The Many Lives of James Bond

by Mark Edlitz

  Like Fleming, Moore obviously knew that he was not Bond, yet there might have been a part of him that wished otherwise. Let’s revisit Moore’s statement that every time that James Bond enters a bar, a bartender offers him a martini unsolicited. It should be noted that in none of the movies do bartenders give Bond a martini unless he orders one. Perhaps, Moore’s Freudian slip suggests that he confused his own offscreen adventures with Bond’s on-screen ones. I imagine that Moore rarely walked into a restaurant without having a well-intentioned fan or bartender offering him Bond’s drink of choice.

  Notwithstanding Roger Moore’s modesty, to audiences, Moore transformed himself into James Bond. And as noted, many men dream that they too could reinvent themselves in Bond’s image. These men might have imagined that if Moore could become Bond, then perhaps they could too.

  Moore was the Bond that we “realistically” could hope to be. Moore’s Bond was the embodiment of our wish fulfillment. Most of us knew that Connery’s cool was far from reach, but Moore humanized Bond just enough so that audiences had at least an outside shot at being like him.

  Connery’s Bond was perhaps a little too virile for an adolescent’s nascent fantasies; he was too hard-edged and hairy for teenage boys to relate to as readily as they could to Moore’s Bond. Don’t doubt for a moment that the teenage boy inside us is an important factor in appreciating Bond. It takes a fourteen-year-old’s mentality to laugh without embarrassment at such common Bond movie touches as the title of Moore’s sixth outing, Octopussy or the names of several of Bond’s women, among them, Pussy Galore, Chew Mee, Plenty O’Toole, Penelope Smallbone, Xenia Onatopp, and Doctors Holly Goodhead and Molly Warmflash.38

  Viewers get the sense that Connery’s Bond wouldn’t want to spend time with them. Moore’s, on the other hand, was Bond as your pal. Bond as your protector. Bond as your wingman. Bond as your father figure. With his disarming approach to the part, Moore welcomed you into his world of glamour and intrigue. He welcomed you on his adventures and he invited you to be just as Bond-like as he. Of course, most of us could never come close. Even in his eighties, Moore looked better and more like Bond than most of us ever will.

  Moore retired his license to kill in 1984, after battling an ax-wielding Christopher Walken on top of the Golden Gate Bridge and after hearing Tanya Roberts utter her last “Oh, James!” while showering with him in A View to a Kill. Since then, other actors have “become” Bond. Though Bond is no longer Roger Moore, Roger Moore will always be James Bond.

  Nobody did it better than Roger Moore.

  ILLUSTRATION BY PAT CARBAJAL

  What was the key to understanding Bond’s character?

  When I first took on the part, I read Fleming’s books. There was little offered in them about the character. However, I remember reading one line that said Bond had just completed a mission—meaning a kill. He didn’t particularly enjoy killing but took pride in doing his job well. That was the key to the role as far as I was concerned. [Note: Moore is referring to the passage in the novel Goldfinger, in which Fleming writes: “It was part of his profession to kill people. He had never liked doing it and when he had to kill he did it as well as he knew how and forgot about it. As a secret agent who held the rare Double-O prefix—the license to kill in the Secret Service—it was his duty to be as cool about death as a surgeon. If it happened, it happened. Regret was unprofessional—worse, it was a death-watch beetle in the soul.”39]

  Although there is deservedly much discussion about how suave and funny you were as Bond, you were also good at making him cold-blooded and lethal. How did you approach those scenes?

  Well, if you read the internet blogs, they agree I was funny, but they’re not so sure I was suave and certainly don’t regard me as having been cold-blooded. There was one scene in For Your Eyes Only where I had to be rather cold-blooded in killing a villain. They say that scene changed the series tone for my films, but I wasn’t comfortable with it, if truth be known. I was rather cold-blooded and mercenary on Fridays, though. That’s the day I received my paychecks.

  What was your approach to saying “My name is Bond, James Bond,” 007’s signature line? Audiences eagerly anticipate the line. It seems like an actor could go a bit mad thinking about it.

  Oh goodness, I spent many, many hours committing that line to memory! Guy Hamilton, the director on my first Bond, said, “Don’t say the line with a Scottish accent and we’ll be fine.” Words I heeded.

  From the movies, we learn so little about Bond personally. What do you imagine his private life is like?

  It’s probably one bar to another bed. I’d imagine his private life to be rather limited as he’s seemingly always on the job.

  When people meet you, on some level—perhaps an unconscious one—they believe that they’re meeting James Bond. What’s that like for you? Do you feel any pressure to meet those expectations?

  Oh, I don’t think they think I’m Bond. Well, okay, maybe. I sometimes get comments like “Hello, Mr. Bond” and such like. I smile and keep walking, but if someone comes up to me and says, “Hey, you’re James Bond,” I’ll say, “No, I am Roger Moore; I used to play James Bond.” I don’t pretend I am the character. Therefore, I have no expectations to meet other than those of meeting Roger Moore. I am, of course, charming, polite, and courteous.

  Where do your and Bond’s personalities converge and diverge?

  Well, when I played the part, he looked and sounded like me. That’s where the similarities and differences begin and end!

  Men the world over have dreamed of being as suave, capable, masculine, and as appealing to women as Bond. Most of us come up a bit short. When you were in character did you ever allow yourself to feel like Bond?

  How does Bond feel? I don’t know. I never really absorbed myself in a role like some actors do. Many take the roles home with them and live the part. I’m quite happy to leave mine at the studio and return home as I left, simple old Roger Moore. I guess it would be easy to think I’m invincible and live as charmed a life as 007, but that would be foolish, wouldn’t it?

  You’ve played a wide variety of characters in scores of movies. You’ve also starred in memorable television shows including The Saint and The Persuaders, but the character you’re most associated with is James Bond.

  Without a doubt, you are recognized for the last role you played. When I was Bond, I was recognized as Bond. Before that, I was recognized as Lord Brett Sinclair, the Saint, Beau Maverick, Silky Harris, Ivanhoe…. Bond was later than those other parts, and perhaps bigger, too.

  What are the positive and negative aspects of the association?

  The positive aspects of Bond? A bigger paycheck. The negative aspects? A coward having to pretend he is brave and trying not to blink when explosions go off.

  Can you please give us some advice on how to be as cool as Bond in our daily lives?

  Stay in bed… with a pretty lady.

  Roger Moore in The Saint. The show debuted in 1962, the same year as the first Bond movie.

  ITV/PHOTOFEST

  How has playing James Bond affected you personally? Not professionally but personally.

  Personally, it has given me financial security. It has also provided me with a certain celebrity, if that is the right word, which has enabled me to work as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.

  Speaking of UNICEF, how has playing Bond been an asset to meeting children in your travels for UNICEF?

  It is a great asset. After all, who would want to meet a jobbing actor? But meeting an actor who once played James Bond, that opens doors. I find I’m able to meet with presidents, prime ministers, and people who make decisions. Bond has afforded me a great personal passport, which I use for UNICEF.

  Why do you think the films have remained popular for fifty years and counting?

  The films are hugely popular because they are entertaining. The producers never cheat audiences; the money goes on the screen.

  To what do you attribute the character’s popular
ity?

  Every man wants to be James Bond; every woman wants to be bedded by him!

  What drives James Bond?

  He obviously feels a sense of duty and thrives on it.

  Is Bond essentially a hedonist of sorts, who’s primarily in pursuit of pleasure?

  He takes pleasure along the way and uses it to great advantage at times in extracting information from certain ladies, but hedonist? No, I don’t think so.

  What do you think are the most significant ways the character of Bond has changed?

  He has had six different faces! Each Bond is right for that generation. I’m sure my Bond wouldn’t work today; just as Daniel Craig’s 007 probably wouldn’t have worked for 1970s audiences. The producers move and adapt with the times. They are very clever.

  Until recently, the Bond movies have avoided exploring Bond’s psyche. Would you have enjoyed exploring those elements?

  Me? Act and think deeply? No thanks! I wouldn’t say they avoided exploring his psyche, but I guess after twenty-odd films, you reach a stage where we know so much about the character without knowing that much about the man and it’s interesting to take a look.

  Can you talk a little bit about how you found the right note to play Bond?

  Guy Hamilton told me to play it my way. We avoided some of the lines closely associated with Sean, such as ordering a vodka martini, but otherwise, I just played myself, as always.

  Bond’s movement appears effortless. Can you talk about how you approached the physicality of the part?

  I never thought about it. I had doubles to make me look good!

  There are some great moments in the films where you show Bond’s vulnerable side. How do you approach those scenes?

  I honestly don’t read into it. I look at the script, speak to the director, and just say the lines.

  Over the course of your seven Bond films, you experimented with different approaches to the part, from the tongue-in-cheek to the more realistic. What is your favorite approach?

  I never really enjoyed the hard, gritty side of Bond. I much preferred being a lover and being a giggler.

  Were there any moments in the Bond films that made you uncomfortable?

  As I say, my Bond was a lover and giggler. I didn’t think he should hit a woman [as he does in The Man with the Golden Gun] nor kill a man in cold blood. The storyline called for it, I know, but I personally don’t feel comfortable with those types of scenes.

  What do you see as the main difference between Sean Connery’s Bond and yours?

  Sean’s Bond was a tough character who could fight his way out of a corner; my Bond would charm his way out of a corner.

  What made Connery’s interpretation distinctive?

  Sean was the first Bond. He created and defined the part. He was distinctive in that there was no one else to compare him with.

  What about George Lazenby?

  George’s film is a damn good movie. He could have been a great Bond and could have made quite a few movies, but it wasn’t to be. We are friends.

  Timothy Dalton?

  Not long ago, I sat down to watch The Living Daylights for the first time and thought it a terrific movie, and Timothy, whom I’ve known years, is a bloody good 007 and a great actor. I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed the film.

  Pierce Brosnan?

  Pierce played it much like me, though I did feel his films got a little too far-fetched—invisible cars?

  Daniel Craig?

  Daniel is certainly the best actor to ever play 007, and I think he will go on to become the best ever Bond.

  What about that actor who played Bond seven times, Roger Moore? He’s must have done something right. What did you admire about his approach?

  Oh, he was very handsome, charming, talented, and modest.

  Who is the best Bond?

  Sean, because he was the first.

  I have a silly final question. Who would win in a fight, your James Bond versus Sean Connery’s?

  Just after I had been announced as Bond, I took my eldest son, Geoffrey, to lunch at the White Elephant in London. He looked around the room and said, “Dad, could you beat up everyone in here?” I looked around. They looked a pretty frail bunch of folks, so I said, “Yes, sure.” He then asked, “What about James Bond?” I explained that I was going to be James Bond. “No!” he protested, “I mean the real James Bond, Sean Connery.” It’s a wonder my son grew so tall.

  HOAGY CARMICHAEL IS JAMES BOND

  As told by his son Hoagy Bix Carmichael

  Ian Fleming said that he imagined James Bond as having an angular face like that of Hoagy Carmichael, the singer, actor, bandleader, and composer who wrote the music for such timeless songs as Georgia on My Mind, Heart and Soul, and Stardust, and who was mentioned three times in two of Fleming’s novels.

  In Casino Royale, Vesper Lynd describes 007 as “very good-looking. He reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael.”40 For his part, Bond rejects the comparison. Later in the book, while sizing up his reflection in the mirror, Bond comes to the conclusion that the scar on his face makes him look like a pirate and that there is “not much of Hoagy Carmichael there.”41

  Apparently, Bond holds the minority opinion. In the third novel Moonraker, agent Gala Brand thinks that Bond “was certainly good-looking…. Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones.”42

  Author John Gardner puts his own playful spin on the reference in his twelfth Bond continuation novel, Death Is Forever (1992). In it, Bond informs CIA agent Easy St. John that “Someone once said I looked like Hoagy Carmichael with a cruel mouth.”43 However, St. John tells 007 that she’s not familiar with Carmichael. Bond, disappointed with her unforgivable naivete, dismissively replies, “Oh, Easy, if you don’t know, I’m not going to explain.”44

  In this brief interview, Carmichael’s son Hoagy Bix Carmichael shares his thoughts on his father’s link to Bond.

  Fleming modeled the look of Bond after your father.

  Ian Fleming wrote that Bond had the angular look of Hoagy Carmichael.

  What did your father think about this association?

  Dad certainly dined out on the fact that he was possibly part of what Ian Fleming had in mind when he molded the character. He loved that fact. And he twisted it a little bit more, like, “After all, I am the model for James Bond.”

  How important was that to your dad?

  He would get a big grin about it. But it’s not like he had a picture of James Bond above his desk. He had enough accolades on his own.

  Did your father ever meet Fleming?

  I’m almost sure that Dad never met Ian Fleming.

  Hoagy Carmichael.

  PHOTOFEST

  What do you think of the drawing of Bond that Fleming commissioned?

  I have seen the drawing of Bond before and have never thought it looked much like my father. It is a much stronger, he-man face and not much in the Carmichael vein. Until his death at eighty-one, dad had a full hairline. None of which takes away from how amused, almost proud, my father was that Ian Fleming felt that James Bond looked much like the guy from a small town in Indiana who could write a song or two.

  BOB HOLNESS IS JAMES BOND

  As told by his daughter Ros Holness

  Bob Holness was the first actor to play James Bond on the radio and the second 007 actor overall. Following Barry Nelson’s 1954 performance as Bond in a TV adaptation of Casino Royale, Holness earned his place in Bond lore by playing the agent in the late 1950s in a South African Broadcasting Corporation’s dramatization of Moonraker.

  Unfortunately, except for the broad details, little is known about the production. Moreover, there are no known recordings of Moonraker. As a result, the radio drama has remained a long-standing mystery to fans.

  However, Brian McKaig, who writes The Bondologist Blog, wrote Holness and asked him a series of questions about the broadcast.45 Holness, in a letter dated February 24, 2003, w
rote back to McKaig and answered many of his questions. Holness passed away in 2012 and his nearly two-page letter to McKaig is, to my knowledge, the actor’s most detailed account about the production. McKaig, who hasn’t previously disclosed the full contents of the letter publicly, has given me permission to quote from it.

  In the letter, Holness, an Englishman, reveals: “I was actually born in South Africa, as was my mother. When I was six months old my parents decided to move back to my father’s hometown of Herne Bay, Kent [England] and from there on to Ashford, when I was 11 years old. It was in 1953 when I was 25, that the whole family decided to return to South Africa—to Durban to be precise.”46 In Durban, Holness found work in a series of jobs in the theater, as a “stage manager progressing to juvenile lead.”47

  The actor recalled that in 1955 he “started a career in radio working with both Springbok Radio [a radio station] and the South African Broadcasting Corporation [SABC] and it was with the SABC that I was offered the chance to play Agent 007.”48 Holness explained that the cast of Moonraker was made up of “fellow members of the Durban SABC Radio Repertory Company.”49

  Because Bond hadn’t yet become part of popular culture, Bond’s radio debut was not considered to be particularly noteworthy. Instead, Moonraker was just one of many shows that the repertory company performed for the SABC. Holness remembered that “together we did a multitude of different productions from daily soaps to the classics.”50

  Holness confirmed to McKaig something that Bond fans have long feared—the production has been lost to time. “As far as I’m aware it was never actually recorded but done as a live theater radio piece.”51 There have been reports that the radio drama was rebroadcast on the BBC. However, as Holness points out, if the show was never recorded, then “it couldn’t possibly have been transmitted later by the BBC.”52