James Bond

James Bond
Known Aliases:	007
Gender:	Male
Portrayed By:	Sean Connery David Niven George Lazenby Roger Moore Timothy Dalton Pierce Brosnan Daniel Craig
First Appearance:	Dr. No

Royal Navy Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVR, is a fictional character created by British journalist and novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. He is the protagonist of the James Bond series of novels, films, comics and video games. Fleming wrote twelve Bond novels and two short story collections before his death, although the last two books—The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy and The Living Daylights—were published posthumously.

The Bond character is a Secret Service agent, code number 007, residing in London but active internationally. Bond was a composite character who was based on a number of commandos whom Fleming knew during his service in the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, to whom Fleming added his own style and a number of his own tastes; Bond's name was appropriated from American ornithologist James Bond. Bond has a number of character traits which run throughout the books, including an enjoyment of cars, a love of food and drink, and an average intake of sixty custom-made cigarettes a day.

Since Fleming's death in 1964, there have been other authorised writers of Bond material, including John Gardner, who wrote fourteen novels and two novelizations and Raymond Benson, who wrote six novels, three novelizations and three short stories. There have also been three authors who wrote one book each, Kingsley Amis (writing as Robert Markham), Sebastian Faulks and Jeffery Deaver. Additionally a series of novels based on Bond's youth—Young Bond—was written by Charlie Higson.

As spin-offs from the literary works, there was a television adaptation of the first novel, Casino Royale, in which Bond was played as an American agent. A comic strip series also ran in the Daily Express newspaper. There have been 25 Bond films; seven actors have played Bond in these films.

Films

The Eon Productions films

In 1962 Eon Productions, the company of Canadian Harry Saltzman and American Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, released the first cinema adaptation of an Ian Fleming novel, Dr. No, featuring Sean Connery as 007. Connery starred in a further four films before leaving the role after You Only Live Twice, which was taken up by George Lazenby for On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Lazenby left the role after just one appearance and Connery was tempted back for his last Eon-produced film Diamonds Are Forever.

In 1973 Roger Moore was appointed to the role of 007 for Live and Let Die and played Bond a further six times over twelve years before being replaced by Timothy Dalton for two films. After a six-year hiatus, during which a legal wrangle threatened Eon's productions of the Bond films, Irish actor Pierce Brosnan was cast as Bond in GoldenEye, released in 1995; he remained in the role for a total of four films, before leaving in 2002. In 2006, Daniel Craig was given the role of Bond for Casino Royale, which rebooted the series. The twenty-third Eon produced film, Skyfall, was released on 26 October 2012. The series has grossed just over $6 billion to date, making it the third-highest-grossing film series (behind Harry Potter and the Marvel Cinematic Universe), and the single most successful adjusted for inflation.

Title	Year	Actor	Director
Dr. No	1962	Sean Connery	Terence Young
From Russia with Love	1963
Goldfinger	1964		Guy Hamilton
Thunderball	1965		Terence Young
You Only Live Twice	1967		Lewis Gilbert
On Her Majesty's Secret Service	1969	George Lazenby	Peter R. Hunt
Diamonds Are Forever	1971	Sean Connery	Guy Hamilton
Live and Let Die	1973	Roger Moore
The Man with the Golden Gun	1974
The Spy Who Loved Me	1977		Lewis Gilbert
Moonraker	1979
For Your Eyes Only	1981		John Glen
Octopussy	1983
A View to a Kill	1985
The Living Daylights	1987	Timothy Dalton
Licence to Kill	1989
GoldenEye	1995	Pierce Brosnan	Martin Campbell
Tomorrow Never Dies	1997		Roger Spottiswoode
The World Is Not Enough	1999		Michael Apted
Die Another Day	2002		Lee Tamahori
Casino Royale	2006	Daniel Craig	Martin Campbell
Quantum of Solace	2008		Marc Forster
Skyfall	2012		Sam Mendes
Spectre	2015

Non-Eon films

In 1967 Casino Royale was adapted into a parody Bond film starring David Niven as Sir James Bond and Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd. David Niven had been Ian Fleming's preference for the part of James Bond. The result of a court case in the High Court in London in 1963 allowed Kevin McClory to produce a remake of Thunderball titled Never Say Never Again in 1983. The film, produced by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm production company and starring Sean Connery as Bond, was not part of the Eon series of Bond films. In 1997 the Sony Corporation acquired all or some of McClory's rights in an undisclosed deal, which were then subsequently acquired by MGM, whilst on 4 December 1997, MGM announced that the company had purchased the rights to Never Say Never Again from Taliafilm. Eon now currently (as of 2024) holds the full adaptation rights to all of Fleming's Bond novels.

Title	Year	Actor	Director
Casino Royale	1967	David Niven	Ken Hughes John Huston Joseph McGrath Robert Parrish Val Guest Richard Talmadge
Never Say Never Again	1983	Sean Connery	Irvin Kershner

Images

Sean Connery
(1962-1983)

David Niven
(1967)

George Lazenby
(1969)

Roger Moore
(1973-1985)

Timothy Dalton
(1987-1989)

Pierce Brosnan
(1995-2002)

Daniel Craig
(2006-present)

External links

• James Bond official website
• Pinewood Studios – home of Bond
• Pinewood Studios Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage official website