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I'd loved to have seen him in the other Moore films.
Still one of my fav. Bonds... classic person and humble about the fans today…
Bond list should have been:
Connery Dr NO - YOLT
Lazenby OHMSS - FYEO
Dalton FYEO - DAD
Craig - CR -
Oh good! I wonder what he was doing in Sweden? Can I ask, what did he say about the fans? I hope he knows that we, the fans, regard OHMSS as one of the, if not the, best Bond films. I know that Diana Rigg does...
I know when I met him in June 2008 in London he seemed quite appreciative of the fans. More-so idiot ones like me who gushed "it's my favourite film" and asked just how he dealt with the criticism over the years.
http://www.scifiworld.se/
A lot of starwars freak etc – “weird people”..
Talked a great deal with him… hi signed my feb 1969 Playboy – giggled and said he had meet the pin up girl in the playboy… he also signed my SA Heraldy… said he lived in Santa Monica… that he was very humbler about the passion from the fans (he told me he is not laughing going to bank due to us;) – that the fans in UK Birmingham was nuts etc… very very nice man…still in my mind looking great
I dont know,i think that Moore could have fitted in there rather than Lazenby going all the way to FYEO.
You cant fault Moore's performance in TSWLM.
If GL had signed the 7 picture deal and Dalton had accepted after FYEO we don’t have RM and PB… I could have live with that ;)
I suppose a lot depends on who you grew up with,and Moore was central to my Bond world at the time.
I can see why a lot of members who didnt have that experience would want to omit him.
And he is the only Bond i have met so it all adds up haha !
I put Dalton in the middle of the bunch. Not the toughest guy yet not enough silliness and 'can't get my hair mussed' air that the former two give off.
Just some few anecdotes that he told (private and during a 30 min meet the fans session with questions)
1)
During filming OHMSS cast and crew was paid cash in envelope delivered my Saltzman on the set… GL gallery was 100 USD per week… after some time he was told that Connery got 1000 USD per week – so he asked Saltzman “hey how come the other fellow got a 1000 and I only get 100” – next week when Saltzman gave the envelope there was stamped 100 USD in the front he gave it to GL and the giggled and changed it to one with 1000 USD… his weekly salary
2)
He told that the press got on his nerves – the whole “he is just a model and no actor” – got to him – never though he could finish the movie – He lost total confidence during the shooting… It wasn’t until he was finish filming that he knew they had done something special
3)
First meeting with Telly : “Can you play poker, boy” – GL lost his week salary the same night
4)
About what Bond did to him after OHMSS – “I got a lot of ladies – easy girls” (wonderful honest)
5)
Have meet Diana Rigg several times – friends but dammm she is intense
6)
The pinup from the Playboy – he meet here IRL after the movie…
Thank you for sharing. Wonderful anecdotes! I'm very glad that GL and Rigg remain friends, because they were marvellous onscreen!
GEORGE LAZENBY - THE OTHER FELLA
Is this the face that launched a thousand ships? Considering that George Lazenby only starred in one ‘James Bond’ film, the answer is unequivocally, no. Fresh, young, good looking, Lazenby had it all, attributes exemplified in the greatest role in showbiz. Then he did the unthinkable.
Fresh from filming the brilliant On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Lazenby walked from the part many would give their left hand for. Since then, Lazenby has become a pop culture indictment for any other actors seemingly miscast in their role, while his contribution to the series has frequently been summed up as uneventful. Long time Bond veteran Desmond Llewelyn himself said that Lazenby was not an actor, while the Australian actor himself frequently admitted that he wished he made at least one more film.
How would that have fared out? It’s an interesting speculation. Lazenby had the ability to become a very memorable James Bond. Had he continued in the role until 1985, he would have been the same age as Roger Moore was when the latter started his 00 career!
As it stands, Lazenby’s sole performance is quite a strong, even if he is a little reticent in places during the film. Filmed following after Sean Connery’s departure in 1967, Lazenby was encouraged to portray James Bond as if he were playing Connery’s Bond, rather than Lazenby’s.
No, Lazenby was not the greatest actor in the world. But who honestly watches a Bond film for Oscar-worthy performances? Timothy Dalton has frequently, albeit arbitrarily and unfairly, been slated for his ‘actorly’ performance, one which has kept from him topping ‘Best Bond’ polls. Movie audiences like action heroes for their charm, agility and humanity. These attributes that Lazenby could bestow, and more.
Out of all the Bond’s to date, Lazenby had the greatest physical prowess. Unlike Moore, Brosnan and, to a certain degree, Dalton, Lazenby had a physicality that proved that he could handle himself in reality, without resorting to the physical bombastistism of Daniel Craig. Wherein many of the actors seemed to play James Bond, in many ways Lazenby was James Bond. He had the necessary arrogance, swagger and bravado to pull off the look of a true assassin.
Re-watching the scene wherein Lazenby breaks the grip of Diana Rigg’s, he does it perfectly. Staring directly at her face, he reaches out and snaps her hand, without a flicker of any hesitation. It’s this moment that best defines how good a Bond he truly was, containing a sense of cool with a physical agility none of his Bondian compatriots had.
On the downside, Bond’s throwaway quips, mastered by Connery and frequented by Moore, did not have come naturally to Lazenby. Glaringly, his flippant ‘this never happened to the other fella’ is ingratiating to listen to, he might as well have winked at the camera. Nor did he have Connery’s animal magnetism, despite his natural good looks, making his sexual conquests in Piz Gloria that bit more awkward to believe than his predecessor.
But it’s the moments where Lazenby eschews Connery’s performance that he really comes into his own. It’s his added humility that comes across strongest. Watching Bond reprimanded by his boss ‘M’ in two scenes, the first being removed from his pursuit of Blofeld, the second being told later in the film that ‘M’ is refusing to help furnish his private vendetta.
The look of embarrassment and defeat is palpable within these scenes, the type no other Bond actor could have portrayed. Timothy Dalton would have enveloped himself with hidden rage, as would Daniel Craig, while Pierce Brosnan would have put on a cheesy smile to hide his humiliation. Sean Connery’s Bond would likely have walked away with a look of nonchalance, knowing that the Service will be lost without him, while Roger Moore’s Bond would likely have treated the situation as a glorified joke that happened to feature him as the punch-line.
Lazenby, however, plays it straight up. He has the look of a man who has been told off by his parents, accounting for his audible look of disappointment, proving that Bond is something most audience’s seemingly have forgotten; human. Certainly, Lazenby’s emotional display of the famous lines We Have All The Time In The World following the death of his newly married bride has a resonance neither Craig nor Brosnan could muster in Casino Royale and The World Is Not Enough during similar scenes respectively.
If Connery was suave, Moore comic and Dalton dark, then Lazenby must have surely been the romantic Bond, a youthful idiot trapped in a world of violence and despair.
Clearly, he didn’t have all the time in the world, as Sean Connery returned for the following film Diamonds Are Forever , eschewing the film’s darker tone for humour and bravado, a trait that would haunt many of the subsequent film’s until 2006. But Lazenby, if not perfect, was the right man for the job, and his sole mission had much more depth to it that normally attributed.
There is an element of truth about the "youthful idiot" remark. Laz wasn't the brightest of blokes back then but did have a solid cast around him.
Moore was already popular when he took over and had the 'bonus' of someone else already having had to 'follow' Sean.
George looks like a natural athlete and utterly composed in the fight/action scenes & he aces the swagger and arrogance far better than Brosnan or Moore ever did i.m.o.
Lazenby took the role in his stride and really pulled off the human side of the OHMSS story, which I honestly believe neither Connery nor Moore could have done as well.
He makes Bond's romance with Tracy believable and human - the scene where he is 'rescued' at the ice-rink sums up the refreshing vulnerability that Lazenby brought to the character...
SYDNEY
June 13-15
Sydney Showground,
Olympic Park
PERTH
June 20-22
Perth Convention &
Exhibition Centre
http://www.supanova.com.au/guest/george-lazenby/
Also appearing will be Richard Kiel aka Jaws from TSWLM & MR.
http://www.supanova.com.au/guest/richard-kiel/
Very much looking forward to this event. George is a truly underrated Bond in my opinion. I think he could've gone on to be one of the best. As it is with only one film, he still managed to give the series a fantastic film in the eyes of many Bond fans.
Even in the wedding scenes some of his line deliveries sound stiff.
"An old proverb...her price is far above rubies, or even...your million pounds"
"But darling...now we have all the time in the world"
I did like him in the barn scene though.
I'll admit though I would still take Laz in OHMSS over Connery in DAF.