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How did you picture Bond while reading the novels.

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  • suavejmfsuavejmf Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 5,131
    Milovy wrote: »
    The closest resemblance I can find is Christopher Plummer:

    Plum3.jpg Plum4.jpg

    Not bad at all.
  • shamanimalshamanimal
    Posts: 623
    It's really weird reading this thread, because I never picture a Bond actor when reading Fleming. It's always a man from out my imagination, with any details based on what the book says. He's tall, slim, white, ruggedly handsome and with fifties style, short, greased hair.
  • GamesBond007GamesBond007 Golden Grotto
    Posts: 66
    Visually I'd say that Connery is the basis for my interpretation. Mix Sean with the humanity and vulnerability of Dalton/Brosnan and that would be the perfect version of Fleming's Bond for me.
  • peterpeter Toronto
    Posts: 9,509
    Connery/Craig... in '06 CR, during the ball-smashing torture, when Craig scoffs and snarls with "cruel lips", he nails it... Yah, when I read Fleming recently it's a composite of Sean, Dan and some drawings... with even a dash of Moore...
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Since some of you are on a book Bondathon.
  • Last_Rat_StandingLast_Rat_Standing Long Neck Ice Cold Beer Never Broke My Heart
    edited January 2019 Posts: 4,582
    Whoever was in the film.

    So yes, I did picture Craig at the Baccarat table.
    Moore in St. Petersburg Florda
  • JeremyBondonJeremyBondon Seeking out odd jobs with Oddjob @Tangier
    Posts: 1,318
    Connery, the quintessential Bond. Forever and always.
  • SIS_HQSIS_HQ At the Vauxhall Headquarters
    edited April 2022 Posts: 3,787
    in physique? Maybe Lazenby or Connery
    In attitude maybe Craig
  • 007HallY007HallY
    Posts: 4,129
    Mine's a bit weird. Best way I can describe my image of Bond in the Fleming novels is a cross between a young Christopher Plummer (as was mentioned previously) and a young Oliver Reed, with the scar and blue grey eyes of course.

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  • Last_Rat_StandingLast_Rat_Standing Long Neck Ice Cold Beer Never Broke My Heart
    Posts: 4,582
    Last_Rat_Standing wrote: »
    Whoever was in the film.

    So yes, I did picture Craig at the Baccarat table.
    Moore in St. Petersburg Florda

    After reading a bunch of them, I picture Connery from 1962-1964 in all but OHMSS and YOLT where I picture a late 60s version of him.
  • HoagyCarmichaelHoagyCarmichael
    edited November 2022 Posts: 26
    In my early years I pictured Connery in every novel except for OHMSS where I gave George Lazenby a cameo role in my mind's eye!
    However nowadays I imagine Hoagy Carmichael having seen clips from some movies he was in and heard him talk in interviews. Just take a listen to about the 0:20 mark in the clip below. He begins his answer with a very British upward "Yes" and I imagine that this is the actual voice of Bond. The rest is an American accent but is enjoyable nonetheless for a few little English RP turns of phrase.

    I imagine the Hoagy Carmichael Bond to have a voice that's a cross between Ian Fleming and Cary Grant's voice in my head. Calm and suave with the ladies but brutal and tough with the bad guys.
  • 00Heaven00Heaven Home
    Posts: 575
    I'll be boring and say Dalton :)
  • ColonelAdamskiColonelAdamski UK
    Posts: 1,075
    shamanimal wrote: »
    It's really weird reading this thread, because I never picture a Bond actor when reading Fleming. It's always a man from out my imagination, with any details based on what the book says. He's tall, slim, white, ruggedly handsome and with fifties style, short, greased hair.

    The only time a Bond actor pops into my head when reading, is when the book is so close to the film I'm reminded of the film. OHMSS or FRWL for example. Some of the dialogue is verbatim, so that is sometimes hard to get past when you imagine an actor saying it.
    But most of the time the book Bond is someone different to any of the screen Bonds without doubt. I can't imagine reading Fleming and thinking 'I'll picture Dalton in this one', or 'I think I'll keep Craig in my head for this one. . .'
  • SIS_HQSIS_HQ At the Vauxhall Headquarters
    edited November 2022 Posts: 3,787
    I'll keep seeing the Bond that Fleming illustrated in the Daily Express, combined that with Fay Dalton's illustration in FS for the color of the skin tone.

    Edit: The closest resemblance to the literary Bond that I can think of is none other than King George VI (Queen Elizabeth's father), from the way they stand, the physique, even to the way they're dressed, almost resembling Fleming's description of Bond in the books, except the scar.

    gettyimages-3323654-e1645652674213.jpg?resize=700,700

    king-george-vi-daughters-wife-1549322839.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=640:*

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  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,546
    It's been awhile since I've read any of the novels, so I can't really remember who I picture. I think it has occasionally been Jason Masters' Bond, and I also remember Craig jumping into my mind in some of the later novels as well.

    For me, Masters' Bond is the definitive non-actor Bond:
    249193435_220019286889723_2865979250366787767_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=0debeb&_nc_ohc=YdyLCCdqPYgAX9iqa2f&_nc_ht=scontent.fyvr4-1.fna&oh=00_AfDMDYrzorvaXaUlWL8elZY2gmM9f_pAkf21f1UF38-K1w&oe=637925A3
  • 00Heaven00Heaven Home
    Posts: 575
    You know King George VI isn't a bad shout at all!
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,546
    Played in The Crown by Jared Harris... next Bond? ;)
  • ByRoyalDecreeByRoyalDecree
    edited November 2022 Posts: 784
    NickTwentyTwo wrote: »
    Played in The Crown by Jared Harris... next Bond? ;)

    Not too far off from Craig

    image-w856.jpg?size=800x
  • Jordo007Jordo007 Merseyside
    Posts: 2,641
    Mainly Connery, Dalton and Craig depending on the novel

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  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,269
    I see a more brutal faced Connery. Dalton is a good match too.
  • peterpeter Toronto
    Posts: 9,509
    A more rugged Moore, Craig, Connery… sometimes it’s a strange mix of these three in one.
  • SIS_HQSIS_HQ At the Vauxhall Headquarters
    edited November 2022 Posts: 3,787
    In terms of the actors:

    I've always see it as a combination of Dalton and Lazenby.

    Dalton when it comes to voice and personality/character, and Lazenby in Physique, as Fleming puts it "his skin is sun tanned and he's also slim" so Lazenby comes to my mind in terms of looks and that lips/mouth was also similar to his mouth.

    Then Dalton in terms of attitude, personality and voice.

    So, a combination of them.
  • HoagyCarmichaelHoagyCarmichael
    edited November 2022 Posts: 26
    I like to picture Richard Vernon the MI6 boss C from The Sandbaggers TV series as my literary M...
    54500_v9_ba.jpg

  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,176
    HoagyCarmichael wrote: »
    I like to picture Richard Vernon the MI6 boss C from The Sandbaggers TV series as my literary M...
    54500_v9_ba.jpg

    Oh, nice choice! (I watched GF with my partner recently and he wouldn't believe me when I pointed out Slartibartfast is in it.)
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,546
    Personally Bernard Lee easily pops in my head for novel M.
  • SIS_HQSIS_HQ At the Vauxhall Headquarters
    edited November 2022 Posts: 3,787
    This is actually what M really looked like:

    52503261766_b458231165_b.jpg

    But it's hard not to see Bernard Lee, he's also the guy that I see when it comes to M.
  • 007HallY007HallY
    edited November 2022 Posts: 4,129
    MI6HQ wrote: »
    This is actually what M really looked like:

    52503261766_b458231165_b.jpg

    But it's hard not to see Bernard Lee, he's also the guy that I see when it comes to M.

    Wow. I always forget just how old Fleming's M is supposed to be. Bernard Lee was a comparatively robust looking man in his mid-50s when he took the role. He embodied many of the general qualities of M nonetheless, but it's a far cry from the Victorian born ex-Admiral that Fleming clearly envisioned.

    Reminds me actually - an odd little quirk I have when reading the M scenes in the Bond novels is to imagine an older Ian Fleming as M. I think it's partially Fleming's love of wearing bow ties, but also the fact that I find it slightly more interesting to imagine M being a sort of version of Bond in a previous lifetime/having similar experiences, which explains Bond's love of the man. Again, it's not necessarily there in the text, but it's just something I find adds a lot to the reading experience.
  • RevelatorRevelator
    Posts: 2,917
    MI6HQ wrote: »
    This is actually what M really looked like

    Not quite--it's what artist George Almond thinks M looks like. And while the books portray M's face as "weatherbeaten," in this illustration he looks like a candidate for a retirement community. Nor can I apply a sentence like "the lined sailor's face above the stiff white collar and loosely tied spotted bow-tie was damnably brisk and cheerful" to this version of M.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited November 2022 Posts: 18,269
    I tend to see the M of the Fleming novels as how M looked as played by Bernard Lee in Moonraker. He's always that kind of age and look for me, even into the continuation Bond novels he appears in.
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 557
    MI6HQ wrote: »
    This is actually what M really looked like:

    52503261766_b458231165_b.jpg

    But it's hard not to see Bernard Lee, he's also the guy that I see when it comes to M.

    I'm really not a fan of Almond's work but I think takes the cake. It's so excessively detailed, there's nowhere for my eyes to rest.

    I find it hard not to imagine M as Bernard Lee although towards the end of series, Charles Dance did start to pop into my imagination.
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