Frisby

The Dover Road Mystery (1960) as Superintendent Graham
Sink the Bismarck! (1960) as Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff
The Angry Silence (1960) as Davis
The Silent Weapon (1961) as Superintendent Carter
No Love for Johnnie (1961) as The Prime Minister – Reginald Stevens
Spare the Rod (1961) as Arthur Gregory
Raising the Wind (1961) as Sir John
A Matter of WHO (1961) as Foster
The Inspector (1962) as Commissioner Bartels
The Spiral Road (1962) as Willem Wattereus
Live Now, Pay Later (1962) as Reggie Corby
Return to Sender (1962) as Robert Lindley
The Mind Benders (1963) as Calder
Torpedo Bay (1963) as Hodges
The Cracksman (1963) as Magistrate
Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow (1963) as General Pugh
The Heroes of Telemark (1965) as General Bolt
Doctor Zhivago (1965) as Prof. Boris Kurt
Born Free (1966) as Kendall
Berserk! (1967) as Commissioner Dalby
Thunderbird 6 (1968) as James Glenn (voice)
Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) as William Hargood
Cromwell (1970) as John Pym
Sacco e Vanzetti (1971) as Judge Webster Thayer
Doomwatch (1972) as Sir Henry Leyton
Living Free (1972) as Kendall
QB VII (1974) as Magistrate Griffin
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) as Sir Frederick Gray
No. 1 of the Secret Service (1977) as Rockwell
Holocaust 2000 (1977) as Gynecologist
Moonraker (1979) as Sir Frederick Gray
Licensed to Love and Kill (1979) as Stockwell

For Your Eyes Only (1981) as Sir Frederick Gray
Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981) as British Ambassador
Octopussy (1983) as Sir Frederick Gray
A View to a Kill (1985) as Sir Frederick Gray
The Living Daylights (1987) as Sir Frederick Gray (final film role)

1940: Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico. Likely by SMERSH.
1961: Francisco Goya’s Duke of Wellington is stolen from the National Gallery, London, England.

Days of Infamy: August 21 and
22 and Major Art Heists
Over a year ago - by Bob Duggan
https://bigthink.com/Picture-This/days-of-infamy-august-21-and-22-and-major-art-heists

In 1961, the British government purchased Goya’s The Duke of Wellington for the National Gallery to keep it on British soil and out of the hands of an American collector. To pay for the Duke, the British government increased the tax levied on all persons owning a television. Not liking higher taxes (or anyone trying to take away his television programs), 61-year-old pensioner Kempton Bunton sprang into action. Climbing through an open bathroom window of the National Gallery one morning, Bunton grabbed the painting and nimbly scampered back through with Goya’s portrait of the Hero of Waterloo. Reuters soon received a letter offering the return of the painting in exchange for a decrease in the television tax, which the government refused. Police were baffled. The Duke of Wellington “appeared” ever so briefly in the 1962 James Bond film Dr. No hanging on wall of the title supervillain’s lair and drawing a double-take from the superspy. Four years later, the press received another letter saying where the painting could be recovered, safe and sound. Bunton surrendered voluntarily six months later and received only three months of prison time. The moral: NEVER get between an old man and his television!

1970: James Bond comic strip The Golden Ghost starts in The Daily Express.
(Finishes 16 January 1971. 1394–1519) Yaroslav Horak, artist. Jim Lawrence, writer.

https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/comic_tgg_review.php3?t=&s=main&id=01157
https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/tgg.php3

https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/The_Golden_Ghost



https://www.theworks.co.uk/p/characters-series/james-bond---the-golden-ghost/9781845762612


Swedish 1971 https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/semic_1970_1971.php3?s=comics&id=01728


Swedish 1978


Danish 1972 https://www.bond-o-rama.dk/en/jb007-dk-no23-1972/

1981: Erittäin salainen (Top Secret; Swedish Topphemligt) released in Finland.

1981: Kun for dine øyne (Only For Your Eyes) released in Norway.

1997: BOND 18 films Carver's death by sea drill.

RichardTheBruce

August 22nd

1925: Honor Blackman is born--Plaistow, London, England.
1950: Toshirô Suga is born--Tokyo, Japan.
1962: Johanna Harwood submits the first draft of the From Russia With Love script.

http://filmdope.com/forums/119005-russia-love-british-board-film-censors.html

1965: Tabet's artwork highlights the Diamonds Are Forever serial in Domenica Del Corriere.

https://illustrated007.blogspot.com/2010/09/

1971: Rick Yune is born--Washington, District of Columbia.
1981: Rien que pour vos yeux (Just For Your Eyes) released in France.

1981: Ur dödlig synvinkel (From a Deadly Point of View) released in Sweden.

1985: In the Chicago Tribune Marilyn Beck writes "James Bond Is An Invisible Man For Now", questioning the future of the franchise.

James Bond Is An Invisible Man For Now
August 22, 1985 | By Marilyn Beck.

HOLLYWOOD — The future of secret agent 007 is very much in limbo.

"We haven`t decided if there will be another James Bond picture,"

says Michael Wilson, associate of producer Cubby Broccoli and coproducer of this summer's A View to a Kill.

In response to reports out of London that preparations are being made for the next Bond production, Wilson insists, "We have no title, no script, no writer or director. In other words, absolutely nothing has been resolved, and we`re not sure when or if it will be."

Although A View (Roger Moore`s seventh starring stint as the dashing British secret agent) is doing spectacularly in some overseas markets, it has not set any records domestically. And I am told that Broccoli is agreeing privately with reviewers who believe that Moore, at 57, has become too long in the tooth for the part.

The name of dashing Remington Steele leading man Pierce Brosnan has popped up as Moore's Bond successor. But Wilson insists that at this point, the casting of another Bond picture isn`t even being considered. And Brosnan is taking a laid-back attitude: "I want to make movies, but I don't see what I could bring to the role that Roger Moore and Sean Connery haven`t already brought."

2002: Swede Traktor begins the first of six days filming the "Die Another Day" music video in Hollywood. Eventual cost, $6.1 million.

2011: Skyfall filmmakers officially shift their interest from India to South Africa, after delayed approvals to film.
2018: Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson, and Daniel Craig announce that Danny Boyle leaves the BOND 25 production for creative reasons.

BT3366

That's an interesting column from 1985. My local newspaper carried that Marilyn Beck column and I was an avid clipping collector and don't recall that one. That seems like a strange answer MGW gave. Also a curious comment from Brosnan as it was a poorly kept secret everyone had him pegged as the natural successor to Moore, at least in the U.S.

RichardTheBruce

August 23rd

1963: Last day of principal photography for From Russia With Love.
1988: Licence to Kill films Bond's first scene riding in a limousine with Felix Leiter.

1997: First-person shooter video game GoldenEye 007, developed by Rare/published by Nintendo, released in Japan for Nintendo 64.

2006: The New York Times crossword. 57 Across. _ _ _ _ _ _ Largo. James Bond villain.

E M I L I O

2006: Martin Campbell films Bond ordering a Vesper martini.
2007: Seven days of Quantum of Solace second unit filming begins in Madrid, Spain.
2008: Browser-based game The Shadow War, based on By Royal Command, is released by Six to Start.

jamesbond.wikia.com/wiki/The_Shadow_War

marketto007

RichardTheBruce wrote: »

2007: Seven days of Quantum of Solace second unit filming begins in Madrid, Spain.

The filming ever took place @Archivo_007? I never knew that.