James Bond
James Bond was named after an American ornithologist whose bird guide sat on Ian Fleming's Jamaican desk, and the world's most glamorous spy has been a Brit abroad ever since.
Published
Quick Facts
- Creator
- Ian Fleming, who wrote the first novel, Casino Royale, in 1952 at his Jamaican home, Goldeneye
- Name origin
- Taken from James Bond, American author of Birds of the West Indies
- First film
- Dr. No (1962), starring Sean Connery
- Official actors
- Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig in the Eon series
- Home of the films
- Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, with the 007 Stage built in 1976 for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
- Fleming's day job
- Naval intelligence officer in the Second World War
- Famous catchphrase
- "Bond. James Bond." first spoken on screen in Dr. No
- Signature car
- The Aston Martin DB5, introduced in Goldfinger (1964)
The spy who was named after a bird expert
Ian Fleming wanted a name that was short, plain and forgettable. He found it on the cover of a field guide, Birds of the West Indies, by the American ornithologist James Bond. Fleming was a keen birdwatcher at his Jamaican retreat, Goldeneye, and he reckoned the name was exactly as dull as his hero needed to be. The real Bond later met Fleming, who gave him a first edition of a novel inscribed to "the real James Bond, from the thief of his identity". Fleming typed Casino Royale in 1952, in the months before his marriage. It was published the following year, and the series ran to twelve novels and two short story collections.
From naval intelligence to the page
Fleming served in British naval intelligence during the Second World War, and that world of codes, schemes and secret operations seeped into his fiction. Bond's boss, M, and the Whitehall world around him are drawn from that atmosphere of wartime offices and clandestine planning. The books sold steadily, but they exploded in popularity after President John F. Kennedy listed From Russia with Love among his favourite books in a 1961 magazine feature. The films followed soon after.
Six faces, one licence to kill
Dr. No arrived in 1962 with Sean Connery, a Scot who had to convince a few doubters that he had the polish for the part. Director Terence Young is often credited with helping to smooth that image. George Lazenby appeared once, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Roger Moore brought raised eyebrows and a lighter touch through seven films from 1973. Timothy Dalton went darker, Pierce Brosnan arrived in GoldenEye (1995), and Daniel Craig reinvented the character in Casino Royale (2006), the first adaptation of Fleming's debut novel in the Eon series. The book had earlier been a 1954 television play and a 1967 spoof feature film. Each change of actor has set off the same ritual debate in pubs and newspapers: who is the best Bond?
Pinewood, Aston Martins and gadgets
The Bond films have a long-standing home at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. The enormous 007 Stage was built there in 1976 for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), to house the supertanker interior set, and it has been rebuilt and used for Bond productions since. The Aston Martin DB5 became the defining Bond car in Goldfinger in 1964, complete with an ejector seat. Q, the gadget man, and his workshop became as much a tradition as the opening gun barrel sequence and the theme tune. The Bond theme, with its twanging guitar, was written by Monty Norman and arranged by John Barry, and Barry went on to score many of the films.
How Britain keeps playing Bond
Bond is part of the national furniture. The character appeared in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, when Daniel Craig seemed to escort the Queen to the stadium in a short film. Fans still trade in the familiar rituals: marathon film runs, vodka martinis "shaken, not stirred", arguing over Moore versus Connery, and guessing who will take the role next. Each new film release is a national guessing game, with speculation about the next actor never far from the headlines. Fleming's creation outlived him by decades. He died in 1964, just as Bond was becoming a global phenomenon.
Notable people
- Ian Fleming
- Sean Connery
- George Lazenby
- Roger Moore
- Timothy Dalton
- Pierce Brosnan
- Daniel Craig
- Albert R. Broccoli
- Harry Saltzman
- Monty Norman
- John Barry
- Terence Young
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