Quick! Who was the first actor to portray Ian Fleming’s legendary character James Bond?
If you answered Sean Connery I’m sorry to say that you are incorrect. Connery may have been the first actor to portray Bond in a major motion picture but Bond was first portrayed by actor Barry Nelson in a live TV broadcast of CASINO ROYALE in 1954. The anthology series “Climax” adapted Fleming’s first Bond novel into a one hour TV play, changing Bond from a Brit to a Yank and co-starring the legendary Peter Lorre as the villainous Le Chiffre. Nelson didn’t get to deliver any of the now-familiar Bondisms (“Shaken, not stirred.” Or “The name is Bond. James Bond.”) and is not by any stretch of the imagination the best Bond but he is indisputably the first.
Sean Connery made his debut as Bond 6 years later in DR. NO (1960). His unparalleled ease at mixing humor with deadly grit made him into an icon. He became so associated with the character of Bond that he feared being typecast and having to live in the shadow of the suave British secret agent forever. After five movies Connery made the decision to quit and move on to other, more serious sorts of film roles. Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, the producers of the Bond films, now faced a dilemma of their own: how to proceed with the film series, one of the most lucrative in the world, without the man whose name seemed synonymous with that of their hero.
It’s not as if other people hadn’t already attempted to do Bond. The owners of the rights to CASINO ROYALE (it was the only Ian Fleming Bond book that the Cubby/Broccoli team did not have the rights to) decided to produce their own Bond movie in 1966. Knowing that no one would take their version seriously anyway, and impressed with the recent success of such wacky sex comedies as WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?, they decided to do an all-star spoof of the Bond phenomenon. David Niven was cast as the original James Bond (who was unimpressed with the antics of his screen namesake). Peter Sellers was cast as an author who was recruited by Her Majesty’s Secret Service to pretend to be James Bond. Woody Allen was cast as nephew “Jimmy Bond”. In a later twist the Secret Service actually rename all of their agents “James Bond” in order to confuse their adversaries. Therefore practically every actor and actress in the movie could be said to be portraying Bond. Even Ursula Andress, who played the first “Bond girl” in DR. NO, was christened “James Bond” in advertising for the movie. Oddly enough, actor David Niven reportedly came as close as any actor ever has to portraying Bond as author Ian Fleming envisioned him.
In the wake of Sean Connery’s resignation several actors were considered as a replacement in the next Bond film, ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE. Among them were Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Burt Reynolds. Unfortunately there were all either considered too young at the time or were under exclusive contract elsewhere and unable to fill the Bond shoes. The producers eventually chose George Lazenby as the next Bond. A relatively unknown actor at the time, Lazenby was thought to have the same ability as Connery to convey the humor of the character as well as the grittiness. Audiences seemed to disagree and this film became Lazenby’s one and only shot at playing Bond. A huge paycheck convinced Connery to reprise the role in the next movie, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER but the experience proved so horrible that he vowed to never do it again. (Though he would relent and do it one more time in the aptly-titled NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN in 1983.)
Roger Moore, now free from his obligations to the British television series THE PERSUADERS, was able to take over the 007 role in LIVE AND LET DIE. His abilities at the more humorous aspects of the character tended to outweigh his action hero abilities and the character took a turn for the silly in subsequent movies… eventually getting to the point where Bond was escaping the bad guys by dressing up in a clown outfit. However, the Moore Bond films continued to be amazingly successful until the actor simply got too old to continue.
Once again the producers found themselves having to scramble for a new lead actor. The favorite contender for the role was a young Pierce Brosnan who was enjoying a huge success on TV’s REMINGTON STEELE. Unfortunately his contract at the time forbid him from hooking up with the lucrative Bond franchise. Eventually the new successor chosen was Timothy Dalton (who was thought to be too young for the part back in 1969). He finally got his chance to take the role in 1987’s THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS. The attempt was made to get back to a more serious Bond and Dalton performed admirably. Unfortunately the weak writing of the two films he appeared in kept the films from being the huge box office bonanzas that the producers were accustomed to.
Finally in 1995 Pierce Brosnan got his chance at Bond in the film GOLDENEYE. The crucial mix of grit and humor were once again in place and audiences flocked to the new films. Brosnan would play Bond four times before deciding that he had done all he could with the character. He did express interest in doing a literal adaptation of CASINO ROYALE with writer/director Quentin Tarantino but the producers were not willing to hand over that much control to a maverick director not considered one of their “team”. Instead they proceeded with their own CASINO ROYALE movie with a brand new face: Daniel Craig.
Craig was a controversial choice from the get-go mostly, it seems, because of his blond hair. However he did do an incredible job as a more hard-edged Bond than had been seen since perhaps FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. This was a more emotional and less polished Bond than had been portrayed onscreen before. This was, after all, his first mission as a double-oh agent and he was supposed to be a little amore reckless and sloppy than he would be later on. He didn’t even know how to order his martinis, for God’s sake!
As has been proven many times over since Sean Connery first vowed “never again” he is bigger than any one actor and, if he can even survive being played by Woody Allen, James Bond will certainly endure for many more years (and adventures) to come.
