0: Number of times RogerMoore ran or jogged in character as Bond. He wasn’t a fan of how he looked on the move, so he always gave his “active” scenes to a body double. 4: Bond’s record for “romantic” encounters in a single film. It’s tie between SeanConnery’s You Only Live Twice and Roger Moore’s A View to a Kill. 5: Oscars won by the franchise. It struck gold twice for Best Original Song (most recently SamSmith’s “Writing’s on the Wall” in 2016 for Spectre), once for sound editing, once for sound effects and once for visual effects. 7: Actors who have played Bond’s CIA counterpart and ally Felix Leiter, including JackLord in the original Dr. No. JeffreyWright has portrayed the character since Casino Royale. 14: Bond books written by author IanFleming, who died in 1964. That includes 12 novels (starting with Casino Royale in 1953) and two works of short stories. 17: Number of times Welsh actor DesmondLlewelyn played the gadget guru Q in Bond films, a record for any character in the franchise. A former WWII POW imprisoned by the Germans, Llewelyn admits that his own gadgetry skills are practically nil. 26: Alcoholic drinks consumed by DanielCraig in Casino Royale, his debut appearance. He consumed 25 in Spectre, placing him first and second in the most-drinks category. 106: Run-time, in minutes, of Quantum of Solace, making it the shortest Bond film. The new No Time to Die clocks in at a record-breaking 163 minutes. 405: Villains who have bit the dust in Bond movies, with PierceBrosnan the deadliest Bond by far, notching 135 kills in four film appearances. And Moore’s The Man With the Golden Gun was the most peaceful flick, with only one kill. $16,315,134,284.00: Cumulative box-office gross for the official 24-film Bond franchise (when adjusted for inflation), with Skyfall making the most money (more than $1 billion worldwide.)
Gadgets & Gizmos
All the tools of the trade in the James Bond movies—often custom-made for the superspy by his agency’s gadget master, Q—had starring roles of their own. Aston Martin DB5 (Goldfinger): Bond’s first gadget-equipped car was tricked out with a dashboard homing device; an armrest that opens to reveal controls for an oil slick, smoke screen and bulletproof screen; machine guns; tire slashers; and an ejector seat. Oddjob’s Hat (Goldfinger): The derby worn by Goldfinger’s taciturn henchman was also a deadly weapon. Jetpack (Thunderball): An actual product of Bell Aerosystems, it propelled Bond up, up and away. Cigarette Rocket (You Only Live Twice): The dangers of smoking were heightened with this weapon, capable of shooting a lethal projectile. The “Felix Lighter” (Live and Let Die): This radio transmitter was disguised as a car cigarette lighter. Fake Crocodile (Octopussy): Bond infiltrates Octopussy’s island in style in this “snappy” reptile-shaped submersible. Walther PPK/S 9mm Short (Skyfall): Q customizes Bond’s handgun with a palm-print reader that enables only 007 to fire it. Very handy, indeed! Dragon Flamethrower (Tomorrow Never Dies): Oh, what a cool dragon-head sculpture! But look out: It’s actually a flamethrower! Invisible Car (Die Another Day): Now you see it…now you don’t.
Did You Know?
Sting, DavidBowie and MickJagger were offered the part of baddie Max Zorin in A View to a Kill, which eventually went to ChristopherWalken—and a very blond wig.AlfredHitchcock was asked to direct Thunderball (1965), but he passed because he had just finished production on the arduous adventure North by Northwest.Years before he was an action star, StevenSeagal trained Sean Connery for Never Say Never Again (1983). During practice for one fight sequence, he broke the star’s wrist!British thespian ChristopherLee—the titular character in The Man With the Golden Gun—had a special connection to the franchise: Ian Fleming was his step-cousin.Listen carefully: In 1967’s You Only Live Twice, Bond receives his trademark martini stirred, not shaken—a reverse of how it’s always otherwise ordered, “shaken, not stirred.”Miss Moneypenny, the loyal private secretary to Bond’s superior officer, M, has appeared in all but two Bond films (Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace). LoisMaxwell portrayed her from the beginning all the way through A View to a Kill; NaomieHarris has the role now.The first Bond adaptation? Not Dr. No! That honor actually went to the one-hour dramatization of Casino Royale, which aired live on CBS on October 21, 1954, with BarryNelson as James Bond.JamesBrolin was in the running for Bond in the early 1980s before Roger Moore signed on for Octopussy (1983). “They suggested that I work on a Mid-Atlantic accent,” he told Parade. And Brosnan himself was set to take over for 1987’s The Living Daylights—but couldn’t get out of his TV contract for Remington Steele.Bond (and his creator) had a thing for gold. It’s in the title of three movies (Goldfinger, The Man With the Golden Gun and GoldenEye). In Goldfinger, the character Jill Masterson (ShirleyEaton) dies of “skin suffocation” after being painted gold. And Bond’s story began on a gold-plated Royal typewriter—later sold at auction for £50,000.The role of HowardHughes–like Las Vegas recluse Willard Whyte in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) was played by former country music hitmaker, TV personality and breakfast-sausage magnate JimmyDean.Blink and you’ll miss her—Madonna, that is. The singing star appears for about two fleeting minutes in Die Another Day (2002) as a fencing instructor who trades a few double entendres with Bond (Brosnan), including her parting smirk about “cockfights.” (She also sings the film’s title song.)Bond creator Ian Fleming died in 1964, and other novelists began cranking out further adventures for his most famous spy. One of them was RoaldDahl, better known as the writer of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, who wrote the screenplay that became You Only Live Twice.Ever since popular cabaret singer Matt Monro crooned the theme for FromRussia With Love (1963), Bond flicks have been known for their opening songs, many of which also became radio hits—by the likes of Tom Jones, Nancy Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Paul McCartney and Wings, Carly Simon, Shirley Bassey, Sheena Easton, Rita Coolidge, Duran Duran, A-ha, Gladys Knight, Tina Turner, Sheryl Crow, Madonna, Adele, Sam Smith and Billie Eilish.
Bond as Cultural Barometer
Credit the Bond series for rolling with the cultural times. Arriving in theaters at the start of the start of the swinging 1960s, “people were sold because of the combination of action, Connery’s wit and sexiness,” says film historian and Hollywood insider Steven Jay Rubin, the author of three books on Bond. The Roger Moore era was more comedic—and the goofy Moonraker tried hard to emulate Star Wars sci-fi at the close of the 1970s—before flipping back to more traditional spy stories in the late 1980s. By the early 21st century, “people weren’t accepting outlandish plots anymore and wanted something more down-to-earth,” the author explains. Enter a new era, complete with world-weary Craig tirelessly taking on headline-making issues like mass blackmail, international terrorism and, in No Time to Die, dangerous technology.
