Facts. Bond facts

With Quantum of Solace on the way and the film franchise rejuvenated, we look at the secret history of all things 007

The year 1953 saw two auspicious debuts. One was the character of James Bond, in Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale; the other was a magazine called playboy. Though they had much in common from the start, the two didn't get together until 1960, when playboy serialized The Hildebrand Rarity, Bond's first major appearance on this side of the pond. In all, playboy has run 16 works of 007 fiction—14 stories or serial episodes by the character's originator and two by official Bond writer Raymond Benson.

second chances

Didn't Sav Never

Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan were all offered the Bond gig twice. Dalton turned down the role in what became On Her Majesty's Secret Service

I (he felt he was too young for the part) and accepted it 18 years later, for The Living Daylights—when Brosnan was unable to take the job because of contract issues with his TV show Remington Steele. Moore was also offered On Her Majesty's Secret Service but was still under contract for his TV show The Saint.

lamesake

Winging It

rleming felt his swashbuckling spy needed a dull name. (Besides, fictional spies named Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon and Johnny Fedora already existed.) Flem-ng found his uninspiration in a favorite book, a 1936 birding guide by American ornithologist James Bond. Brosnan is seen holding a copy in Die Another Day.

formal dress

Hello, Sailor '

In Tomorrow Never Dies Brosnan wears a uniform based on the one Fleming wore as a naval intelli­gence officer during World War II. While serving king and country Flem­ing founded a specialized commando outfit called 30 Assault Unit (its logo is pictured above).

camelot

Friends in High Places

Bond got the ultimate celebrity plug when President Kennedy listed From Russia With Love as one of his favorite books. In the novel The Man With the Golden Gun Bond repays the favor by reading JFK's Profijgjjggpuroge.

seaworthy

Aqua Man

Nothing gets Bond out of his monkey suit faster than flippers and a scuba tank. There's a reason for all the Jacques Cousteau action: Fleming's pal Jacques Cousteau. The pair met through publishing circles, and Cous­teau invited Fleming to visit him in the south of France, where Cousteau was excavating a sunken Greek galleon.

And the Oscar

Goes to_: Halle

Berry, Die Another Day's — ""

Jinx, is the only actress to

have won an Oscar before -

playing a Bond girl. (Kim Basing-

er won hers for LA. Confidential

years after making the "unofficial"

007 film Never Say Never Again.)

/ remakes

/ Thrice-Told Tale

' Daniel Craig's Bond debut, Casino Royale, wasn't the second filming of the first Bond novel—it was the third. Predating the star-studded and none too funny 1967 spoof Casino Royale was a 1954 American TV version star­ring the first screen Bond, jour­neyman actor Barry Nelson. Sean Connery's 007 bow, Dr. Vo, was still eight years off.

camelot, part 2

Last Picture Shown

From Russia With Love became the second Bond novel made into a movie, after John F. Kennedy listed it as one of his favorites. The film version was the last movie the president saw—it was screened at the White House on November 20, 1963. Its com­mercial release in the United States was delayed five months in the wake of JFK's assassina­tion, and the film didn't hit cin­emas until April 1964. ^

spoof

Brothers in Arms

All told, Bond parodies and knock-offs outnumber actual Bond films, but few are as impressively bra­zen as the 1967 send-up Operation

Kid Brother (also known as OK Con-nery). Sean Connery's brother Neil stars in the Italian pro-d u c t i o n alongside Bond reg­ulars Lois

Maxwell and Bernard Lee. Also in on the gag are Daniela Bianchi, the lead Bond girl in From Russia With Love, and Adolfo Celi, villain Emilio Largo in Thunderball.

The Rooks of Love: The chess game in the tournament scene in From Russia With Love is based on the Spassky-Bronstein match for the 1960 USSR championship, with the character Kronsteen fol­lowing Spassky's winning moves.

Big Butt Man: All of Roger Moore's contracts included the right to an unlimited supply of hand-rolled Monte Cristo cigars.

hit parade

Highest Chart Positions of Bond Theme Songs

"A View to a Kill,"

Duran Duran: #1 "Live and Let Die,"

Paul McCartney & Wings: #2 "Nobody Does It Better,"

(from The Spy Who Loved Me)

Carly Simon: #2 "For Your Eyes Only,"

Sheena Easton: #4 "Die Another Day,"

Madonna: #8 "Goldfinger,"

Shirley Bassey: #8

But Would He Like the Fic­tion? In a 1959 letter to playboy, Fleming wrote, "If he were an actual person, Bond would be a registered reader of playboy."

License to Kill: A code name for the 1976 Israeli operation to rescue hostages held in Uganda was Thunderball.

locations

Nyet Set

GoldenEye was the first post-Cold War Bond film. Pro: Soviet location shoots (such as the tank chase in St. Petersburg pictured above) became possible. Con: The Soviet Union was no longer the enemy.

fitness

Muscle-Bond

At five-foot-11, Daniel Craig is the shortest 007 but also the buffest. Pre-Quantum he worked out on the gymnastic rings and is said to do a passable iron cross.

best-seller m

Packed Houses

Three films in, the thirst for all things Bond had reached a fever pitch, and fourth installment Thunderbolt hit theaters like a ball of, well, you know. It still holds the series record for most tickets sold (eclipsing the previous number one—and still number two in ticket sales—Gotdfinger). To promote Thunderball Sean Connery consented to just one interview—in playboy.

Double Fantasy: The two female leads in 1967s You Only Live Twice, Mie Hama and Akiko Wakabayashi, also appear together in 1962's Kingu Kongu tai Gojira ("King Kong vs. Godzilla") and 1965's Koku-sai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi ("International Secret Police: Key of Keys"). The latter was famously recut and dubbed by Woody Allen to create What's Up, Tiger Lily?

home ec

Vesper Martini

How to make the cocktail James

Bond calls a

Vesper martini in

Casino Royale:

3 measures

Gordon's gin

1 measure vodka

Vi measure Kina Lillet

Shake with ice, add

a thin slice of lemon

peel and serve in a

deep champagne

glass (as in the book)

or martinj_glass (as

in the r

scouting

Wood and Plenty

Natalie Wood's sister Lana (whose real name is Svetlana Nikolaevna Gurdin) was cast as Plenty O'Toole in Diamonds Are Forever after appearing in our April 1971 issue.

senous issues

Cover to Cover

After infiltrating a Swiss lawyer's office to open a safe in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service, George Lazenby peruses a February 1969 copy of playboy. The upper part of the Centerfold (Playmate Lorrie Menconi) is briefly visible in the scene. The Fleming novel of the same name was serialized in playboy in 1963.

All Up in His Grille: The metal teeth worn by Jaws (seven-foot-two actor Richard Kiel) in The Spy Who Loved Me and again in Moonraker were designed by Katharina Kubrick, stepdaughter of legendary American direc-^ tor Stanley Kubrick. .^^H

bad guys

Blo Jobs

The many faces of villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, clockwise from above left: iconic Blofeld (Donald Pleasence in You Only Live Twice), brawny Blofeld (Telly Savalas in On Her Majesty's Secret Service), surgically recon­structed Blofeld (Charles Gray in Dia­monds Are Forever), bearded Blofeld (Max von Sydow in Never Say Never Again) and one of several faceless Blofelds. At right, Dr. Evil, the dead-on parody of Austin Powers fame.

Five Years Before Liv Lindeland Showed Hers: playboy pub­lished Octooussv. Fleming's final Bond story, in March and April 1966.

View to a Kink

James Bond may seem to be an old-school lothario, bed­ding women while armed with only a cocktail and a cocky grin. Yet time and again we find the franchise cribbing from the Fetish 101 sylla­bus—unsurprising consider­ing Fleming was into S&M. Clockwise from top left Clau-dine Auger's Domino gives good foot in Thunderbolt: Lola Larson as Bambi wields thighs of death in Diamonds Are Forever; Grace Jones's May Day prepares to chop some lucky guy into submis­sion in A View to a Kill: and enough hog-tying and hair pulling to please Irving Klaw.

big props

Reality Check

Sometimes they get it right: For Moonraker. set designers picked the eventual winner from among several prototypes NASA was developing for a reusable space­craft. The real shuttle's maiden voyage occurred two years later, in 1981. Most Bond sets aren't nearly so prescient—sea lairs, for exam­ple, never quite caught on.

Bunch of Zeros: Let's not forget that Bond isn't the only spy licensed to kill by MI6. A guide to others and their often brief appearances:

002 Played by Glyn Baker in The Living Daylights.

003 Uncredited actor; found dead in Siberia in A View to a Kill.

004 Played by Frederick Ward­er in The Living Daylights; killed by the KGB. 006 Villain Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), a double-0 gone bad in GoldenEye. 008 Doesn't appear on-screen; mentioned in Goldfinger as Bond's replace-

ment should he disregard orders

or be killed.

009 Played by Andy Bradford

in Octopussy; dies disguised as a clown and clutching a -. Faberge egg.