It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
"My friend, bring me one as well, keep the fruit."
"I'm bleeding chips."
"Does it look like we need the money? "
Good call on Kevin Bacon. I think another who might strike the right note as friend and ally of Bond would be John Cusack, if a big enough role could be found for Leiter.
Isnt Kevin a bit old now? I'm thinkig Aaron Eckhart. Rather pretty boy looks but hes actually a decent actor.
Bacon is too old and too big an actor. There's nothing wrong with Wright. I think he should continue to play Felix, and I hope that he does, and that Felix has a big role in Bond 24. 007 in New York City anyone?
1) Jeffery Wright: I find him the best Felix, though I wish he'd had more screen time in QOS.
2) David Hedison: I didn't care for him in LALD, but I liked him in LTK, particularly in the opening. That, I felt, was the only time that Bond and Felix seemed like friends in the whole of the franchise, before Wright came on the scene.
3) Norman Burton: I liked his "I don't care" attitude throughout the whole film. I've never understood this Felix's personality, but I liked it.
Of the rest of the Felix's. Jack Lord and the guy who played him in Thunderball probably did second best (compared to my top three). Cec Linder and the guy who played him in TLD just plain sucked (especially Cec Linder, Felix Leiter should never look as old as M). And I don't count the NSNA Felix.
Looks like most people would disagree with me, but I thought that the perfect Felix would be if you could take Cec Linder's performance and put it in Rik Van Nutter's body. The TB Felix had the right look but his performance was...okay. Linder captured Felix's "cracking wise" personality wonderfully but looked far too old for Felix.
Jack Lord was good but he came off a bit too serious and trying too hard to be so. Shame he got greedy and didn't continue; I'd have loved to have the same continuity with Felix as we got with M, Q, and Moneypenny. I've not seen NSNA since it came out but I remember being very surprised at how much I liked Casey's Felix. Back in '83 it seemed revolutionary to have a black Felix but I recall that he gave the strongest and, well, coolest performance of the character - the only one that seemed like he was Bond's equal. That was probably the first time that I realized that an actor didn't have to look like a character in a book to be effective in a film.
Having recently reread all of the Fleming novels I think that it would be very tricky to bring a true-to-Fleming Felix to the screen. He's such a big talker and such a constant joke machine that you need a really gifted actor to make him enjoyable and not annoying. I agree that Kevin Bacon would have been a great choice in years past but I think his time has gone. Although his Felix is much more dry than Fleming's I do quite like Wright in the role - he brings a lot of personality to it and it's nice to see some continuity to the character. It would be great to see him and Craig's Bond together in Bond 24 and to see them relaxing and enjoying each other's company, much like the characters did in the books.
Oh, God, could it be? There's an entire colony of Felix Leiters out there, somewhere, just waiting to be picked as the next Felix in a film? My Lord, you may have just discovered a new species.
What about the previous Bond films? Very rarely, when I'm reading the books, do I feel the description matches the eventual actor.
I like John Terry too. I think he matched well with Dalts, was more in keeping with Fleming's version and should have played the role in LTK in stead of Granddad Felix Hedison!
Other favs are Nutter and Lord, shame he wasn't in Goldfinger.
And if Leiter is in 007 Legends at the LTK mission, does he going to have the looks of Wright?
I don't think they'll include him, just like I don't think they'll include Bond getting married in OHMSS. But then, I could be wrong.
Anyway, I'll go for Hedison in LTK. Just watch the wedding scenes or the bit where Bond finds him after the shark attack, you really think they're friends.
Cec Linder- served the purpose of Bond's buddy very well, but lacked the edge and professional approach of Jack Lord; also, he was a little too old to be taken seriously as Felix
Rik Van Nutter- well-balanced between the buddy approach and the professional agent approach, in fact, one of the only ones to nail it nearly perfectly. The only qualm about Nutter is his acting, which at some points seems very wooden and uncomfortable.
Norman Burton- always seemed like he hated being there and was fed up with 007; not really either the buddy or the professional agent, as he is sometimes struggling to convince me of the latter throughout DAF
David Hedison- certainly one of the more stand-out Felix actors, and well-deserved too; he performed the role of friend and agent equally well, with top marks to the former of the two; he got stale and leaned towards the cheesy side during LTK, which is a bit ironic, but nonetheless performed better than some of the others like Burton, Linder and Terry for sure.
John Terry- the fact of the matter is, with only one major scene, he doesn't leave a big impression for us to go on, and therefore leaves us to judge him by only one scene; with that scene, he did capture the crucial spirit of acting as both friend and agent, and I think if he had gone on to LTK he could have been one of the best
Jeffrey Wright- an excellent actor who was well-chosen for the part of Felix. There are really no bad marks here, I mean he pulls off his role and lines just remarkably!
Bernie Casey- could be a bit cheesy at times, but nonetheless was actually a pretty great Felix, who demonstrated his professionalism nearly the best, and was also a convincing friend. (interestingly enough, he's the only Felix to have ever engaged in a battle with 007!)
My Felix Rankings:
1. David Hedison
2. Jeffrey Wright
3. Rik Van Nutter
4. Jack Lord
5. Bernie Casey
6. John Terry
7. Cec Linder
8. Norman Burton
2. Rik Van Nutter
3. David Hedison (weak in LALD but redeems himself in LTK)
4. Jack Lord
The rest are nameless faceless jerks offs. especially that clown in GF
Very much true, with Hedison.
I'm not a big fan of Norman Burton or Cec Linder. And John Terry is my least favourite mainly because its blink and you'll miss him, very underwritten in TLD.
2. David Hedison, felt like Bond's friend and ally
3. Rik Van Nutter, same as Hedison. A bit goofy though
4. Jeffrey Wright, good actor, but I haven't seen this Felix as Bond's friend. Colleague and Ally yes. I hope they'll bring him back for Bond 24 if Daniel's still playing Bond
For future Felix, I would like Jon Hamm from Mad Men to that role. Aaron Eckhart could be also be a good Felix (if Christopher Nolan direct the next Bond film).
Hedison would be my second pick. He just seems like such a likable guy, and he had a great chemistry with Moore (even though they hardly had any face time). My only gripe with him is that ending hospital room scene in LTK - "Sure, my wife was raped and murdered. Wanna go fishing next week?" I don't know if he was directed to play it that way or what, but it's just brutal.