The Many Lives of James Bond

by Mark Edlitz

  Craig on the importance of Bond to England: There was an identity crisis in England after World War II, with the country figuring itself out, seeing the perceived power we once had dwindling away. And along comes this character who’s very British and very charming but at the same time sort of says “F——you” to the whole world. I think the essence of the character is somewhere in there. I think that’s what set this whole thing in motion years ago, and that keeps it going.—Entertainment Weekly, 200650

  Craig on Bond being a perpetual bachelor: In the books, he has relationships and occasionally is nearly getting married when she dumps him because he turns moody and dark…. It’s that his true personality comes out, and he’s impossible to live with. It suits M, his boss, just fine. M is terrified of Bond actually setting down. His inability to have a relation keeps him going.—Playboy, 200851

  Craig on his advice to the next James Bond: Just make sure you’re great. You’ve got to push yourself as far as you can. But it’s worth it. It’s James Bond.—Time Out, 201552

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I want to express my deep gratitude for the many people who helped with this book. I am enormously grateful to Elliot Ravetz, my first reader and biggest advocate. I offer everlasting thanks to my mother Sandra Edlitz, who drove me to see A View to a Kill on two consecutive nights, and to my late father Robert Edlitz who is never far from my thoughts and who playfully sang the Moonraker theme song while playing charades. I’d like to give thanks to Gail Ravetz, who found the Gilbert action figures at a flea market. I extend love to my sister Tracy who, as she points out, shares the same name as Bond’s wife. I am grateful to the support from Joan and Irving Shapiro, who looked after my children while I visited the Bond museum during our trip to London. In addition to enabling my Bond fandom, they have all been consistent sources of joy and love.

  Special thanks go to Jerry Kolber and Adam Davis, my dear friends who support me in all my endeavors. Additional thanks go to David Mamet, Charles Salzberg, Mark Viseglia, Renee Jamieson, Ben Ohmart, Paul Talbot, Jim Graham, Vilma Vias, Andrew Read, and Liz Bigger.

  I extend my gratitude to the kind people who helped facilitate these interviews, including Gareth Owen, Andrea Stahn, Kyle McGinnis, Marcel Damen, Nikki Weiss, Bruce Kaufman, Adam Sherwin, Ginger Mason, Lauren Macpherson, Chloe Saxby, and Michelle Danso. Additional thanks go to Jim Davis, John Stawarz, and Amber Libke for their assistance with transcriptions.

  Bond scholars who have generously supported my efforts and have given me valuable guidance include Raymond Benson of The James Bond Bedside Companion and a Bond continuation author, Bruce Scivally of James Bond: The Legacy, Brian McKaig of The Bondologist Blog, Peter Lorenz of Illustrated 007, Matt Spaiser of The Suits of James Bond, Mark O’Connell, author of Catching Bullets, Clinton Rawls of Comics Royale, and Ajay Chowdhury, coauthor of Some Kind of Hero.

  I deeply appreciate Lee Pfeiffer, coauthor of The Incredible World of 007; Andrew Lane, coauthor of The Bond Files; Bruce Scivally, coauthor of James Bond: The Legacy; and James Chapman, author of Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films for their kind words about the book and their support.

  Numerous websites exhibit a breath taking knowledge of 007, including Commander Bond, Artistic Licence Renewed, 007 Magazine, Archivo 007, James Bond 007 Comic Art, Absolutely James Bond, From Sweden with Love, Illustrated 007, MI6, The Bondologist Blog, James Bond Jr. Online, The Spy Command, The Book Bond, Bond Lifestyle, The 007 Dossier, and James Bond Memes. Writers who were instrumental in shaping my interest in Bond include Steven Jay Rubin, Raymond Benson, John Brosnan, John Cork, John Pearson, Kingsley Amis, Graham Rye, Lee Pfeiffer, Philip Lisa, Philip Gurin, James Chapman, and Richard Schenkman. The passion that the Bondologists of the James Bond Podcast feel for their subject matter is infectious.

  I am overjoyed to include Pat Carbajal’s stunning illustrations in this book.

  I would like to express my deep appreciation to my agents Alyssa Jennette and Ellen Scordato at Stonesong for their support and counsel.

  Immeasurable appreciation goes to Rick Rinehart at Rowman & Littlefield, who made working with him a joy and whose instincts and advice were always exceptional. Additional thanks go to Kristen Mellitt, Erin McGarvey, and to the entire team at R&L for their behind-the-scenes efforts and for enhancing this book immeasurably.

  I am deeply indebted to all the artists in the book who spoke with me. They were all generous with their time and insights.

  Above all, I wanted to express my love and gratitude for Dr. Suzie Shapiro, my wise, supportive, and beautiful wife and for Ben and Sophie, my wonderful, fun, thoughtful, caring, loving, and kooky children.

  NOTES

  BOND ON FILM

  1 Casino Royale, directed by Martin Campbell, Eon Productions, 2006.

  2 Sarah Marshall, Daniel Craig: The Biography, London: John Blake Publishing, 2016.

  3 In GoldenEye, former MI6 agent Alec Trevelyan states that Brosnan’s Bond (like his literary counterpart) is an orphan whose parents were killed in a climbing accident. In Skyfall, M tells 007, “Orphans make the best recruits.”

  4 Christopher Wood, James Bond, The Spy I Loved, Great Britain: Twenty First Century Publishers, 2006, 52.

  5 Tom Mankiewicz and Robert Crane, My Life as a Mankiewicz, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2012.

  6 Albert R. Broccoli with Donald Zec, When the Snow Melts, London: Boxtree, 1998, 234.

  7 Roger Moore, The 007 Diaries: Filming Live and Let Die, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2018. In 1973, the book was also published under Roger Moore as James Bond 007 and Roger Moore’s Live and Let Die Diaries.

  8 Leslie Bricusse, LeslieBricusse.com, http://lesliebricusse.com./bio/bio.php.

  9 Jon Burlingame, The Music of James Bond, New York: Oxford Press, 2012.

  10 Paul Simpson, The Rough Guide to James Bond, London: Rough Guides, 2003, 228.

  11 Playbill.com. http://www.playbill.com/person/don-black-vault-0000005952.

  12 The scripted line and lyric “No one ever died from wanting too much” echoes a line from the novel From Russia, with Love: “This man died from living too much.”

  13 Sam Smith’s Oscar-winning song “Writings on the Wall” (2016) and a-h a’s “The Living Daylights” (1987) are arguably told from Bond’s point of view.

  BOND IN PRINT

  1 Paul Fuhr, “Bad Guys, Bullets & Bookshelves,” Buzz Sprout, July 5, 2016, www.buzzsprout.com/56402/397729-ep-019-bad-guys-bullets-bookshelves-raymond-benson.

  2 “The Name Is Fleming… Ian Fleming,” CBS News, November 9, 2008, www.cbsnews.com/news/the-name-is-fleming-ian-fleming.

  3 Anthony Horowitz, Forever and a Day, New York: HarperCollins, 2018.

  4 Anthony Horowitz, Trigger Mortis, New York: HarperCollins, 2015.

  5 The estate was less strict with William Boyd, who wrote the continuation novel Solo, in which Bond sleeps in the nude. In Fleming’s From Russia, with Love, the agent also appears to sleep naked in the chapter titled “The Soft Life.”

  6 Tom Sears and Chris Wright, “Raymond Benson Interview—Podcast #11,” James Bond Radio, April 18, 2014 and “Raymond Benson Interview,” May 11, 2004, MI6, www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/interview_raymond_benson_before.php3.

  7 “Permission to Die [1989],” October 12, 2016, The Bond Book, www.thebookbond.com/2016/10/permission-to-die-1989.html.

  8 John Gardner’s Nobody Lives Forever was originally published under the title Nobody Lives for Ever. “Saab 900 Turbo,” Bond Lifestyle, www.jamesbondlifestyle.com/product/saab-900-turbo and John Cox, “Bond’s Beast – When 007 Drove A Saab,” The Book Bond, https://www.thebookbond.com/p/bonds-beast-when-007-drove-saab.html.

  9 Mike Grell, Permission to Die, California: Eclipse Comics, 1991, 46.

  10 “Permission to Die. #3 Review,” MI6, September 12, 2004, www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/ptd3_review.php3.

  BEING BOND

  1 Roger Moore, “Bye Bye to Ian Fleming’s James Bond?” Lo
ndon Times, October 4, 2008.

  2 Ian Fleming, Casino Royale, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012.

  3 Ian Fleming, Live and Let Die, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012.

  4 Ian Fleming, From Russia, with Love, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012.

  5 Moore, “Bye Bye to Ian Fleming’s James Bond?”

  6 Moore, “Bye Bye to Ian Fleming’s James Bond?”

  7 Ian Fleming, “Octopussy,” in Octopussy and The Living Daylights, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012. This line became a critical plot point in Spectre.

  8 Ian Fleming, “From a View to a Kill,” in For Your Eyes Only, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012.

  9 Fleming, Live and Let Die.

  10 Fleming, Casino Royale.

  11 Ian Fleming, The Man with the Golden Gun, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012.

  12 Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012.

  13 Ian Fleming, Moonraker, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012.

  14 Fleming, Moonraker.

  15 Fleming, Moonraker.

  16 Fleming, Moonraker.

  17 Ian Fleming, Diamonds Are Forever, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012.

  18 Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012.

  19 Fleming, Diamonds Are Forever.

  20 Raymond Benson’s “Blast from the Blast” picks up on this dangling plot point. Raymond Benson, James Bond: The Union Trilogy; Three 007 Novels, New York: Pegasus Books, 2008.

  21 Fleming, Moonraker.

  22 Fleming, Moonraker.

  23 Fleming, Moonraker.

  24 Fleming, Moonraker. Note: Fleming would introduce additional Double-O agents in later books.

  25 Ian Fleming, The Man with the Golden Gun, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012.

  26 Ian Fleming, Thunderball, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012.

  27 Fleming, Thunderball.

  28 Ian Fleming, From Russia, with Love.

  29 Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012. As cited by W. Adam Mandelbaum in “Seq Chapter: The Gospel According to Sir James,” at Bond Lifestyle, 2008, https://www.jamesbondlifestyle.com/articles/seq-chapter-gospel-according-sir-james.

  30 Goldfinger. Directed by Guy Hamilton. Eon Productions, 1964.

  31 Mark Edlitz, How to Be a Superhero, Albany, GA: BearManor Media, 2015.

  32 Edlitz, How to Be a Superhero.

  33 Playboy, “Playboy Interview: Sean Connery, November 1965,” in 50 Years of the Playboy Interview: James Bond, Playboy Enterprises, Inc., 2012.

  34 Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury, Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films, Stroud, Gloucestershire: History Press, 2015.

  35 Mark O’Connell, Catching Bullets: Memories of a Bond Fan, Droxford, Hampshire: Splendid Books, 2012.

  36 Although the quote, which is attributed to Raymond Chandler, has appeared on the back cover of certain editions of Bond novels, some Bond scholars believe the quote should be credited to Raymond Mortimer, who reviewed the book for The Sunday Times. For more on the topic, visit Edward Biddulph’s James Bond Memes, http://jamesbondmemes.blogspot.com.

  37 Ian Fleming: The Playboy Interview, Playboy Enterprises, Inc., 2012.

  38 The packaging for the Holly Goodhead action figure eliminated the character’s last name and discreetly identified her as “Holly.” Dr. Molly Warmflash’s name is never spoken but appears in the closing credits of The World Is Not Enough.

  39 Ian Fleming, Goldfinger, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012.

  40 Fleming, Casino Royale, 34.

  41 Fleming, Casino Royale, 49.

  42 Fleming, Moonraker. I first learned about the reference while reading The Bond Files by Andy Lane and Paul Simpson.

  43 John Gardner, Death Is Forever, New York: Ian Fleming Publications, 1992. I first learned of the reference while reading The Bond Files by Andy Lane and Paul Simpson.

  44 John Gardner, Death Is Forever.

  45 Author’s correspondence with Brian McKaig in 2018. Also information from the message board user known as “doublenought spy” in the thread “Bob Holness Moonraker adaption,” at Commander Bond.net, March 7, 2008,” http://debrief.commanderbond.net/topic/45647-bob-holness-moonraker-adaptation.

  46 Letter from Bob Holness to Brian McKaig dated February 24, 2003.

  47 Letter from Bob Holness.

  48 Letter from Bob Holness.

  49 Letter from Bob Holness.

  50 Letter from Bob Holness.

  51 Letter from Bob Holness.

  52 Letter from Bob Holness.

  53 Letter from Bob Holness.

  54 Letter from Bob Holness.

  55 Letter from Bob Holness.

  56 Letter from Bob Holness.

  57 Letter from Bob Holness.

  58 Letter from Bob Holness.

  59 Letter from Bob Holness.

  60 Alan Hayes, “Personnel File: Hugh Rouse,” Avengers on the Radio, http://aor.theavengers.tv/bio_hugh_rouse.htm.

  61 Robert von Dassanowsky, “Casino Royale at 33: The Postmodern Epic in Spite of Itself,” Bright Lights, April 1, 2000.

  62 Michael Richardson, The Making of Casino Royale (1967), Bromley, Kent: Telos Publishing, 2015.

  63 Roger Moore with Gareth Owen, Bond on Bond, Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2013.

  64 Ian Fleming, You Only Live Twice, Nevada: Thomas & Mercer, 2012, 142.

  65 Fleming, You Only Live Twice, 144.

  66 Fleming, You Only Live Twice, 142.

  67 Ian Fleming, writer, Fergus Fleming, editor, The Man with the Golden Typewriter: Ian Fleming’s James Bond Letters, London: Bloomsbury, 2015.

  68 Fleming, The Man with the Golden Typewriter.

  69 Fleming, The Man with the Golden Typewriter.

  70 Fleming, The Man with the Golden Typewriter.

  71 Robert Sellers, The Battle for Bond, Sheffield: Tomahawk Press, 2008, 53.

  72 Sellers, The Battle for Bond, 71.

  73 Sellers, The Battle for Bond, 77.

  74 Broccoli, When the Snow Melts, 171.

  75 Broccoli, When the Snow Melts, 227.

  76 Broccoli, When the Snow Melts, 200.

  77 Adrian Lee, “‘Diet Coke Is Now My Vice’: Sir Roger Moore on Bond, Diabetes and Booze,” Daily Express, September 1, 2014, www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/505743/Sir-Roger-Moore-on-Bond-diabetes-and-booze.

  78 Hanna Flint, “Hold Old Is 007? Here’s the Ages of Each James Bond in Their First and Last Appearances,” Metro UK, September 27, 2015, https://metro.co.uk/2015/09/27/how-old-is-007-heres-the-ages-of-each-james-bond-in-their-first-and-last-appearances-5409515.

  79 Fleming, The Man with the Golden Typewriter.

  80 Raymond Benson wrote three film novelizations, six original novels, and three short stories.

  81 Benson was comparing Lazenby to Connery and Moore. Benson’s book was published in 1984, before Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig assumed the role of Bond. Raymond Benson, The James Bond Bedside Companion, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1984, 198.

  82 Steven Soderbergh, “A Rambling Discourse,” Extension 765, November 1, 2013, http://extension765.com/soderblogh/2-most-irrelevant-no-1.

  83 Sinclair McKay, The Man with the Golden Touch, New York: Overlook Press, 2008, 123.

  84 McKay, The Man with the Golden Touch, 127.

  85 Broccoli, When the Snow Melts, 212.

  86 You Only Live Twice, Directed by Michael Bakewell, BBC-Radio 4, 1990.

  87 You Only Live Twice, 1990.

  88 You Only Live Twice, 1990.

  89 You Only Live Twice, 1990.

  90 Jon Burlingame, The Music of James Bond, New York: Oxford Press, 2012.

  91 Unidentified writer using penname “M,” James Bond Dossier, originally posted November 15, 2013, www.the007dossier.com/007dossier/post/2013/11/15/James-Bond-007-at-the-1982-Academy-Awards.

  92 R. D. Mascott is a pseudonym that many Bondologists believe to be Arthur Calder-Marshall, an English author. Andy Lane and P
aul Simpson, The Bond Files, London: Virgin Publishing, 2002, 63.

  93 Lane and Simpson, The Bond Files, 103.

  94 Simon Vance, SimonVance.com.

  95 Tim Bentinck Interview, MI6, November 3, 2004, www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/interview_tom_bentinck2.php3.

  96 In Rogue Agent, Scaramanga is revealed to be working for SPECTRE and not, as depicted in The Man with the Golden Gun, an independent assassin.

  97 The Casting Directors’ Guild, www.thecdg.co.uk/members/debbie.

  98 Erik Olsen, “No Country for Subtitles (Just Voices),” New York Times, August 27, 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/movies/dietmar-wunder-the-german-speaking-voice-of-james-bond.html?_r=0.

  99 In the witty audio documentary “Tape Secret! The Audiobooks of James Bond,” Dan Gale points out that Christopher Cazenove, who played 007 in the 1973 documentary Omnibus: The British Hero, recorded the audiobook version of John Gardner’s Bond book SeaFire (1994). Cazenove also recorded Gardner’s final Bond book Cold (1996), under its US title Cold Fall. Dan Gale, “Tape Secret! The Audiobooks of James Bond,” James Bond Radio. 2016, http://jamesbond radio.com/tape-secret-audiobooks-james-bond-documentary.

  100 The producers of the video game 007 Legends intentionally played with that enjoyable but uncanny sensation when they inserted Daniel Craig into missions from each previous Bond movie era. The result of the continuity-blurring premise is that Craig’s Bond supplants all prior cinematic Bond actors by appearing in Goldfinger, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Moonraker, Die Another Day, and Licence to Kill. Toby Stephens is another example of an established Bond actor portraying different versions of the character. He’s an eight-time Bond in BBC Radio 4’s dramatizations of Ian Fleming’s books and he has also narrated Deaver’s Carte Blanche and Fleming’s From Russia, with Love.

  101 Chris Hewett, “Sam Mendes Talks Gun Barrel Sequence,” Empire Online, November 6, 2012, www.empireonline.com/movies/news/sam-mendes-talks-gun-barrel-sequence.