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Roger Moore's, My Word Is My Bond, 2008.
Some little nuggets from this book which is highly entertaining and full of interesting Bond related trivia, once you get to the Bond section of his life.
Rog is politic but he makes it clear that he didn't have much use for Grace Jones. She played "heavy metal" music in her dressing area. Rog says he lost it and smashed a chair to get her to turn it down. She also brought a black dildo to bed for their "love" scene. Rog says he hopes she was amused. Rog also says one of the young Bab's most important jobs on that film was getting the unreliable Jones picked up in the morning and delivered to the set.
Dolf Lundgren was Jones' boyfriend which is how he got a little part in the film. Next thing you know according to Rog, the guy was starring in the Rocky films.
Rog reveals that Connery and Cubby had a major falling out post Bond. The animosity was primarily coming from Sean toward Cub, although it seems Cubby was fully aware of what the problem was.
Rog is also a little put out with some of what Cubby said in his autobiography. Notably that Rog didn't want to leave after AVTAK. Rog says no- that was not the case- that he left gracefully. Rog also says that Cubby was not fair about Rog's supposed unwillingness to do promotional work to Cub's satisfaction.
IMO it sounds like Cub was a bit manipulative. Sean being less gentle than Rog basically said F-you Cubby, while Rog tries to play nice.
Rog says that Sean said, "if a fire was raging in Cub's brain, he wouldn't piss in his ear to put it out"
Rog brought them together by surprise at a party he was hosting. Cub said to Sean that he was hurt by that remark and asked if he meant it. Sean said its ok, he would be happy to piss in his ear. Smartass. And according to Rog that's all they said to each other. So much for reconciliation.
Rog says that Bernard Lee tried to shoot his M scenes for FYEO but they had to be scrapped because he was too ill. Instead James Villiers was brought in to play Tanner and Q played a scene that had originally been written for M - the Q in the confessional scene. Rog says that he recommended his old pal Robert Brown to play M in the next film.
There are lots of other stories of interest to Bond film buffs.
Great book. Pick it up. I think its a must read for Bond film fans.
Rog is politic but he makes it clear that he didn't have much use for Grace Jones. She played "heavy metal" music in her dressing area. Rog says he lost it and smashed a chair to get her to turn it down. She also brought a black dildo to bed for their "love" scene. Rog says he hopes she was amused. Rog also says one of the young Bab's most important jobs on that film was getting the unreliable Jones picked up in the morning and delivered to the set.
Dolf Lundgren was Jones' boyfriend which is how he got a little part in the film. Next thing you know according to Rog, the guy was starring in the Rocky films.
Rog reveals that Connery and Cubby had a major falling out post Bond. The animosity was primarily coming from Sean toward Cub, although it seems Cubby was fully aware of what the problem was.
Rog is also a little put out with some of what Cubby said in his autobiography. Notably that Rog didn't want to leave after AVTAK. Rog says no- that was not the case- that he left gracefully. Rog also says that Cubby was not fair about Rog's supposed unwillingness to do promotional work to Cub's satisfaction.
IMO it sounds like Cub was a bit manipulative. Sean being less gentle than Rog basically said F-you Cubby, while Rog tries to play nice.
Rog says that Sean said, "if a fire was raging in Cub's brain, he wouldn't piss in his ear to put it out"
Rog brought them together by surprise at a party he was hosting. Cub said to Sean that he was hurt by that remark and asked if he meant it. Sean said its ok, he would be happy to piss in his ear. Smartass. And according to Rog that's all they said to each other. So much for reconciliation.
Rog says that Bernard Lee tried to shoot his M scenes for FYEO but they had to be scrapped because he was too ill. Instead James Villiers was brought in to play Tanner and Q played a scene that had originally been written for M - the Q in the confessional scene. Rog says that he recommended his old pal Robert Brown to play M in the next film.
There are lots of other stories of interest to Bond film buffs.
Great book. Pick it up. I think its a must read for Bond film fans.
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Comments
One of the best autobiographies. He is pretty candid who he didnt like ie Grace Jones, Hjordis Niven (wife of David) and suprisingly Jean Claude Van Damme.
Its worth buying just for the Herve Villechaise trying it on with Maud Adams anecdote.
It's indeed a great read. There's one particular anecdote involving a friends apparent affair that's hilarious.
When the Bond stars paid tribute to Cubby Broccoli, the greatest 007 of all was missing: What fuelled the 10-year feud between Sean Connery and the man who turned him into a megastar
When the autograph hunters and the Bond film fanatics hurtled their way through the doors of the Odeon, Leicester Square on Sunday they were palpitating at the chance of seeing the actors who had translated Ian Fleming's cool hero to the screen.
It was hoped that all the James Bonds would gather - or, at least, send a message - to honour the memory of the big, cuddly film producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, who (with Harry Saltzman) turned 007 into an industry that has churned out billions since Dr. No in 1962. He died earlier this year, aged 87.
George Lazenby couldn't make it out, but Pierce Brosnan, the latest Bond (and the one with the soft Irish burr), the very quietly-spoken Timothy Dalton, and the droll jokey Roger Moore obligingly turned up, posed for pictures and bathed in the warmth of the adoration. There was a glaring absence though: Sean Connery.
Connery's non-appearance and failure even to reply to invitations from Broccoli's widow Dana surprised and disappointed many who (rightly) believe that he was the best James Bond of all - an actor who gave 007 just the right touch of ruthless charm.
Sadly, apart from the odd film clip, Connery was absent from Sunday's proceedings. He is in Canada but did not even respond with a short, filmed tribute to the man who had wrenched him from screen obscurity.
The sad truth is that Connery and Broccoli, both strong-willed men in an industry where cut-throat razors are virtually handed out at the studio gates, fell out badly.
They had been close, even devoted, for 2 decades until their relationship soured in the mid-80s. The cause, as ever in the film industry, was money. Connery, driven possibly by the memories of his poor childhood in Scotland, considering suing Broccoli for a share of the profits from the 5 films he made as Bond.
The big Scots actor can be seen as a study in contradiction: he is argumentative, said to be tight-fisted, yet can also be happy to give to charity. Oddly, too, he despises the fame he found with the Bond films, even though it proved to be the cornerstone of his fortune.
There was considerable bitterness some years ago when he said: "I had many problems during the Bond movies. They [Broccoli and Saltzman] would be sitting opposite each other at a table thinking, "That a******e has got my other 30 million." There was a conflict from the beginning. You could never tell when you were going to start or finish the movies. That put me in a very vulnerable position in terms of wanting to do other pictures. With Diamonds Are Forever I put a limitation on it and put such a heavy penalty on them that they finished on time."
Connery had a deep resentment of what he considered to be the Bond film-makers' meanness. It has been estimated, conservatively, that in 1981 the Connery-Bond earnings were around $260 million. But it was highly unlikely that the actor, who brought the character alive on the screen, would have netted even a 50th of that.
He, at this stage, regarded the part of Bond as a serious and continuing commitment spread over nearly 10 years during which Connery nurtured and polished the role. Essentially, Connery was James Bond. Yet Connery seems to have forgotten that without Broccoli's determination and ability to cajole those who opposed him, there could have been a different actor playing the plum role.
After all, Connery was hardly in the top league and among the films he had made before Dr. No had been the less impressive Darby O'Gill and the Little People and (worse) Tarzan's Greatest Adventure. Broccoli, however, had spotted Connery's potential in Darby and even pointed him out, in a private viewing of the film, to his wife Dana. "There," he said, without any doubt in his voice, "is my James Bond."
But the grey-suited money men were unconvinced. They doubted that cinemagoers would react, especially through their pockets, to an unknown Scottish actor who had played only minor roles. Broccoli himself even sent a worried cable from New York to his then partner, the mercurial Harry Saltzman:
"NEW YORK DID NOT CARE FOR CONNERY. STOP. FEELS WE CAN DO BETTER. STOP. CUBBY."
But Broccoli finally won his battle to use Connery as Bond in Dr. No. Like many a Bond purist, he sensed the actor was the epitome of Bond. In Fleming's originals. the intelligence agent was also Scottish - although, unlike the working class Connery (who had been a milkman in Edinburgh), he had been educated at Eton, Fettes and Cambridge.
More importantly, he was physically like Fleming's notion of the man - tall, dark-haired and sexually attractive to women in a cruel way. Connery certainly fulfilled these criteria and his personal, off-screen toughness and blunt talking confirm this.
The antagonism between Broccoli and Connery grew. Eventually the producer chose a new Bond with a totally different style - Roger Moore. he was more laconic and not as good an actor as Connery. Yet he was also a huge box office success and Sean Connery kept a fascinated eye on just how much money the newcomer would receive.
But he was also to enter into no-win box office war against Moore. Connery decided to bring his Bond back to the screen in Never Say Never Again. In retrospect, it was something he should not have taken - not least as an actor.
He was, however, quite confident. "Bond's an interesting character. There's more I can do with him. I'm 52. There's nothing particularly daring in playing your age. I've done it before - in Robin and Marian and Murder on the Orient Express."
But this non-Broccoli film lost the box office battle against the Moore contender, Octopussy. By 1990, for instance, the US rental grosses on the Connery film were listed as $28 million - while Octopussy notched up at least $34 million. Connery later said of it: "There was so much incompetence, ineptitude and dissension during the making of Never Say Never Again that the film could have disintegrated. I was a toilet."
What clearly was lacking - and Connery may have privately admitted this to himself, albeit through clinched teeth - was the Cubby Broccoli touch. Their union had produced the greatest Bond of them all. It was said if lingering bitterness prevented Sean Connery from making some contribution to Broccoli's memorial. Without him there, it was like screen dancing without Astaire. But it was also a reminder of the rancour behind the glamour.
http://www.klast.net/bond/sc_feud.html
Money squabbles it seems, can destroy the best of friendships, both professional and personal.
"They had been close, even devoted, for 2 decades until their relationship soured in the mid-80s. The cause, as ever in the film industry, was money. Connery, driven possibly by the memories of his poor childhood in Scotland, considering suing Broccoli for a share of the profits from the 5 films he made as Bond."
===
Some more anecdotes from the Rog book:
For the TSWLM, Rog only mimed his "Egyptian Builders line" after Jaws is buried in rubble. The reason being, an official from the Egyptian government was monitoring the shoot and likely wouldn't have approved of the comment, and in that tyrannical country could have shut down filming. So Rog conspired with Gilbert to simply mouth the line and dub the audio in later.
===The Rog does commit one terribly grevious Fleming error though.
Page 205 discussing TSWLM
"Incidentally the film was not based on Ian Fleming's book.When he wrote that particular adventure, Fleming told the story through the eyes of the female heroine, Anya Amasova."
Aieeee. Anya Amasova!!!!!
Rog continues, " He (Fleming) didn't feel satisfied with the finished product and so declared that nothing, other than the title, could ever be used in a future film."
Doesn't Rog see the contradiction in his own observation. If Amasova was Fleming's girl, but only the title of the book could be used for a film, then how did Amasova beccome a character in the film? Hmmmm.
Fanboy nitpicking, but clearly Rog never read the Fleming original.
Anyhoo, when I finished My Word Is My Bond, I wrote a review - here's my thoughts on it, if you're at all interested, peeps... :)
http://georgesjournal.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/review-my-word-is-my-bond-the-autobiography-roger-moore/
I think you caught the spirit of the book quite well.
== I read Shirley Eaton's autobio, Golden Girl. She mentions regular socializing with Rog and Luisa. Rog Rog Rog. She crams in as many Rog mentions as she can it seems.
Rog however only mentions her once, and even then her name is simply included in a list of glamourous leading ladies he co-starred with.
I don't think its a slight though. I think Rog had many more stories to tell than she did, and didn't have the space to detail all of his socializing.
Shirley even mentions how she hung out a bit with Luisa after the break-up with Rog and hoped that they might get back. No chance of that though when you read Rog's book, plus he's re-married since Shirley wrote her book in 99.
I do well like to add that I bought my copy secondhand and after I finished it my missus read it, she is no 007 fan, simply because she finds RM such a charmer. ANd now she's sure.
Connery, for his Beatles best-listened-to-with-earmuffs crack
or Moore for smashing up a chair, over Grace Jones "heavy metal" music?
hmmmm :-?
However, that said, if he ever does a book about JUST James Bond, I'd be all over that!!
In regard to MWIMB here is a clip of the man himself:
Out of interest, barry, how was your copy signed? What event did you meet Sir Rog at...?
Pity I didn't know you were there; we could have had a tete-at-tete, as it were. Ah well, one of these days, perhaps, one of these days... :)
How annoying - we could have sat there in awe together.