Ian Fleming did not need Sean Connery as James Bond

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Ian Fleming did not need Sean Connery as James Bond

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Ian Fleming would have most well-liked Richard Burton, James Mason or James Stewart to play the primary James Bond.

Ian Fleming

The title’s Fleming, Ian Fleming. And boy did he have some issues with how his James Bond character was being tailored for the large display screen. As everyone knows, Sean Connery was cinema’s first 007, however Fleming himself hated the concept, involved that he didn’t have the fitting voice.

As revealed in Nicholas Shakespeare’s new ebook, Ian Fleming: The Complete Man (through IndieWire), the method to seek out the right James Bond was an arduous one. Per Fleming’s agent Robert Fenn, “We tried twenty or thirty [potential prospects]. No major actor would play the part for more than one picture, and we couldn’t set up a deal with a distributor without commitment from a main actor.” Of course, Bond would go to Connery, who Fleming didn’t look after as a result of “he couldn’t speak the Queen’s English…He’s not my idea of Bond at all, I just want an elegant man, not this roughneck.”

To many, that “roughneck” would go on to be the quintessential Bond. But it might have been fairly totally different, with Shakespeare noting that Ian Fleming “had entertained several possibilities, from Richard Burton (‘I think that Richard Burton would be by far the best James Bond’), to James Stewart (‘I wouldn’t at all mind him as Bond if he can slightly anglicise his accent’), to James Mason (‘We might have to settle for him’).” Let it’s identified that Mason particularly would have been a horrible Bond, greater than doubtless butchering the suaveness, motion and iconic traces. And Jimmy Stewart? Just attempt to think about him seducing Pussy Galore!

At one level, George Ratoff – one of many males who tried getting the Bond franchise off the bottom again within the Nineteen Fifties – even thought of having Oscar winner Susan Hayward step into the function, a progressive transfer that’s nonetheless being shut down even right this moment.

We might surprise “What if?” all day however the overwhelming majority would agree that Sean Connery is the James Bond. Really, would Ian Fleming’s world have taken off prefer it did had anyone else – particularly the named stars – if Connery hadn’t led it off?

If Sean Connery hadn’t been solid as the primary Bond, who do you suppose would have been the most effective match? Do you like every of Ian Fleming’s picks? Give us your dream back-up decide within the feedback part under!

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