The Second Bond: George Lazenby

In 1968 Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and EON productions were in a crisis. Sean Connery had announced that he was no longer going to be James Bond. This was frustrating for Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, who had been producing the franchise since its inception in 1962, though they had no shortage of actors who were ready to jump into the Aston Martin. After a day of much deliberating, Broccoli decided to take a break and visit his barber at the Dorchester hotel for a haircut. It was there that he met a man who wanted his hair cut like Sean Connery.

The man’s name was George Lazenby, an Australian expat living and working in Britain as a model and an actor. Albert was quick to size up Lazenby. The Australian certainly looked the part. With his tall height and dark hair, he definitely bore a certain resemblance to Connery. Broccoli mulled over the idea for a while and then, after seeing Lazenby again in a Fry’s Chocolate commercial, he called him in for a screen test. Lazenby swiftly proved he could handle himself in fight scenes by breaking the nose of a stuntman, and that is what landed him the role of James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Once on set, however, Lazenby admitted to director Peter Hunt that he wasn’t really an actor. This caused tension between the two, and further problems arose at Lazenby’s seemingly unprofessional attitude. Dana Broccoli, wife of Cubby, remembers the production team throwing a party for the cast and crew and Lazenby throwing a temper tantrum about not getting a personal invite to the party even though he was the star.

Another controversy was the claim by Lazenby that he and co-star Diana Rigg were going to start an affair after he beat her boyfriend in a game of chess. He claimed the understanding was that he wouldn’t mess around with other women while they were together, but Rigg soon caught him with another woman and that was the end of that. Further tensions arose when Lazenby got onto Rigg, upsetting her in front of everyone, after she was drinking champagne with Peter Hunt, while he and the crew were waiting to do a shot on an ice skating rink.

During the production, Lazenby’s agent convinced him not to sign a contract for a further seven films and as a result, this was Lazenby’s only appearance as Bond; one which has heavily divided opinions amongst fans and critics. One school of thought hails the film as a masterpiece and regards Lazenby’s portrayal of Bond as being much closer to what Fleming had originally envisioned, while the other school of thought derides it as total drivel and looks upon Lazenby’s acting as completely wooden. The intervening years have been kinder to Lazenby’s performance and the film itself; with many people now coming to look at On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as one of the finest Bond films and Lazenby as a fantastic Agent 007.

James Bond will return as Roger Moore.