On This Day

RichardTheBruce

April 25th

1962: Variety reports Goldfinger was first considered for the second Eon Bond film. Instead the filmmakers diverted to From Russia With Love and Richard Maibaum's screenplay. Film already in production by this date.
1964: 007 ロシアより愛をこめて (007 Roshia yoriaiwokomete, 007 Russia With More Love) released in Japan.

1969 [actual date unknown]: Bond on holiday is taken for a ride in Draco's Rolls Royce across Ponte 25 de Abril (25 April Bridge) near Lisbon, Portugal.

James Bond Locations
https://jamesbondlocations.blogspot.com/2016/05/ponte-25-de-abril-lisbon.html
18 May 2016
Ponte 25 de Abril - Lisbon

In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond is holidaying on the Portuguese riviera, in Estoril. As Bond is abducted by Draco's men at the Hotel Palacio and taken to Draco, Draco's Rolls Royce is seen driving across the famous Ponte 25 de Abril (25 April Bridge) just outside of Lisbon. The action is likely supposed to be set on the French Riviera, but all action was shot on location in Portugal. Not much is made to get the audience to believe that you are in France.

Ponte 25 de abril with the Cristo Rei statue in the bcakground

The bridge is called Ponte 25 de Abril, and is connecting the city of Lisbon to the municipality of Almada on the south bank of the Tejo river. Tejo river forms the large bay which banks Lisbon is situated on. The city is vaguely visible in the background as Bond is driven across the bridge.

Driving across this bridge, coming from Lisbon, is a great experience and definitely a must see location if you are visiting Lisbon.

The city of Lisbon seen in the background

"-And where is the party this time?
-You have an appointment...
-Business or pleasure?"

Another landmark that gives away this location in the film, is the statue of Christ that can be seen in the far background, as the Rolls Royce is driving out on the bridge. This monument, known as Cristo Rei in Portuguese, was inspired by the more famous statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro and was inaugurated in 1959 following the approval of Salazar. You have a magnificent view over both Ponte 25 de Abril and the city of Lisbon from the viewpoint below this statue in Almada, which is only a 20 min drive from central Lisbon. The view over Lisbon both from the bridge and from the viewpoint is beautiful.

Lisbon can be seen in the background on the right side of the bridge.

The 25 April bridge was inaugurated in 1966, and was thus almost brand new at the time of filming On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The bridge was originally called Salazar Bridge, named after the Portuguese prime minister and dictator António de Oliveira Salazar who ruled Portugal between 1932 and 1968. Following the carnation revolution on 25 April 1974, which ultimately led to a free and democratic Portugal, the name of the bridge was changed to Ponte 25 de Abril.

The bridge would also feature during one of the final scenes in the film as Bond and Tracy are driving away from their wedding reception towards Tracy's inevitable death.

2002: BOND 20 films Gustav Graves revealing his Icarus satellite.

2017: A Fleming-inspired competition to propose a 27th letter for the English alphabet closes this date.

Typography |

Could you be the designer behind the 27th
letter of the alphabet?

See the complete article here:

https://www.creativebloq.com/news/the-search-is-on-for-the-undiscovered-27th-letter-of-the-alphabet

By Dom Carter March 01, 2017 Typography

A competition conceived by Ian Fleming is looking for typographers to create a new letter design.

When he wasn't busy penning James Bond novels, Ian Fleming also experimented with typography. In fact, in 1947, while helping out at the typographical magazine Alphabet & Image, he hit on the idea of a competition that called for designers to create a 27th letter of the alphabet. Now, 70 years later, the contest is being run again in connection with The Book Collector.

The 2017 competition will follow Ian Fleming's original rules, namely that the experimental design must conform to the alphabet as known in English-writing countries, and that it must represent a recognised sound or combination of sounds. In terms of design, entrants must also demonstrate decorative, philological and typographical skill.

• A designer's guide to typography and fonts
• https://www.thebookcollector.co.uk/the-27th-letter

James Fleming, Ian's nephew, says: “I was intrigued to hear about the alphabet competition and I thought it was a good idea to give this another go. Creative heads don't need a professional qualification in order to enter. Anyone with an idea as to how the English language could be improved in a way that complies with the competition rules can take part.

"Last time submissions included '-sion', 'th' and 'st', but alternatives are yours to explore. Given that most people embrace the fast-moving world of social media, perhaps this time the new letter will become part of the alphabet."

Full rules and conditions can be found at The Book Collector, with the competition running from 15 March to 25 April 2017. The winner will be announced at the ABA Olympia Book Fair on 2 June, with a £250 cash prize up for grabs.
https://www.thebookcollector.co.uk/27th-letter-results

27th Letter results
https://www.thebookcollector.co.uk/27th-letter-results

2019: A BOND 25 press event in Jamaica reveals cast and plot details.

2023: Media reports some detail for Brian Cox to star in James Bond-inspired unscripted Amazon Prime Video series 007's Road to a Million.

Brian Cox to star in James Bond-inspired
unscripted Prime Video series '007's Road to a
Million'

See the complete article here:

https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/brian-cox-to-star-in-james-bond-inspired-unscripted-prime-video-series-007s-road-to-a-million/article66773920.ece

The show will see contestants competing in teams of two on a global adventure across iconic Bond film locations
April 24, 2023 06:49 pm | Updated 06:49 pm IST

Brian Cox as ‘The Controller’ in Amazon’s new unscripted original

Succession star Brian Cox has booked his next gig with Prime Video's upcoming UK Original 007's Road to a Million, an unscripted adventure series shot across locations of James Bond films.

According to the streamer, the show will see contestants competing in teams of two on a global adventure to win the ultimate prize of up to GBP 1 million. Filmed in many iconic Bond locations — from the Scottish Highlands to Venice and Jamaica — this cinematic format will be a true test of intelligence, endurance, and heroism.

In addition to conquering obstacles, the contestants, who will compete in two-person teams, must correctly answer questions hidden in the different locations around the world to advance to the next challenge.

Cox, a recipient of Emmy and Golden Globe awards, will play 'The Controller', the enigmatic character who controls the fate of the contestants in the series.

The Controller is villainous and cultured, and revels in the increasingly difficult journeys and questions the contestants must overcome. He has millions of pounds to give away — up to GBP 1 million per couple — but he doesn’t make it easy. Whilst he lurks in the shadows, he is watching and controlling everything.

“I got to see how ordinary people would cope with being on a James Bond adventure. As they travel the world to some of the most iconic Bond locations, it gets more intense and nail-biting. I enjoyed my role as both villain and tormentor, with license to put the hopeful participants through the mangle,” the Scottish star said in a statement.

007’s Road to a Million is a collaboration between Amazon Studios, EON Productions, 72 Films, and MGM Alternative. The show will launch on Prime Video later this year. .

RichardTheBruce

April 26th

1941: Claudine Oger (Auger) is born--Paris, France.
(She dies 19 December 2019--Paris, France.)

Claudine Auger, James Bond’s First
French Co-Star, Dies at 78

See the complete article here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/movies/claudine-auger-dead.html

“Thunderball” was her breakthrough, and she went on to appear
in movies with Alain Delon and Giancarlo Giannini. But
Hollywood stardom eluded her.

Claudine Auger in London in 1968. She was a star in Europe, but her American projects
were few and far between.Credit...Dove/Daily Express, via Getty Images

By Anita Gates | Published Dec. 22, 2019 | Updated Dec. 23, 2019

Claudine Auger, Sean Connery’s co-star in Thunderball and the first French actress to play James Bond’s love interest, died on Wednesday in Paris. She was 78.

Her death was confirmed by the Parisian agency Time Art, which represented her.

Ms. Auger (pronounced oh-JHAY) was 24 when Thunderball, the fourth film in the long-running Bond franchise, was released in 1965. Her character, Domino, is the mistress of an evil mastermind who has stolen two nuclear warheads — and killed her brother. Domino does not hold back when exacting revenge on her former lover. (A harpoon gun is involved.)

Because she spoke English with a heavy accent, Ms. Auger’s voice was dubbed by another actress. But because she was an excellent swimmer, she did her own underwater scenes in the film, which was shot largely in the Bahamas.

- - -

When, during a 1965 interview, the American gossip columnist Dorothy Manners announced, “Hollywood could use you,” Ms. Auger answered cheerfully, “Not as much as I can use Hollywood.” But a couple of decades later, she had reconsidered.

“French actresses have never had much success in Hollywood,” she observed in a 1986 Los Angeles Times interview, adding that Germans and Swedes had done better but that “it’s hard to explain why.”

Still, she was fond of Southern California. In the same interview, she said, “I always go to the end of Santa Monica Pier and throw a coin in the Pacific” at the end of a visit — to ensure her return.

She was born Claudine Oger in Paris on April 26, 1941, the daughter of an architect. At 17, she was crowned Miss France Monde and was first runner-up in the Miss World competition.

She had a modeling career and played an uncredited role in a 1959 Jean Cocteau film, “Le Testament d’Orphée” (“The Testament of Orpheus”). (Almost everyone in the film, with the exception of Cocteau himself, was uncredited.) After that experience, she studied drama at the Conservatoire de Paris.

Ms. Auger’s first credited film role was in Marcel Carné’s “Terrain Vague” (1960), or “Wasteland,” about a teenage street gang in Paris. Her final screen appearance was in a 1997 television movie version of Stendhal’s “Le Rouge et le Noir” (“The Red and the Black”), playing Madame de Fervaques, an elegant widow who receives love letters from a younger man.

She and Pierre Gaspard-Huit, a director and writer 25 years her senior — he had cast her in her first uncredited film role, in the romance “Christine” (1958) — were married in 1959, when she was 18. They divorced a decade later. In 1984 she married Peter Brent, a British businessman, who died in 2008. They had a daughter, Jessica Claudine Brent, who survives her.

In a 1965 television interview, Ms. Auger spoke the words that became her most famous quotation. Asked the difference between acting in a James Bond movie and in classic theater by Molière, she insisted there was none. Acting was “un jeu,” and the two forms were “la même chose,” she said. A game. The same thing.

Claudine Auger (1941–2019)

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000805/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

1965: James Bond Contra Goldfinger (James Bond vs. Goldfinger) released in Madrid, Spain.

1965: Thunderball films OO7 at Largo's Palmyra estate, Rock Point, Bahamas.

1967: Review of Casino Royale in the Cleveland Press.

"Casino Royale" Is a Mish-Mash

See the complete article here:

https://web.ulib.csuohio.edu/mastroianni/tm292.html

Cleveland Press April 26, 1967

Don't see "Casino Royale" from the beginning. See it from the end. That's the best part of the movie and the rest doesn't make sense anyway.

In fact, drop in on it in the middle if you like.

Any resemblance between "Casino Royale" and the Ian Fleming novel, James Bond stories generally and any sensible movie is not coincidental, it's impossible.

Five directors handled this movie in separate sequences and it looks it. It is loaded with sight gags, inside jokes, sexy girls, double meaning lines, gimmicks and gadgets -- but little of its hangs together.

AT TIMES it is wildly hilarious but there are other -- and longer -- stretches that limp along.

But getting back to that ending, which I enjoyed and not entirely because the movie was over. This is the big battle in the gambling place known as Casino Royale and it is a circus with American cowboys, Indian paratroopers (yelling Geronimo, naturally) and Keystone cops.

What little story this movie has finds James Bond (David Niven) knighted and in retirement on a lion infested estate where he raises roses and plays Debussy.

HE HAS BEEN retired since World War I after a sad love affair with Mata Hari and the Bond name has lived on, used by other agents who have an unfortunate weakness for women and who depend on gadgets rather than brains.

But he is lured out of retirement because SMERSH is destroying agents of all nations. SMERSH immediately turns loose its most beautiful female agents to destroy Bond.

The British Secret Service deploys other agents with the Bond name to confuse the enemy and to make use of special talents. There's the expert gambler, Peter Sellers, who becomes Bond so as to defeat a gambling SMERSH official, Orson Welles. There is Terrence Cooper, who is trained to be resistant to feminine allure.

AND THERE is a female Bond -- Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet), who is the offspring of Bond and Mata Hari. There are some others too but forget it, it's too confusing.

The trouble with spoofing Bond movies is that the original Bond films are still the best spoofs of all and movies that have taken off on them have been done to death.

What "Casino" has going for it is a screenful of well-known faces, many in cameo roles, and a $12,000,000 budget that made possible wild and gimmicky scenes.

IT'S A CIRCUS, it's far out, but it also is often heavy-handed and coarse. Niven remains suave and unperturbable throughout. Welles is a grand villian. Sellers is good but is in a part that often strains far effect.

Woody Allen is himself and it sounds as if the made up his own role. He plans biological warfare that will render all women beautiful and all men shorter than he is.

Movie buffs will have fun picking out the references to other films in some of the inside jokes. Among them are the other Bond films, Matt Helm and "Born Free" -- just for a start.

Audiences generally will find this an undisciplined, loosely done, hectic free-for-all that is completely confusing. This movie wasn't made, it just happened.

1974: Ivana Milicevic is born--Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1978: Stana Katic is born--Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

2005: The New York Post says Judi Dench says Pierce Brosnan will return as Bond. That's after The Sun reports Daniel Craig is cast.

Bond Watch: Dame Judi Dench hints at
Brosnan return

See the complete article here:

https://www.screendaily.com/bond-watch-dame-judi-dench-hints-at-brosnan-return/4022817.article

By Diana Lodderhose27 April 2005

The new James Bond film, Casino Royale, is scheduled to shoot at the end of 2005 - although it is still uncertain who will play 007 in the film.

With ongoing rumours circulating throughout the media world, it can be difficult to keep tabs on the latest information. Here, ScreenDaily.com alleviates some of the confusion by offering an up-to-date look at 007's status in the press.

April 26
Dame Judi Dench has let it slip that Pierce Brosnan will be returning to the Bond role for the new film. Dench, who was promoting her new film, Ladies in Lavender, told New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams that despite all of the rumours in the media, there will be no new Bond for Casino Royale.

She said: "Despite the fact that everyone on the face of the earth has been tested as his (Brosnan's) possible replacement, he'll be doing it again, and it'll be announced come summer."

Dench has played the role of M, James Bond's boss, for the last four Bond films.

April 18
Pierce Brosnan will not be returning to screens for the new Bond film Casino Royale.

Over the weekend, TheObserver newspaper reported that Brosnan is not one of the contenders for the new 007 picture.

"We haven't even started preproduction," a spokesperson told The Observer. "There is no James Bond yet cast. All we can confirm is that it definitely will not be Pierce Brosnan, the film will be called Casino Royale, it is being written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and it will be directed by Martin Campbell. If you want anything more, ring back in a couple of months."

A spokesperson for producers Eon Productions later confirmed to Screen Daily.com that Brosnan will not be playing Bond.

April 6
The Sun newspaper says that Road to Perdition and Layer Cake star Daniel Craig had been asked to takeover from Pierce Brosnan as the spy in three films.

April 5:
Reports of Pierce Brosnan returning for the role are floating around the internet. Despite the actor previously saying he will not play 007 again, sites such as Darkhorizons.com insist that Sony bosses are eager for him to star in one more film. There is speculation that Brosnan and Bond production outfit Eon are simply involved in hard negotiations or a 'poker game', similar to the one played out regularly between Cubby Broccoli and Roger Moore - who frequently announced he wouldn't return as Bond. Sony is said to be keen for Brosnan to return, as the company is not willing to take a chance with a new actor.

April 3:
The UK's Sunday Express and the Sunday Star report that "inside sources" reveal that Eon and Sony have reached an agreement for Clive Owen to be the next James Bond. The Express runs a picture of Owen with the roulette wheel from Croupier while the Star shows Owen wearing a tuxedo and smoking.

The Italian media runs similar stories suggesting Clive Owen as the next Bond.

2011: Hodder & Stoughton and Bentley Motors offer a pre-order of their limited special edition of Carte Blanche by Jeffrey Deaver, to be published in May.

Bentley Motors Creates Luxury Limited Edition
New James Bond Book Carte Blanch - Web
Exclusive

See the complete article here:

http://www.superstreetonline.com/features/news/epcp-1104-bentley-luxury-limited-edition-james-bond-book-carte-blanche

Apr 29, 2011

Bentley Luxury Limited Edition James Bond Book Carte Blanche

To celebrate the release of Carte Blanche, the new James Bond book by Jeffery Deaver, on May 26 2011, publisher Hodder & Stoughton has partnered with Bentley Motors to create an exclusive Bentley special edition: the ultimate luxury edition of the highly anticipated new James Bond adventure. The 500 limited edition copies are available for pre-order from today, Tuesday 26 April 2011, exactly a month before publication date. Huge worldwide demand is anticipated for this new special edition after Bentley’s collaborative bespoke book for the previous Bond novel, Devil May Care, by Sebastian Faulks, sold out within days.

Ian Fleming always admired the stately beauty of the Bentley and, as a result, James Bond owned three Bentleys over the course of the 14 original Bond novels. In Carte Blanche, award-winning thriller writer Jeffery Deaver reunites Bond with this classic marque. In this contemporary adventure, the agent will be behind the wheel of the beautifully sculpted and sophisticated new Bentley Continental GT.

The design team at Bentley worked closely with Hodder & Stoughton to capture the spirit of Bond and Bentley. A team of seven designers submitted proposals for the edition and the final design came from Bentley Senior Designer Brett Boydell. He comments: “As a designer it doesn’t get much better than a brief of Carte Blanche! The design features radical concepts that we feel reflect the name of the book, the ideas inherent in the Bond legacy, and the design principles we are passionate about.”

This special edition links the legendary hero with the iconic automobile in the most spectacular way. Each copy of the special edition is custom-produced to Bentley’s exacting standards and arrives inside a stunning metal case. The result is a striking and unique collector’s item. The special edition is strictly limited to 500 copies worldwide at a price of £1,000 each. They will be available to pre-order worldwide through www.007carteblanchebentley.com. The editions will be delivered after publication date.

The Design:
The case of the Bentley special edition is inspired by the deserts of Dubai – one of the exotic locations Bond finds himself in within the new novel – and the new Bentley Continental GT, Bond’s car of choice in the book.

Like the exterior of the GT, the case is made from polished aluminum, giving it a seamless and aerodynamic shape. More sculpture than car, it evokes the GT’s signature outline, its metal skin making it look like the car has risen from the desert sand. To ensure the finished case meet Bentley’s renowned standards of quality, an automotive supplier was employed to create the case to automotive standards using a specially commissioned machine.

In deference to the title Carte Blanche, the book itself is bound in white Nappa leather, the same outstanding grade of leather used in a Bentley’s interior, mimicking the interior of the GT with its contrast of white leather trim and Pillar Box red edging. The title, author’s name and the familiar wings of the Bentley logo are carefully embossed into the front and foil-blocked onto the spine. The text is printed in two colors, black and red, on sumptuous ivory paper, with endpapers of a matching red leather. The pages are expertly cut and trimmed to reflect the handcrafted techniques of the Bentley construction process. As with the other details of the special edition, the colors are carefully selected from the Bentley range. The book sits on a base of black anodized aluminum, chosen not to mark the white leather.

In one last twist, playing on the idea of an agent being given Carte Blanche, is one of the most dramatic features of the design: a die-cut bullet hole that pierces pages of the book. Hidden within the pages is a single polished 9mm bullet, individually marked with a number distinct to each copy, making the edition truly unique.

Brett Boydell adds: “Bond destroys as well as he creates and saves. It was this element I needed to convey in my design. The reader has the excitement of finding the bullet housed in the centre of the pages with the text positioned so that the reading experience is undisturbed. I hope they find the book as exciting to hold and look at as the unfolding drama itself.”

2019: Bond Fan Events kicks off four days of Viva Vegas, Mr Bond!

BondFanEvents.com
2019: Viva Vegas, Mr Bond!
******
http://bondfanevents.com/2019-viva-vegas-mr-bond/
Locations – Lifestyle – Laughter – Viva Vegas, Mr Bond!, April 2019
**Bond With Fans!**

Join 2019’s Bond Fan Conference:
Viva Vegas, Mr Bond!

25-April Thursday
9 AM 007 Welcome Brunch, at ARIA
1:30 PM Tiffany? Tom Ford? The Shops at Crystals
2 PM Belvedere Cliffhangers, at Skybar
5 PM Group Gastropub, at Umami Burger and Biergarten
7 PM Sunset Sightseeing, at Stratosphere Las Vegas
9 PM – ? A View to a Kill from the 108th floor, at Airbar

Tour 40 Vegas Hot Spots from
Diamonds Are Forever and Ian Fleming!

26-April Friday
8:45 AM 007 Locations Tour, “Las Vegas is Forever”
1:30 PM Luncheon Break
2 PM 007 Locations Tour, “Nevada is Forever”
7:30 PM Raise a glass to The Brozza over dinner, at Rí Rá Irish Pub
9 PM – ? Let it Crumble, at Skyfall Lounge

Go Through the Gun Barrel with 007,
Fast and Louche!

27-April Saturday
10:30 AM Coffee Talk With Q, at The Luxor’s Atrium Starbucks
12 PM Green Eggs and Ham Luncheon, at Bruxie’s
1:30 PM Free Time with Fans, in The Silver City
5 PM Two Hundred on the Hard Way: Learn and Play Roulette, Hold ‘Em and Baccarat at The Palazzo
6 PM Dine Another Day, at Grand Lux Café
8:07 PM 007 Madmen Tour: Moonraker Gondoliers,
Mme Tussaud’s, Casino Royale, Party at The Paris
11 PM – ? We’ll Have Our Six (Vespers), at The Cosmopolitan

Locations – Lifestyle – Laughter

28-April Sunday
9 AM Brunch Like Bond, Champagne Unlimited, at Sterling Buffet
** Celebrating 22 Years of Bonding With Fans **

Viva Vegas, Mr Bond! is $455 U.S. per person, including four nights/five days at The Luxor Las Vegas (double occupancy)

Ask about our roommate matching service, to save money in a double, triple or quad room!

Tours alone price/reserve your own Las Vegas lodging: $95

Itinerary subject to change. Sign up today, Mr and Mrs Bond!

Viva Vegas, Mister Bond! is sponsored by Spybrary. http://spybrary.com/

Bonding fans together. Over 20 years of events and tours.

2019: Loop reports 500 Jamaicans will work on the new James Bond movie.

500 Jamaicans to work on James Bond
film

See the complete article here:

https://www.loopjamaica.com/content/500-jamaicans-work-james-bond-film

Loop News Created : 26 April 2019 | Jamaica News

Producers Michael G Wilson, left, and Barbara Broccoli, right,
pose for photographers with actor Daniel Craig during the photo call
of the latest installment of the James Bond film franchise,
currently known as Bond 25 in St Mary. (AP Photo)

Some 500 Jamaicans are expected to participate in the production of the 25th James Bond Film, which was announced on Thursday at the Ian Fleming property, GoldenEye in Oracabessa, St Mary.

The roles will include key production and technical personnel as well as extras and walk-ons.

Film Commissioner Renee Robinson has estimated that the economic impact of the film will be significant, with production expenditure multiplying throughout the economy – from hotel rooms to catering, in both goods and services.

“This will be a bumper year for the contribution of the creative economy to local GDP, and of course, we expect (and are ready for) more large scale productions, both local and international, to film on the island in the coming years,” Robinson said.

She added: It has been several months behind the scenes of scouting, meetings, negotiations, and planning – with our local production personnel working beside the international crews to confirm the location and ensure that production starts smoothly."

Actress Lea Seydoux, from left, director Cary Joji Fukunaga, actors
Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig, Naomie Harris and Lashana Lynch pose for photographers
during the photo call of the latest installment of the James Bond film franchise,
currently known as Bond 25, in Oracabessa, St Mary. (AP: Photo)

James Bond producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli confirmed at the film’s media launch, that the start of principal photography on the project begins on Sunday.

"We’re thrilled to return to Jamaica with Bond 25, Daniel Craig’s fifth instalment in the 007 series, where Ian Fleming created the iconic James Bond character and Dr No and Live And Let Die were filmed,” the producers said.

According to the film commissioner, the Bond film has added to the island’s recent uptick in the production of screen-based content, which she said was based on Jamaica’s rising profile and readiness for business with the global film industry.

The Jamaican film industry is undergoing a renaissance, having also seen recent success for local productions including Storm Saulter’s, “Sprinter” and Kia Moses’ short film, “Flight”; and Idris Elba’s directorial debut “Yardie”, according to Robinson.

Robinson

From Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, the 25th James Bond Film is to be directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and stars Daniel Craig, who returns for his fifth film as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007.

Craig will be joined by Naomie Harris and Lashana Lynch, both of Jamaican descent.

The 007 production will be based at Pinewood Studios in the UK, and on location in London, Italy, Jamaica and Norway.

Metro Goldwyn Mayer will release the 25th James Bond feature film domestically through their United Artists Releasing banner on April 8, 2020; through Universal Pictures International and Metro Goldwyn Mayer in the UK and internationally from April 3, 2020.

The filming of the Bond25 film was fully supported by Jamaica's Government, and is a collaborative effort of the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), JAMPRO/ Jamaica Film Commission, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Fisheries (MICAF), the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport (MCGES), the Ministry of Tourism (MOT), the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, and partners at UDC, NWA, JDF, JCF, Municipal Parish Councils, the Ministry of National Security, Firearm Licensing Authority, Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority, Jamaica Customs Agency, Airports Authority of Jamaica, Port Authority of Jamaica, Passport, Immigration & Citizenship Agency (PICA), and more.

2021: Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum host Lockdown Lectures: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming as a talk broadcast 7pm BST (2pm EST), followed by discussion with Christopher Moran. Recorded to be available on demand.

Lockdown Lectures: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming

See the complete article here:
Talk Broadcast: 7pm, 26 April 2021 - Followed by Live Q&A with Christopher Moran

https://www.sofo.org.uk/whats-on/lockdownlectureianfleming/

Uncover The Secret Life of Ian Fleming, best known as the author of the James Bond novels, with Dr. Christopher Moran. Christopher Moran is a specialist in the work of British and American secret services and has worked as historical consultant to the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C. and is co-editor of the Journal of Intelligence History.

What role did Ian Fleming really play in British intelligence operations during WW2 and after? What impact did he have on US intelligence during the Cold War, and how was his fictional spy, James Bond, viewed by those conducting real spy work?

Reveal the answers to all this and more by watching the talk when it's broadcast at 7pm on 26 April 2021, and join in with the live Q&A session with Christopher Moran right after. See embeded Vimeo feed below (Google Chrome recommended for best viewing experience). An archived version of the Lecture, including highlights from the Q&A, will also be made available here shortly after the live event has ended.

If you enjoy the lecture, please consider a donation to the Museum -
we are currently unable to open to visitors under lockdown restrictions
and need your support now more than ever.

Thank you.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/536251555

RichardTheBruce

April 27th

1935: Nikki van der Zyl is born--Berlin, Germany.
(She dies 6 March 2021 at age 85--London, England.)

Nikki van der Zyl

See the complete article here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_van_der_Zyl

Van der Zyl in 2013

Born: Monica van der Zyl - 27 April 1935 - Berlin, Germany
Died: 6 March 2021 (aged 85) - London, England, UK
Occupation Voice-over artist
Years active 1956–1980

Monica "Nikki" van der Zyl (27 April 1935 – 6 March 2021) was a German voice-over artist based in the United Kingdom, known for her dubbing work on the James Bond film franchise.

Early life
Nikki van der Zyl was born on 27 April 1935 in Berlin, the daughter of Anneliese and Rabbi Dr. Werner van der Zyl.

Career
As a voice-over artist, she provided the voice of the characters of Honey Rider (Ursula Andress) and Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson), as well as several other minor female characters, in Dr. No. Van der Zyl also provided dialogue coaching to Gert Fröbe, whose English was limited, for the movie Goldfinger and continued to work as a voice-over artist for the series until Moonraker. She worked as an artist, poet and public speaker.

In January 2013, van der Zyl published her book, For Your Ears Only, which was translated into German for a 2015 release in Germany. In November 2013, an exhibition called "Night Flight to Berlin" opened in the Museum Pankow in Berlin and ran until April 2014. The exhibition highlighted stages in van der Zyl's life from her childhood days to the Bond films and her work as a barrister and political correspondent in London.[citation needed]

On 20 September 2014, she was a special guest star at a 50th anniversary screening of Goldfinger in Braunschweig, Germany where she was awarded Honorary Membership of the James Bond Club Deutschland e.V. for her contribution to the James Bond film series.
https://www.thebondbulletin.com/goldfinger-screening-in-braunschweig-a-glamorous-anniversary-event/

Death
Van der Zyl died on 6 March 2021 in London, aged 85.

Filmography

James Bond films
Dr. No (1962; dubbed Ursula Andress, Eunice Gayson and all other female voices except Lois Maxwell, Zena Marshall, Yvonne Shima and Michel Mok)
From Russia with Love (1963; dubbed Eunice Gayson and female hotel clerk in Istanbul)
Goldfinger (1964; dubbed Shirley Eaton and Nadja Regin, was also on-set English-language vocal coach to Gert Fröbe)
Thunderball (1965; dubbed Claudine Auger)
You Only Live Twice (1967; dubbed Mie Hama)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969; dubbed Virginia North)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971; dubbed Denise Perrier)
Live and Let Die (1973; partially dubbed Jane Seymour)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974; dubbed Francoise Therry)
Moonraker (1979; dubbed Corinne Cléry and Leila Shenna)

Other films
Man in the Moon (1960, revoiced Shirley Anne Field)
The Savage Innocents (1960, revoiced Yoko Tani)
La Fayette (1961, revoiced Claudia Cardinale)
Call Me Bwana (1963, revoiced Anita Ekberg)
You Must Be Joking! (1965, revoiced Gabriella Licudi)
The Ipcress File (1965, revoiced Sue Lloyd)
She (1965, revoiced Ursula Andress)
The Blue Max (1966; revoiced Ursula Andress)
Funeral in Berlin (1966, revoiced Eva Renzi)
Modesty Blaise (1966, revoiced Monica Vitti)
One Million Years B.C. (1966, revoiced Raquel Welch)
Prehistoric Women (1967, revoiced various characters)
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967, revoiced Susan Denberg)
Deadlier Than the Male (1967, revoiced Sylva Koscina)
The Jokers (1967, revoiced Gabriella Licudi)
Hannibal Brooks (1969; revoiced Karin Baal)
Krakatoa, East of Java (1969, revoiced Jacqui Chan)
Fräulein Doktor (1969, revoiced Suzy Kendall)

Scars of Dracula (1970; revoiced Jenny Hanley)
You Can't Win 'Em All (1970, revoiced Michèle Mercier)
Gawain and the Green Knight (1973, revoiced Ciaran Madden)
The Cherry Picker (1974; revoiced Lulu)

Nikki Van der Zyl

(1935–2021)
Actress | Additional Crew | Stunts
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0886424/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

1959: Sheena Easton is born--Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.

1963: Dr. No released in Malta.
1964: Moscou Contra 007 (Moscow vs. 007) released in Brazil.

1965: Thunderball films a henchman thrown to the sharks by SPECTRE.

1974: Joseph Millson is born--Berkshire, England.

1985: Ivar Felix Charles Bryce dies at age 78--Birdbrook, Braintree District, Essex, England.
(Born 10 June 1906--London, England.)

Ivar Bryce

See the complete article here:

https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKbryceI.htm

Ivar Bryce was born in 1906. His father had made a fortune trading guano, the phosphate-rich deposit of fish-eating seabirds which had been widely used as a natural fertilizer. His mother was a painter and a published author of detective novels.

In 1917 Bryce met Ian Fleming and his brothers on a beach in Cornwall: "The fortress builders generously invited me to join them, and I discovered that their names were Peter, Ian, Richard and Michael, in that order. The leaders were Ian and Peter, and I gladly carried out their exact and exacting orders. They were natural leaders of men, both of them, as later history was to prove, and it speaks well for them all that there was room for both Peter and Ian in the platoon."

Bryce was sent to Eton College where he resumed his friendship with Fleming. Bryce purchased a Douglas motorbike and used this vehicle for trips around Windsor. He also took Fleming on the bike to visit the British Empire Exhibition in London. They also published a magazine, The Wyvern, together. Fleming used mother's contacts to persuade Augustus John and Edwin Lutyens, to contribute drawings. The magazine also published a poem by Vita Sackville-West. The editors showed their right-wing opinions by publishing an article in praise of the British Fascisti Party. It argued that its "primary intention is to counteract the present and every-growning trend towards revolution... it is of the utmost importance that centres should be started in the universities and in our public schools".

During the Second World War Bryce worked for William Stephenson, the head of British Security Coordination (BSC), a unit that was based in New York City. According to Thomas E. Mahl, the author of Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939-44 (1998): "Bryce worked in the Latin American affairs section of the BSC, which was run by Dickie Coit (known in the office as Coitis Interruptus). Because there was little evidence of the German plot to take over Latin America, Ivar found it difficult to excite Americans about the threat."

Nicholas J. Cull, the author of Selling War: The British Propaganda Campaign Against American Neutrality (1996), has argued: "During the summer of 1941, he (Bryce) became eager to awaken the United States to the Nazi threat in South America." It was especially important for the British Security Coordination to undermine the propaganda of the American First Committee that had over a million paid-up members. Bryce recalls in his autobiography, You Only Live Once (1975): "Sketching out trial maps of the possible changes, on my blotter, I came up with one showing the probable reallocation of territories that would appeal to Berlin. It was very convincing: the more I studied it the more sense it made... were a genuine German map of this kind to be discovered and publicised among... the American Firsters, what a commotion would be caused."

William Stephenson approved the idea and the project was handed over to Station M, the phony document factory in Toronto run by Eric Maschwitz, of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It took them only 48 hours to produce "a map, slightly travel-stained with use, but on which the Reich's chief map makers... would be prepared to swear was made by them." Stephenson now arranged for the FBI to find the map during a raid on a German safe-house on the south coast of Cuba. J. Edgar Hoover handed the map over to William Donovan. His executive assistant, James R. Murphy, delivered the map to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The historian, Thomas E. Mahl argues that "as a result of this document Congress dismantled the last of the neutrality legislation."

Ivar Bryce

Nicholas J. Cull has argued that Roosevelt should not have realised it was a forgery. He points out that Adolf A. Berle, the Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs, had already warned Cordell Hull, the Secretary of State that "British intelligence has been very active in making things appear dangerous in South America. We have to be a little on our guard against false scares."

Bryce wrote to Walter Lippmann in March 1942. He sent him a book by Hugo Artuco Fernandez that had been written at the behest of British intelligence. "I am sending you a copy of my friend Artuco's book, which I think will interest you... Some of it sounds rather alarming and exaggerated but it is much more accurate than most books on South America.... If you felt at all inclined to write anything about the dangers to South America, I could give you any number of facts which have never been published, but which my friends here would like to see judiciously made public at this point."

Bryce was based in Jamaica (his wife Sheila, owned Bellevue, one of the most important houses on the island), during the Second World War, where he ran dangerous missions into Latin America. Ian Fleming, who was personal assistant to Admiral John Godfrey, the director of naval intelligence, visited Bryce in 1941. Fleming told him that: "When we have won this blasted war, I am going to live in Jamaica. Just live in Jamaica and lap it up, and swim in the sea and write books."

In 1945 Bryce helped Fleming find a house and twelve acres of land just outside of Oracabessa. It included a strip of white sand on a lovely part of the coast. Fleming decided to call the house, Goldeneye, after his wartime project in Spain, Operation Goldeneye. Their former boss, William Stephenson, also had a house on the island overlooking Montego Bay. Stephenson had set up the British-American-Canadian-Corporation (later called the World Commerce Corporation), a secret service front company which specialized in trading goods with developing countries. William Torbitt has claimed that it was "originally designed to fill the void left by the break-up of the big German cartels which Stephenson himself had done much to destroy."

In 1950 Bryce married Josephine Hartford. Her grandfather, George Huntington Hartford, was the founder of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. Josephine was the daughter of Princess Guido Pignatelli and Edward V. Hartford, who was an inventor and president of the Hartford Shock Absorber Company. A former concert pianist she was one of the leading racehorse owners in the United States.

Bryce joined with Ernest Cuneo and a group of investors, including Ian Fleming, to gain control of the North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA). Andrew Lycett has pointed out: "With the arrival of television, its star had begun to wane. Advised by Ernie Cuneo, who told him it was a sure way to meet anyone he wanted, Ivar stepped in and bought control. He appointed the shrewd Cuneo to oversee the American end of things... and Fleming was brought on board to offer a professional newspaperman's advice." Fleming was appointed European vice-president, with a salary of £1,500 a year. He persuaded James Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley, that The Sunday Times should work closely with NANA. He also organized a deal with The Daily Express, owned by Lord Beaverbrook.

Bryce became a film producer and helped to finance The Boy and the Bridge (1959). The film lost money but Bryce decided he wanted to work with its director, Kevin McClory, again and it was suggested that they created a company, Xanadu Films. Josephine Hartford, Ernest Cuneo and Ian Fleming became involved in the project. It was agreed that they would make a movie featuring Fleming's character, James Bond.

The first draft of the script was written by Cuneo. It was called Thunderball and it was sent to Fleming on 28th May. Fleming described it as "first class" with "just the right degree of fantasy". However, he suggested that it was unwise to target the Russians as villains because he thought it possible that the Cold War could be finished by the time the film had been completed. He suggested that Bond should confront SPECTRE, an acronym for the Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Revolution and Espionage. Fleming eventually expanded his observations into a 67-page film treatment. Kevin McClory now employed Jack Whittingham to write a script based on Fleming's ideas.

The Boy and the Bridge was a flop at the box-office and Bryce, on the recommendation of Ernest Cuneo, decided to pull-out of the James Bond film project. McClory refused to accept this decision and on 15th February, 1960, he submitted another version of the Thunderball script by Whittingham. Fleming read the script and incorporated some of the Whittingham's ideas, for example, the airborne hijack of the bomb, into the latest Bond book he was writing. When it was published in 1961, McClory claimed that he discovered eighteen instances where Fleming had drawn on the script to "build up the plot".

President John F. Kennedy was a fan of Fleming's books. In March 1961, Hugh Sidey, published an article in Life Magazine, on President Kennedy's top ten favourite books. It was a list designed to show that Kennedy was both well-read and in tune with popular taste. It included Fleming's From Russia With Love. Up until this time, Fleming's books had not sold well in the United States, but with Kennedy's endorsement, his publishers decided to mount a major advertising campaign to promote his books. By the end of the year Fleming had become the largest-selling thriller writer in the United States.

This publicity resulted in Fleming signed a film deal with the producers, Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, in June 1961. Dr No, starring Sean Connery, opened in the autumn of 1962 and was an immediate box-office success. As soon as it was released Kennedy demanded a showing in his private cinema in the White House.

Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham became angry at the success of the James Bond film and believed that Bryce, Ian Fleming and Ernest Cuneo had cheated them out of making a profit out of their proposed Thunderball film. The case appeared before the High Court on 20th November 1963. Three days into the case, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. McClory's solicitor, Peter Carter-Ruck, later recalled: "The hearing was unexpectedly and somewhat dramatically adjourned after leading counsel on both sides had seen the judge in his private rooms." Bryce agreed to pay the costs, and undisclosed damages. McClory was awarded all literary and film rights in the screenplay and Fleming was forced to acknowledge that his novel was "based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and the author."

Fleming encouraged Bryce to write his memoirs and gave him some advice on how to deal with the process.

"You will be constantly depressed by the progress of the opus and feel it is all nonsense and that nobody will be interested. Those are the moments when you must all the more obstinately stick to your schedule and do your daily stint... Never mind about the brilliant phrase or the golden word, once the typescript is there you can fiddle, correct and embellish as much as you please. So don't be depressed if the first draft seems a bit raw, all first drafts do. Try and remember the weather and smells and sensations and pile in every kind of contemporary detail. Don't let anyone see the manuscript until you are very well on with it and above all don't allow anything to interfere with your routine. Don't worry about what you put in, it can always be cut out on re-reading; it's the total recall that matters."

Bryce's autobiography, You Only Live Once, was published in 1975.

Ivar Bryce died in 1985.

Ivar Bryce
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2374542/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Trivia

His wife Jo had a mansion on the New York / Vermont border which is the setting for two of Ian Fleming's James Bond stories, "For Your Eyes Only" and The Spy Who Loved Me.

The Diamonds Are Forever James Bond novel is co-dedicated to Ivar Bryce (as "i.f.c.b") along with two other friends of Ian Fleming.

After Ian Fleming visited Jamaica in 1944 and decided he wanted to live there, Bryce home-hunted the island to find him a residence and discovered "Goldeneye" for him.

Ian Fleming named his James Bond character's CIA agent friend after Ivar Bryce's middle name, Felix. His surname was named after another of Fleming's friends, Tommy Leiter.

Is played by actor Patrick Ryecart in Goldeneye (1989).

Was involved in the early stages of the development of the James Bond movie Thunderball (1965).

He was married to A&P Supermarket heir Huntington Hartford's sister, Josephine Hartford. Huntington Hartford was the original owner and developer of Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

Bryce and Fleming leave court after settling with McClory.

2005: Miramax Books publishes Charlie Higson's Young Bond novel Silverfin. His first!

TEXT EXTRACT:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj0g-6P_633AhX5oHIEHUUwABoQFnoECAUQAQ&url=https://www.youngbond.com/wp-content/themes/youngbond/core/extracts/Young-Bond-Silverfin-extract.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1hxJPwYYHpe6X8M3uQjAfb

2017: Sadanoyama Shinmatsu dies at age 79--Tokyo, Japan.
(Born 18 February 1938--Nagasaki, Japan.)

Sadanoyama_Shinmatsu

See the complete article here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadanoyama_Shinmatsu

Sadanoyama celebrates his first tournament victory in May 1961

Personal information
Born Shinmatsu Sasada, February 18, 1938 - Nagasaki, Japan
Died April 27, 2017 (aged 79)
Height 1.82 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
Weight 129 kg (284 lb)

Career

Stable Dewanoumi
Record 591-251-61
Debut January, 1956
Highest rank Yokozuna (January, 1965)
Retired March, 1968
Championships 6 (Makuuchi)
Special Prizes Fighting Spirit, Outstanding Performance, Technique
Gold Stars 2 (Wakanohana I, Azumafuji)
* Up to date as of August 2012.

Sadanoyama Shinmatsu (佐田の山 晋松, born Shinmatsu Sasada, February 18, 1938 – April 27, 2017) was a former sumo wrestler from Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. He was the sport's 50th yokozuna. After his retirement he was the head coach of Dewanoumi stable and served as head of the Japan Sumo Association.

Career
Born in Arikawa, Minamimatsuura District, he made his professional debut in January 1956, and reached sekitori status four years later upon promotion to the jūryō division in March 1960. He made his top makuuchi division debut in January 1961. Sadanoyama won his first tournament title in only his third tournament in the top division, from the rank of maegashira 13. The achievement of winning a tournament from the maegashira ranks is sometimes seen as a jinx on subsequent success in sumo, but Sadanoyama disproved that theory by going on to reach ōzeki in March 1962 after winning his second title, and then yokozuna in January 1965 after capturing his third championship.

Sadanoyama's handprint on a Ryōgoku monument

He made a cameo appearance in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice, as himself.

Although more attention was focused on yokozuna Taihō and Kashiwado, with their rivalry referred to as the Hakuho era after a combination of their shikona, Sadanoyama in fact ended up winning more tournament championships than Kashiwado.

Sadanoyama announced his retirement suddenly in March 1968, despite having won the previous two tournaments, two days after a surprise loss to a new maegashira, the Hawaiian born Takamiyama. It has been suggested that the shock of losing to a foreigner may have prompted a premature retirement.

Retirement from sumo
Sadanoyama remained in the sumo world after his retirement, as an elder. Having married the daughter of the previous stable boss, former maegashira Dewanohana Kuniichi, he became head coach of the Dewanoumi stable. One of the most powerful heya in sumo, he produced a string of top division wrestlers, including Mienoumi, Dewanohana Yoshitaka, Washūyama, Ōnishiki, Ryōgoku, Oginishiki and Mainoumi. In February 1992 he became head of the Japan Sumo Association. He was chosen ahead of his contemporaries Taihō and Kashiwado partly because he was in better health than either of them. He changed his toshiyori name to Sakaigawa in 1996, handing over the Dewanoumi name and the day-to-day running of his stable to the former Washūyama. He did not run for re-election in 1998, after it became clear he lacked enough support, and was replaced by former ōzeki Yutakayama from the rival Tokitsukaze faction. He subsequently became head of the judging department, an unusual move for a former head of the Sumo Association. He stood down as an elder in 2003 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of sixty five.

Death
He died in a Tokyo hospital of pneumonia on April 27, 2017 at the age of 79.

Fighting style
Sadanoyama was known for employing pushing and thrusting techniques such as tsuppari (a series of rapid thrusts to the chest) and regularly won by such kimarite as oshi dashi (push out) and tsuki dashi (thrust out). However he was also good on the mawashi where he preferred a migi-yotsu (left hand outside, right hand inside) grip, and often won by yori kiri (force out) and uwatenage (overarm throw).

Career record
The Kyushu tournament was first held in 1957, and the Nagoya tournament in 1958.

Sadanoyama (1938–2017)

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1889384/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Trivia: A professional sumo wrestler, Sadanoyama was the 50th Yokozuna at the time of filming You Only Live Twice.

http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/topic/36512-dewanoumi-sakaigawa-rijicho-sadanoyama-passed-away/

2022: Kenneth Tsang Kong dies at age 86--Yau Tsim Mong District, Hong Kong, China.
(Born 2 September 1935--Shanghai, China. Also reported as 5 October 1934.)

Kenneth Tsang Dies: Golden Age Hong Kong Film Actor
Who Later Entered Hollywood Was 87

See the complete article here:

https://deadline.com/2022/04/kenneth-tsang-dead-hong-kong-film-actor-later-hollywood-was-87-obituary-1235011663/

By Bruce Haring | April 27, 2022 4:45pm | AP

Kenneth Tsang, who made his mark in Hong Kong’s golden age of film before coming to the US and scoring roles in several prominent movies, died at age 87 today. He was found after quarantining in a Hong Kong hotel after entering China from Singapore, per that country’s Covid-19 protocols.

Tsang’s talent manager confirmed his death. “I’m deeply saddened by the news and will miss his laughter and his friendship,” Tsang’s manager, Andrew Ooi, said in a statement.

“He was a pioneer and a legend of his time in the golden age of Hong Kong cinema, who broke boundaries with his fearless performances not only there but in Hollywood too. His legacy will live on in the movies he’s made and my heart goes out to his family in this difficult time.”

In addition to his Hong Kong films, Tsang appeared in Hollywood movies Rush Hour 2 (2001) and the James Bond movie Die Another Day (2002). He made his Hollywood debut in 1998’s The Replacement Killers,” directed by Antoine Fuqua.

Tsang won the Hong Kong Film Award for supporting actor in 2015. He was nominated for the same prize at the 2012 Hong Kong Film Awards for his performance in Overheard 2, which won him the supporting actor trophy at the 2012 China Film Media Awards.

Before his film career, Tsang graduated with a degree in architecture from UC Berkeley, according to the South China Morning Post. He also appeared in dozens of TV series, including The Greed of Man, starring Tsang as Lung family patriarch Sing-bong.

Tsang is survived by his wife of 28 years, Taiwanese film actor Chiao Chiao.
Must Read Stories

2023: Blackwell's offers Anthony Horowitz Bond novel With A Mind To Kill in paperback.

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/With-a-Mind-to-Kill-by-Anthony-Horowitz-author-Ian-Fleming-associated-with-work/9781529114928

RichardTheBruce

April 28th

1905: Charles Kenneth Gould (Charles K. Feldman) is born--New York City, New York.
(He dies 25 May 1968 at age 63--Los Angeles, California.)

Charles K. Feldman

See the complete article here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_K._Feldman

Charles K. Feldman (April 26, 1905 – May 25, 1968) was a Hollywood attorney, film producer and talent agent who founded the Famous Artists talent agency.

According to one obituary, Feldman disdained publicity. "Feldman was an enigma to Hollywood. No one knew what he was up to--from producing a film to packaging one for someone else."

Charles K. Feldman
Born Charles Kenneth Gould, April 26, 1905, New York City, U.S.
Died May 25, 1968 (aged 63), Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater University of Michigan
Occupation Producer and celebrity agent
Notable work: The Glass Menagerie; A Streetcar Named Desire; The Seven Year Itch
Spouse(s) Jean Howard (1935 m.–1947 div.); Clotilde Barot(April 1968 m.–death)

Early life
Charles Kenneth Gould was born to a Jewish family in New York City on April 26, 1905. His father was a diamond merchant who immigrated to New Jersey. Both of his parents, however, died of cancer and he was orphaned at age six, along with his five siblings. He was taken in by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Feldman at age seven. Feldman was from Bayonne, New Jersey and was a furniture-store owner. A few years later, the Feldmans moved permanently to California.

Career
Charles Feldman studied at the University of Michigan and later became a lawyer, earning his degree from the University of Southern California. He earned money to put himself through college by working as a mail carrier and a cameraman in a movie studio. He became a lawyer for talent agencies, and by age 30, he had become known as a Hollywood attorney; however, he became an agent instead.

Agent
In 1932, Feldman left his job as a lawyer and co-founded with Adeline Schulberg, the Schulberg-Feldman talent agency which was soon joined by Schulberg's brother Sam Jaffe and Noll Gurney.] In 1933, Schulberg left to form her own agency and the company was renamed the Famous Artists Agency. Feldman combined his background as a lawyer with his celebrity connections to help find and contract jobs. Among his first clients were Charles Boyer and Joan Bennett. Feldman's Famous Artists was bought by Ted Ashley's Ashley-Steiner agency in 1962 and renamed Ashley-Famous.

Feldman began using new tactics in his field. He would buy story ideas contract them to unemployed writers to make into a screenplay. He would also negotiate one-picture deals for a star, not a long-term studio contract, as was the custom. This way clients could work at multiple studios simultaneously. Feldman also combined several clients into one package and sold them to a producer or studio as one unit. Another tactic was the use of overlapping nonexclusive contracts with clients like Irene Dunne and Claudette Colbert, demonstrating flexible alternatives to the so-called iron-clad studio contract in the classical Hollywood era.

In 1942, Feldman was in charge of the Hollywood Victory Caravan for Army and Navy Relief. As an agent, he became friends with celebrities like Jack Warner, Sam Goldwyn, Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, and John Wayne, among others.

Packaging
In June 1942, Feldman signed Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott and John Wayne and presented them to Universal for Pittsburgh along with the script and director as a "package".

This idea was the beginning of Hollywood's "package deal." One of his greatest successes was The Bishop's Wife which was produced in 1948. He bought the rights to the book by Robert Nathan for $15,000 and sold the screen play for $200,000.

Feldman held considerable sway in the making of some films. It was Feldman who suggested to Jack Warner (as a friend) that he recut Howard Hawks's Big Sleep (1946) and add scenes to enhance Lauren Bacall's performance,[14] which he felt was more or less a "bit part" in the 1945 cut.

Charles K. Feldman Productions
He later produced his own movies instead of selling the screenplays[7] and created the Charles K. Feldman Productions in 1945.

In 1947, he announced a deal where his company would help make three films at Republic Pictures, Orson Welles's Macbeth (1948), Lewis Milestone's The Red Pony (1949) and Ben Hecht's The Shadow. At Republic he also helped produce Moonrise (1948). The Shadow was never produced.

This company produced A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) where Feldman had to fight to protect the script from censorship.

He later produced The Seven Year Itch (1955) It stars Marilyn Monroe of whom he was the agent from 1951 to 1955.

In 1956, he sold six books to 20th Century Fox including Heaven Knows Mr Allison, The Wayward Bus, Hilda Crane and Bernadine.

In 1960, Feldman acquired the film rights to Casino Royale following the death of Gregory Ratoff who purchased film rights to the property from Ian Fleming in 1955.

A 1967 profile on Feldman said "he still sounds much like an agent when he talks."

Personal life and death
In 1935 Feldman married actress Jean Howard. They fought frequently, and divorced in 1947; however, they remained good friends and even continued to share a house for some time. He also gave up gambling in 1947. Throughout his life, his biological siblings often sent him letters asking for money. Although he preferred to not have contact with them, he did send money and old clothes. He married Clotilde Barot on April 14, 1968 just six weeks before he died of pancreatic cancer. He died May 25, 1968, although no funeral was held for him. C. K. Feldman was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.

Filmography

The Lady Is Willing (1942) – producer
The Spoilers (1942) – executive producer
Pittsburgh (1942) – executive producer
Follow the Boys (1944) – producer
The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945) – executive producer
Red River (1948) – executive producer
Moonrise (1948) – producer
Orson Welles's Macbeth (1948) – executive producer
The Red Pony (1949) – executive producer
The Glass Menagerie (1950) – producer
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) which was nominated for an Academy Award – producer
The Seven Year Itch (1955) – producer
North to Alaska (1960) – producer
Walk on the Wild Side (1962) – producer
The 7th Dawn (1964) – producer
What's New Pussycat? (1965) – producer
The Group (1966) – executive producer
The Honey Pot (1967) – executive producer
Casino Royale (1967) – producer

Unmade Projects
Mr Shadow (1950) – about twin magicians
Once There Was a Russian (1956)
Cold Wind and the Warm (1958)
Mary Magdelene starring Capucine (1962)
Voyage Out, Voyage In from a story by Irwin Shaw (1962)
Fair Game (1962) from a story by Sam Locke
Eternal Fire (1965)
Lot's Wife (1965) from a script by I.A.L. Diamond starring Leslie Caron and Warren Beatty
Take the Money and Run – announced for Feldman in 1965 and was directed by Woody Allen after his death

Charles K. Feldman (1904–1968)

Producer | Miscellaneous Crew | Actor
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0271012/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2

1957: Publisher Rupert Hart-Davis repeats gossip criticizing the Fleming Effect.

Writers, Readers, and Reputations: Literary Life in Britain 1870-1918, Philip Waller, 2007.

Footnote 23 Margaret Lane, Edgar Wallace: The Biography of a Phenomenon (1938), 245-6, Cf. the publisher Rupert Hart-Davis reporting the gossip about Ian Fleming's James Bond stories on 28 April 1957;

'that when Ian Fleming mentions any particular food, clothing or cigarettes in his books, the makers reward him with presents in kind. "In fact", said my friend, "Ian's are only modern thrillers with built-in commercials" ' (Hart-Davis (ed.), Lyttelton Hart-Davis Letters, 290).

1967: Charles K. Feldman premieres Casino Royale in New York at the Capitol and Cinema I.

1987: Tonia Sotiropoulou is born--Athens, Greece.

1999: The Dean of Special Effects John Stears dies at age 64--Los Angeles, California.
(Born 25 August 1934--Uxbridge, Hillingdon, Middlesex, England.)

Obituary: John Stears

See the complete article here:

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-john-stears-1107368.html

Tom Vallance | Monday 19 July 1999 00:02

WINNER OF two Academy Awards, for his work on Thunderball and Star Wars, John Stears was one of the film industry's top men for special visual effects and many of his innovations are incorporated into the work of today's film-makers.

For the early James Bond films, he served as the real-life incarnation of the ingenious "Q", creating such gadgets and vehicles as the Aston Martin of Goldfinger which has been described as "the most famous car in the world". For Star Wars he worked with the production designer John Barry to conceive the unforgettable robots C3PO and R2-D2, and among his other memorable achievements were the flying car of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the model work for the British film about the Titanic, A Night to Remember, and the explosive demolition work in The Guns of Navarone.

Born in 1934, Stears studied at Harrow College of Art and Southall Technical School before working as a draughtsman with the Air Ministry. He served as a dispatch rider during his National Service, then joined a firm of architects where he was able to utilise his passion for model-making by constructing scale models of building projects for clients.

The firm also specialised in model aircraft, and when Rank's special effects expert Bill Warrington saw some of Stears's work he commissioned him to build model aircraft for Lewis Gilbert's screen version of the life of the pilot Douglas Bader, Reach for the Sky (1956).

Signed to a contract by the Rank Organisation, Stears worked with Warrington and Gilbert on three more true-life stories, creating model boats and planes for A Night to Remember (1958), in which Kenneth More, who had played Bader, was Second Officer Lightoller of the Titanic, Carve Her Name With Pride (1958), which starred Virginia McKenna as the British shop assistant Violette Szabo who became a resistance heroine, and Sink the Bismarck! (1960), with Kenneth More as an Admiralty captain intent on destroying Germany's prize battleship. Other Rank films included The One That Got Away (1957), Sea Fury (1958) and Gilbert's HMS Defiant (1962).

Having acquired a reputation impressive enough for him to freelance, Stears was hired to both build and destroy gun miniatures for J. Lee Thompson's exciting transcription of the Alistair MacLean adventure tale The Guns of Navarone (1961), then he created effects for two Disney films, In Search of the Castaways (1962) and the fantasy Three Lives of Thomasina (1962).

The producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman then asked Stears to work with them on a production which was to prove momentous in starting one of the most successful series in cinema history. It was the team's first adaptation of one of Ian Fleming's James Bond stories, Dr No (1962), and Stears's work on the film's finale, the destruction of Dr No's Jamaican hideout, still impresses today.

Aware of the importance of Stears's contribution to the film's success, Broccoli and Saltzman made him head of their special effects department for their next Bond production, From Russia With Love (1963), for which he both created and flew the first remote- controlled helicopter used in a film, and constructed the bizarre knife- toed boots for the Soviet spy Rosa Klebb. Still only 29 years old, Stears confessed later that he was having the time of his life and he described his job as "not really work but the chance to play . . . using other people's money!"

The next Bond film, Goldfinger (1964), included three of Stears's favourite creations, the lethal laser ray which nearly bisects Bond, the steel-rimmed bowler employed as a deadly frisbee by the villain Oddjob, and the famous Aston Martin. In the book, Fleming's hero drives a DB3, but Stears wanted to use the not yet available DB5, a sleekly photogenic model, and he persuaded the manufacturers to provide him with a prototype, which the effects wizard fitted with bullet-proof glass, a fog maker, revolving number plates, road slicker, machine guns and a passenger ejector seat. "I was never certain we would make the seat work," said Stears, "but in the end we did the stunt in one take."

The fourth Bond film Thunderball (1965) was one of the weaker dramatically but Stears did not disappoint, his effects including a rocket-firing motor cycle, an underwater flying saucer, large-scale models of a Vulcan bomber which he then sank in the waters of the Bahamas, and a life-size replica of the villain's yacht which he blew to pieces.

His work on the film brought him his first Oscar for Best Visual Effects. His old friend Lewis Gilbert directed the next Bond film, You Only Live Twice (1967), which included a flying machine that gobbles up a space capsule in outer space, after which Stears had a break from Bond when he worked on Broccoli's production Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) with its flying car.

If asked to pick a favourite Bond film, Stears used to say that the one he most enjoyed working on was On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), partly because he admired its star George Lazenby, who insisted on performing many of his own stunts. It was the start of a lifelong friendship between the two men, both mechanically minded motor bike enthusiasts. For the film, the most challenging moment came when Stears had to set off an avalanche on cue.

In 1970 Stears set up his own company, and worked on such films as Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man! (1973) and Douglas Hickox's Theatre of Blood (1973) in which a ham actor (Vincent Price) murders hostile critics by recreating death scenes from Shakespeare's plays. He returned to Bond for a final time to create effects including Scaramanga's flying car in The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), which featured Roger Moore as Bond.

In 1976 Stears had a call from George Lucas, who had been a great admirer of the Bond films and wanted to know if he was interested in creating mechanical and electrical effects for a film he had written, Star Wars. It was the opportunity to create things that had never been attempted before and Stears enthusiastically accepted.

The phenomenal hit that resulted brought Stears his second Oscar and featured such innovations as Luke Skywalker's Land-speeder, ostensibly a hover-car but actually a four-wheeled vehicle to which Stears had fitted mirrors angled to reflect the Tunisian desert and thus create the illusion that the craft was skimming over the ground. The Lightsabers, the Death Star with its threatening cannons, the robots both manually and remote- controlled, and the metallic suit for C3PO were other Stears creations, along with countless explosions, including the final destruction of the Death Star.

Stears worked again with the first Bond, Sean Connery, on Peter Hyams's Outland (1981), set on a 21st-century planet where space marshal Connery finds himself fighting a lone battle against wholesale corruption.

Subsequent films included The Bounty (1984), an intriguingly unconventional depiction of the famous mutiny, with Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson, and a thriller for which Stears was aptly called in as a special consultant since it featured a special effects expert as its hero, F/X: murder by illusion, in which Bryan Brown played an effects man hired to make a faked assassination appear real, only to find that he is himself the victim of a Mafia plot and has to bring all his ingenuity into play to defend himself. A modest success at the time of its release, it is now considered a cult movie.

In 1988 Stears hoped to produce a film but was unable to obtain sufficient financial backing, and in 1993, after producing effects for the Charlie Sheen vehicle Navy SEALS, he retired to California with his wife Brenda, whom he married in 1960, and two daughters. For most of his life he had lived on an estate in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, where he reared cattle and where his wife ran the Livy Borzoi Kennels, breeding Borzoi show dogs.

In California he continued to indulge his passion for building and flying model aircraft - his wife stated that at the time of his death there were a dozen aircraft in their garage, the latest a Fiat on which Stears had worked for three years and which had a 15-foot wing span. A supremely fit man until suffering a stroke two days before his death, he would ride his 1927 McEvoy motor bike, complete with sidecar built by himself, down to Malibu every Sunday along with his neighbour George Lazenby where they would join around 200 other bike enthusiasts at a beach-front cafe.

He returned to films with last year's The Mask of Zorro, staging the explosions for the film's early action sequences, but left midway through production after artistic disagreements, and at the time of his death was working on a screenplay set in the First World War and seen from the point of view of German aircraft designers.

John Stears, special effects designer: born 25 August 1934; married 1960 Brenda Livy (two daughters); died Malibu, California 28 April 1999.

John Stears (1934–1999)

Special Effects | Visual Effects | Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0824210/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

2005: The Irish Examiner reports James Bond film producers won't confirm Brosnan's return.

Bond bosses silent on Brosnan
return reports

See the complete article here:

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-30200073.html

Thu, 28 Apr, 2005

James Bond producers are refusing to confirm actress Judi Dench's claim that Pierce Brosnan will play 007 in Casino Royale despite being fired from the franchise.

Dench, who has played Bond's boss M in the last four films, insists fans shouldn't be expecting a new face, contradicting reports both Clive Owen and Daniel Craig are being secretly groomed as the next spy after bosses sacked Brosnan last year.

However, production company Eon are remaining tight-lipped about Dench's revelation. A spokesperson says: "No cast members, locations or release dates can be confirmed."

Dench was quoted as saying: "Despite the fact that everyone on the face of the earth has been tested as his (Brosnan) possible replacement, he'll be doing it again, and it'll be announced come summer."

2006: Casino Royale completes filming the torture scene.

2008: Quantum of Solace films the Tosca opera at Bregenz, Austria.

Peter Sidhom: Tosca - Bregenz Festival 2008 - Complete Performance (2:01:57)


QUANTUM OF SOLACE Clip - "Quantum Meeting At The Opera" (2008) (5:18)

2019: No Time To Die begins principle photography at Port Antonio, Jamaica, with director Cary Fukunaga, Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Ana de Armas, Naomie Harris, Lashana Lynch.

RichardTheBruce

April 29th

1917: Milton Rutherford Reid is born--Bombay, India.
(He dies 1987--Bangalore, Karnataka, India.)

THE LIFE CAREER AND DISAPPEARANCE OF MILTON REID

See complete article here:

http://theblackboxclub.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-life-career-and-of-disappearance.html

Sometimes you’ll be watching a film and a minor supporting player will suddenly appear and command your attention in a way that is more powerful and immediate than the leading actors. It could a physical gesture they make or a line of dialogue uttered in an unusual way or simply the look of their face or body or both. Milton Reid is one of those actors. His credit is likely to be down toward the bottom of the cast list with the designated role of “The Executioner” or “The Bodyguard” or “The Club Bouncer” or “The Big Pirate” but it’s his mug that will stick in your memory long after the film fades. He appears to be of Asian descent though one biographical reference intimated that his unusual features were the result of Turner syndrome which is incorrect because that rare genetic disorder only affects about 1 out of every 2,500 FEMALE births. But it’s possible that his exotic look was the result of something other than being the son of an Irish father and Indian (as in Bombay) mother.

Strangely enough, my introduction to this imposing character actor wasn’t in a movie but in a series of trading cards issued by Universal in 1963 known as “Spook Stories” which stuck silly captions on stills from the studio’s horror films (here’s a link to an article on Monster trading cards –There were two images of Mr. Reid from the 1962 Hammer film NIGHT CREATURES that conjured up all kinds of crazy scenarios in my mind of who this character was. (The original British title of NIGHT CREATURES was CAPTAIN CLEGG which was a remake of the 1937 British feature; Walt Disney remade it in 1963 for television where it was broadcast in three parts on “The Wonderful World of Disney” as “The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh” and Patrick McGoohan played “The Scarecrow” aka Dr. Syn.)

When I finally caught up with NIGHT CREATURES years later Mr. Reid does indeed pop out of the screen during his brief scenes as “The Mulatto,” a huge mountain of a man whose tongue is cut out because of his treachery to the pirate Captain Clegg. He is later used by the relentless Captain Collier (Patrick Allen) to sniff out the incognito Clegg who is behind a smuggling operation in the village of Dymchurch. The film is a rousing and highly atmospheric period thriller with some wonderful visuals (the appearance of the marsh phantoms), and spirited performances (Peter Cushing, Patrick Allen and Oliver Reed have fun with their roles). But Milton Reid’s larger than life presence is mesmerizing. He’s like a caged wild animal here, grunting, growling and desperate, and though his part is relatively small, it’s of crucial importance to the story and leads to Clegg’s undoing.

NIGHT CREATURES, however, is probably an exception to most of the films Reid made where his on-screen time was barely more than that of an extra. And he rarely had dialogue because with a face and body like that who needs it? But even in one scene appearances or minor supporting roles you couldn’t miss the guy. He stands out the way Tor Johnson does in the Ed Wood films. You can’t look at anything else. You might not have known his name but you’ve probably seen him many times – he was the Japanese executioner in THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND (1958), the big pirate in Walt Disney’s SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON (1960), a guard working for DR. NO (1962), the strong man in BERSERK! (1967), the mute dog handler in THE BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW (1971) which will be shown on TCM’s Underground franchise on 3/28, Biederbeck’s man servant in DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN (1972), he played Sabbala in THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT (1977) and Sandor in THE SPY WHO LOVED MEdr np (1977).

According to a biography for Reid posted on IMDB by Jim Marshall, Reid was born in Bombay, India in 1917. He moved to London in 1936, married fashion illustrator Bertha Lilian Guyett in 1939 and made his first film appearance in the British propaganda film THE WAY AHEAD in 1944. Then the bio gets extremely interesting: “After the war he trained as a wrestler, turning professional in 1952, firstly as a Tarzan-like character called Jungle Boy wearing leopard skin trunks. He also continued to play small parts in films, usually as a tough guy or bodyguard, often as a cruel henchman such as the Japanese executioner in THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND (1958). His break-through came in 1959 when he was required to shave his head for the role of Yen the pirate in FERRY TO HONG KONG. He remained shaven-headed for the rest of his career, also changing his wrestling image to that of “The Mighty Chang,” an oriental giant. On stage he played in pantomime at the London Palladium as the Slave of the Lamp…However, most people remember Milton Reid as the bodyguard sorting out pretty girls for his boss in a long-running pipe tobacco commercial. In 1964 Milton challenged “The Great Togo” (aka Harold Sakata) to a wrestling contest to decide who would play the coveted role of Odd-Job in G0LDFINGER. Unfortunately, Milton had already been killed off in the first Bond movie Dr No (1962), so the producers were forced to pick Sakata and the “eliminator contest” wasn’t needed.”

Reid’s film career began to wind down in the late seventies and some of his last roles were in such sleazy softcore features as CONFESSIONS FROM THE DAVID GALAXY AFFAIR (1979) and QUEEN OF THE BLUES (1979), his final credited screen appearance. According to a poster on the britmovie.co.uk forums, there is an article on Reid in the book KEEPING THE BRITISH END UP, a survey of British softcore sex comedies. However, Reid’s story becomes much more unusual after 1979. Jim Marshall’s IMDB bio states that “Milton decided to try his luck in “Bollywood” and in 1980 returned to India. However, various problems arose and in 1981 he was arrested by Indian police for “trespassing, damaging furniture and disconnecting a telephone.” The trouble started when he visited his mother and sister in Bangalore, and there was a dispute with tenants at his sister’s bungalow. Police also complained of violence and abuse when they tried to detain him, and there were accusations of a manservant being assaulted. The following year Milton was stated by some reference works to have died from a heart attack, but that was incorrect. The actor’s son (same name) was still receiving correspondence sent by his father from Bangalore up to December 1986. Significantly, nothing was heard after that date, and the present assumption is that Milton Reid died in obscurity somewhere in India during the early part of 1987, although no death certificate or confirmation has been received by the family. Sadly, Bertha died in England in 1997, at the age of 90, still not knowing what had become of her husband. However, research continues.”

Despite the above information, some internet biographical sources have maintained that Reid died of a heart attack in London in 1982 but offer no explanation or evidence of their research. Reid’s grandson, Ian Reid, in fact, has challenged this fact in a web posting that read “I would be very interested to find out where the information about his death came from as this does not agree with how my family and I believe his life came to an end. His death and the location of his death are in fact a mystery. Therefore I would be interested to hear about any proof that backs up the claim that he died in London of a heart attack in 1982.”

We may never know what happened to “The Mighty Chang” but at least we can marvel at his unique presence in more than fifty films.

IMAGES: Marcus Brooks

Filmography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Reid#Filmography
Undercover Girl (1958) - Mac, thug with beard
The Camp on Blood Island (1958) - Japanese Executioner (uncredited)
Blood of the Vampire (1958) - Executioner
Ferry to Hong Kong (1959) - Yen, Sing-Up's Partner

Swiss Family Robinson (1960) - Big Pirate
The Terror of the Tongs (1961) - Guardian (uncredited)
Visa to Canton (1961) - Bodyguard
The Wonders of Aladdin (1961) - Omar
Captain Clegg (1962) - Mulatto
Dr. No (1962) - Dr. No's Guard (uncredited)
Panic (1963) - Dan
55 Days at Peking (1963) - Boxer (uncredited)
The Ten Gladiators (1963) - Baldhead Wrestler
A Stitch in Time (1963) - The Mighty Chang in Photograph (uncredited)
Desperate Mission (1965) - To-go
Deadlier Than the Male (1967) - Chang
Casino Royale (1967) - Temple Guard (uncredited)
Berserk! (1967) - Strong Man
The Mini-Affair (1967) - Fisherman
Great Catherine (1968) - Henchman (uncredited)
The Assassination Bureau (1969) - Elevator victim Leonardi (uncredited)
Target: Harry (1969) - Kemal
The Best House in London (1969) - Henchman (uncredited)

Rekvijem (1970) - Officer
The Nameless Knight (1970) - Dev (uncredited)
The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) - Dog Handler (uncredited)
Carry on Henry (1971) - Executioner (uncredited)
The Horsemen (1971) - Aqqul (uncredited)
Au Pair Girls (1972) - The Guard
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) - Manservant - Cheng
The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) - Japanese Restaurant Owner
Adventures of a Private Eye (1978) - Bodyguard
Come Play with Me (1977) - Tough
The People That Time Forgot (1977) - Sabbala
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) - Sandor
No. 1 of the Secret Service (1977) - Eye Patch
Terror (1978) - Club Bouncer
What's Up Superdoc! (1978) - Louie
Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair (1979) - Eddie
Arabian Adventure (1979) - Jinnee
Queen of the Blues (1979) - Ricky
Arabian Knights (1979) - Servant

Westcountry Tales (1981) - The Monster
Mard (1985) - Villain (uncredited)
Kala Dhanda Goray Log (1986) - (final film role)

Milton Reid (I) (1917–1987)
Actor | Miscellaneous Crew

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0426363/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

1923: Irvin Kershner is born--Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
(He dies 27 November 2010--Los Angeles, California.)

Irvin Kershner obituary

See the complete article here:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/nov/29/irvin-kershner-obituary

Chosen to direct The Empire Strikes Back, he turned in one of the best sequels – and highest box-office earners – of all time
The Empire Strikes Back - Irvin Kershner

Irvin Kershner's The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/ Lucasfilm

Ronald Bergan | Mon 29 Nov 2010

The film director Irvin Kershner, who has died aged 87, was known in the trade as a hired gun. His most famous film, The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the fifth episode in the Star Wars saga, is most commonly linked to its executive producer, George Lucas. Never Say Never Again (1983) is celebrated as the film in which Sean Connery made his comeback as James Bond after 12 years away from the role, the director merely providing the vehicle. Kershner's first feature, Stakeout On Dope Street (1958), was made under the aegis of Roger Corman, who usually gained the main credit for the films he produced. Yet, eclectic as Kershner seemed, his best films reveal a visual flair, with an eye for the telling detail and a sympathy for the rebel.

The Philadelphia-born Kershner's background was in painting, photography and design. He took a degree at Temple University's Tyler School of Art in his home town. He studied painting under Hans Hoffman in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and photography at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. During the second world war, he served in the US air force as a flight engineer on B-24 bombers.

After the war, Kershner began his film career at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, teaching photography and taking film courses under Slavko Vorkapich, the great montage artist. Kershner next accepted a job as still photographer for the US state department in the Middle East, which eventually led to an assignment as a director and cinematographer of documentaries in Iran, Greece and Turkey with the United States Information Agency, including titles such as Malaria, Locust Plague and Childbirth. When he returned to the US, he worked as writer, director, cinematographer and editor on Confidential File (1953-55), a documentary television series that recreated the events behind contemporary news headlines.

Kershner on the set of RoboCop 2. Photograph: Deana Newcomb/AP

Kershner and his cameraman Haskell Wexler experimented with a mixture of cinéma vérité and narrative conventions in Stakeout On Dope Street, about a trio of youths who discover a cache of uncut heroin and try to sell it. Despite the heavy warning against the evils of drug peddling, the film, shot on location using handheld cameras and a cast of unknowns, was a lively feature debut.

Kershner followed it with another taut low-budget crime story, The Young Captives (1959), whose publicity shrieked "Teenage elopers' love turns to terror as they battle crazed killer!" The plot concerned a couple who pick up a psychopathic hitchhiker. The Hoodlum Priest (1961) was, despite its mildly provocative title, a mostly routine crime melodrama based on a true story about a Jesuit priest known for his work among ex-cons. Well photographed by Wexler, Kershner's restrained documentary approach counteracted Don Murray's movie-star good looks and the dollops of do-good philosophy.

Kershner's use of locations, such as a wintry Montreal in The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964), which starred Robert Shaw and Mary Ure as an Irish immigrant couple coping with unemployment and separation, and New York in A Fine Madness (1966), was particularly effective. In the latter, a sour screwball comedy, Sean Connery rants and raves as a radical poet, telling a group of women: "Open your corsets and bloom, let the metaphors creep above your knees."

Kershner continued to get fine performances from stars such as George C Scott, turning on the charm in The Flim-Flam Man (1967), and George Segal in Loving (1970), a touching and sharp drama of a commercial artist rebelling against the routine of marriage and career. In Up the Sandbox (1972), Barbra Streisand rebels against her domesticity by having garish fantasies, one involving seduction by Fidel Castro.

In 1970, Kershner was to have directed A Man Called Horse, about an Englishman captured and ultimately converted by the Sioux, but he was taken off the project, without even receiving credit for his work on the screenplay. However, he got to direct the sequel, The Return of a Man Called Horse (1976), which, while subtly avoiding the exploitative aspects of the original film, still has Richard Harris, in the title role, suspended by clamps to his pectoral muscles, in a 20-minute sequence. The film, which gets closer to the Native American experience than most previous attempts, also has one of the longest pre-credit sequences, lasting 17 minutes.

Subsequently, Kershner's films got flashier and more expensive. Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) was glossy gore, with Faye Dunaway as a chic New York photographer who is psychically linked to a murderer. When Lucas decided not to direct a sequel to Star Wars (1977) himself, he chose Kershner out of a possible 100 directors. He felt that Kershner, who had remained apart from the Hollywood system and was a student of Zen Buddhism, would appreciate the film's philosophical implications, and would be able to explore mythology and the subconscious fantasy life of children. Besides, Lucas thought The Return of a Man Called Horse was one of those rare sequels that was actually better than the first movie.

Kershner's contribution to The Empire Strikes Back was considerable. He spent several hours a day for a year storyboarding the action himself, getting his perspective on each scene. "According to the books, I didn't even exist," Kershner said. "Of course, I couldn't have made the movie without George; on the other hand, they couldn't have made that movie without me." The Empire Strikes Back, much darker and more realistic than the first Star Wars film, became one of the highest box-office earners ever, as well as being considered one of the best sequels. The same could not be said of the violent, humourless RoboCop 2 (1990).

"Kersh", as the tall, bald and goateed Kershner was known to his intimates, appeared in a number of his friends' films: as Zebedee in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and in a small role in Steven Seagal's On Deadly Ground (1994). In 1997, he produced an interesting independent film for a first-time British director, Paul Chart, called American Perfekt.

In his last years, Kershner lectured at universities across the US, and plannned a number of projects, few of which saw the light of day. "My career is a disaster," he remarked. "After The Empire Strikes Back, I got to make big films that I didn't care about, Never Say Never Again and RoboCop 2, and then I got too old. I love my early movies, but naturalism is an artist's early style. Now I want to deal with feelings, dreams, an acceptance of irrationality. I want films to haunt an audience, to give them something to remember and be able to talk about."

He is survived by his sons, Dana and David.

Irvin Kershner, film director; born 29 April 1923; died 29 November 2010

Irvin Kershner (1923–2010)

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0449984/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Director | Cinematographer | Actor

Filmography

Director (32 credits)
2011 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back: Deleted Scenes (Video short)
1993 SeaQuest 2032 (TV Series) (1 episode)
- To Be or Not to Be (1993)
1990 RoboCop 2

1989 Traveling Man (TV Movie)
1986 Amazing Stories (TV Series) (1 episode)
- Hell Toupee (1986)
1983 Never Say Never Again
1980 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (directed by)

1978 Eyes of Laura Mars
1976 Raid on Entebbe (TV Movie)
1976 The Return of a Man Called Horse
1974 S*P*Y*S
1972 Up the Sandbox
1970 Loving
1967 The Flim-Flam Man
1966 A Fine Madness
1964 The Luck of Ginger Coffey
1963 Face in the Rain
1963 Kraft Suspense Theatre (TV Series) (1 episode)
- The End of the World, Baby (1963)
1962-1963 Naked City (TV Series) (2 episodes)
1961 Ben Casey (TV Series) (1 episode)
1961 Cain's Hundred (TV Series) (1 episode)

1959-1961 The Rebel (TV Series) (35 episodes)
1961 The Hoodlum Priest
1960 The Yank (TV Movie)
1959 Philip Marlowe (TV Series) (1 episode)
- The Hunger (1959)
1959 The Young Captives
1958 Now Is Tomorrow (TV Movie)
1958 Stakeout on Dope Street
1953-1958 Confidential File (TV Series) (12 episodes)
1950 Childbirth (Documentary short)
1950 Locust Plague (Documentary short)
1950 Malaria (Documentary short)

Cinematographer (5 credits)
Actor (6 credits)
Editor (3 credits)
Producer (3 credits)
Writer (1 credit)
Editorial department (1 credit)
Additional Crew (1 credit)
Thanks (9 credits)
Self (38 credits)

1963: Agent 007... med rätt att döda (Agent 007 ... with the right to kill) released in Sweden.

1967: Bosley Crowther reviews Feldman's Casino Royale in The New York Times.

Screen: Population Explosion Victims: Secret Agents Abound in 'Casino
Royale ' Impesonators of Bond at Two Theaters

See the complete article here:

https://www.nytimes.com/1967/04/29/archives/screen-population-explosion-victimssecret-agents-abound-in-casino.html

By BOSLEY CROWTHER | APRIL 29, 1967

MORE of the talent agent than the
secret agent is flamboyantly evident
in Charles K. Feldman's "Casino
Royale," which opened at the
Capitol and Cinema I yesterday—and
that despite the fact that the
screen is crawling with secret
agents of all sexes and sorts. It is
absolutely teeming with wild
impersonators of James Bond,
ranging from David Niven to
Woody Allen and from Ursula
Andress to Deborah Kerr. It clatters
and bangs with 007's trying to pull
the all-time double-oh-cross on all
future aspirants to Bond-olatry. But
it is still the triumph of the talent
agent, which Mr. Feldman used to
be.That is because he has made it
on the premise that the more
writers and directors he could put to
work and the more actors he
could cram into his picture, the
more impressive, if not the better, it would be, and the more energy and
noise would be projected by the sheer human multiplicity. As a
consequence, he had twice as many writers working on the script as the
three that are named in the credits. He had six directors shooting
segments of it — and so conglomerate are their efforts that you have to
consult the program to tell where one left off and another began. And he
has a cast of so many, at least 14 of whom are ranking stars, that the
screen appears to be a demonstration of the population explosion at its
peak. Furthermore, since he wasn't paying (Columbia Pictures was), he
spared no expense in buying the most elaborate and fantastic sets and the
finest outdoor locations in London, Scotland and points east and
west to enclose his completely Brobdingnagian burlesque on the crazy
cult of Bond. You would think, with so much going for him, that he
would harvest a residue of fun—and he does, especially in the
beginning, when a quartet of representatives of Britain, the United
States, France and the Soviet Union call upon the aging Sir James Bond
to come out of retirement and help combat the growing power of
Smersh, which has been killing off secret agents more rapidly than the
automobile. It really gets off to a fast start as Sir James, whom David
Niven plays as though he were a clubmate of the latter-day urbane
Sherlock Holmes, goes to Scotland to see the widow of the untimely
murdered M, head of British Intelligence, and finds her running a
buzzing hive of female spies. With Miss Kerr playing this fuzzy lady and
Mr. Huston directing this phase (as well as playing M in the first scene),
it looks as though the film is grandly launched. And it continues to clip
along nicely as Peter Sellers, who is supposed to be the world's great
authority on baccarat, is recruited to simulate Bond and confront the
demon baccarat ace of the evil system, performed stupendously by
Orson Welles. The game between these two in the Casino Royale, which
is the only thing in the Ian Fleming novel of the same name translated
to the film, is a jolly tangle of two notoriously able scene-stealers.But all
of Mr. Feldman's scriptwriters and fortune tellers have so cluttered the
rest of the film with wild and haphazard injections of "in" jokes and
outlandish gags — such as having Joanna Pettet play the illegitimate
daughter of Mata Hari and Sir James, or Woody Allen come on as Sir
James's nephew, Jimmy Bond, for one of his interminable surrealistic
monologues—that it becomes repetitious and tedious. And since it's
based more on slapstick than wit, with Bond cliché piled upon cliché, it
tends to crumble and sprawl. It's the sort of reckless, disconnected
nonsense that could be telescoped or stopped at any point. If it were
stopped at the end of an hour and 40 minutes instead of at the end of 2
hours and 10 minutes, it might be a terminally satisfying entertainment
instead of the wearying one it is.

2008: Julie Ege dies at age 64--Oslo, Norway.
(Born 12 November 1943--Sandnes, Norway.)

Julie Ege: 'Sex Symbol of the 1970s'

See the complete article here:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/julie-ege-sex-symbol-of-the-1970s-820386.html

Saturday 3 May 2008

In the late Sixties and early Seventies, British cinema-goers, and British men in general, had a weakness for Scandinavian women. For a time, the Norwegian actress and model Julie Ege was as ubiquitous as Sweden's Britt Ekland.

In 1969, Ege's stunning looks caught the eye of the film producer Albert Broccoli, who cast her in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the only James Bond film to feature George Lazenby as the lead. In 1971, Ege was Voluptua to Frankie Howerd's Lurcio in the first Up Pompeii film, based on the titter-heavy sitcom of the same name. Having starred in Creatures the World Forgot, another Hammer "cave girl" film in the vein of the Raquel Welch vehicle One Million Years BC, Ege was touted as the "Sex Symbol of the 1970s" by Sir James Carreras, head of Hammer Film Productions, and his son Michael.

Despite further appearances in sci-fi and horror hokum like The Final Programme (1973), Craze, Dr of Evil (aka The Mutations) and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (all in 1974), she was typecast as a glamour girl, in comedies such as The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971) and Not Now Darling (1973), both with Leslie Phillips, as well as Percy's Progress (1974) and The Amorous Milkman (1975).

Born in Sandnes, on the south-west coast of Norway, in 1943, she was a bit of a tomboy but blossomed into a teenager obsessed with Hollywood stars. Spotted by local photographers, Ege appeared in advertisements for "anything from dresses to sardines", she later recalled. Following a short-lived marriage to a major in the Norwegian army, she moved to Oslo, won a beauty contest and took part in the Miss Universe pageant in Florida in 1962. She then remarried and undertook various modelling assignments, including an appearance in Penthouse magazine.

In 1967, she made her acting début playing a German masseuse in Stompa til Sjøs ("The Sky and the Ocean"), a low-budget Norwegian film, and also had an uncredited part in Robbery, a British gangster picture about the Great Train Robbery. She settled in London, registered with various model agencies, and sent her picture to Broccoli. The Bond producer signed Ege to play the Scandinavian Girl, one of the 10 women of different nationalities being brainwashed by Blofeld, the villain portrayed by Telly Savalas in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (the English Girl was played by Joanna Lumley). Ege spent nearly three months on location at Piz Gloria, the revolving restaurant on top of the Schilthorn in Switzerland, but was disappointed to see that, in the finished film, she only appeared on screen for a few moments.

In 1970, Ned Sherrin gave her a role opposite Marty Feldman in the comedy Every Home Should Have One. "It was my first real part with dialogue. They wanted me to look and sound like a Scandinavian nanny so I gave them just that. It was really difficult," Ege joked. She had spent time as an au pair in London in the early Sixties. "Once the film opened, all the newspapers carried a photo of me with the caption 'Every Home Should Have One'. I was famous overnight and was not prepared for all the decision-making so crucial at that moment," she admitted.

Ege's subsequent career moves bore out this claim. She turned down the chance to appear with Peter Sellers in the saucy comedy There's a Girl in My Soup and signed up with Hammer to do Creatures the World Forgot. The shooting on location in Africa turned out to be something of an ordeal for Ege who had recently given birth to her first daughter. "They made me wear this awful wig and my bikini was a far cry from the one Raquel Welch wore," she recalled. "I had dirt smeared all over me. My newborn child was back in England and after a few days I got homesick."

Ege then undertook a gruelling publicity schedule which included appearances on the Johnny Carson and David Frost chat-shows and a special edition of The Money Programme documenting the amount of money Hammer was investing in her. However, Creatures the World Forgot was slated by the critics and her career lost momentum after she passed on Hammer's Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde in 1972. "I was by then very reluctant about doing nudity," she said. "Many people think I did so much nudity in my films. I did a short scene in Every Home Should Have One, and two bathtub scenes in Not Now Darling and Mutations."

Ege was happier doing comedies, including playing "the sexy wife of a mad scientist" (Donald Sinden) in Rentadick (1972), even if the project went so awry that Graham Chapman and John Cleese, the film's original writers with John Fortune and John Wells, asked for their names to be removed from the credits. In 1972, she also had cameos in The Alf Garnett Saga and in Go For a Take with Reg Varney of On the Buses fame. "They needed a pretty girl with a good attitude to play these parts," she said. "It was all a laugh and I have never seen these films since."

In the Seventies, Ege lived for several years with the Beatles associate Tony Bramwell and recorded a version of "Love", a John Lennon composition originally featured on the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album in 1970. She subsequently went back to Norway and took up photography before training as a nurse in the Eighties. She was delighted when one of her patients presented her with a video copy of The Amorous Milkman.

Over the last decade, Ege was amazed by the renewed interest in her films. "There I was on the front cover of so many newspapers as the forgotten diva of British horror and comedy films," she said in 2004, two years after publishing her autobiography, Naken ("Naked"), in Norway. In 1999, she visited Britain and took part in a reunion of Hammer alumni. In 2005, she featured in the BBC documentary Crumpet! A Very British Sex Symbol, presented by the former Daily Sport editor Tony Livesey. "To be honest, I was never really that proud of my performance in films," she said, "but I gave it my best and enjoyed the work very much."

Pierre Perrone

Julie Ege, model, actress and nurse: born Sandnes, Norway 13 November 1943; twice married (two daughters); died Oslo 29 April 2008.

Filmography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Ege#Filmography
Robbery (1967) – Hostess (uncredited)
Stompa til Sjøs! (1967)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) – The Scandinavian girl

Every Home Should Have One (1970) – Inga Giltenburg
Up Pompeii (1971) – Voluptua
Creatures the World Forgot (1971) – Nala – The Girl
The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971) – Ingrid (segment "Gluttony")
Go for a Take (1972) – April
Rentadick (1972) – Utta Armitage
The Alf Garnett Saga (1972) – Herself
Not Now, Darling (1973) – Janie McMichael
Kanarifuglen (1973) – Kari, flyvertinne
The Final Programme (1973) – Miss Dazzle
Craze (1974) – Helena
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) – Vanessa Buren
Percy's Progress (1974) – Miss Hanson
Den siste Fleksnes (1974) – Herself
The Mutations (1974) – Hedi
Bortreist på ubestemt tid (1974) – Christina
The Amorous Milkman (1975) – Diana
De Dwaze Lotgevallen von Sherlock Jones (1975) – Sondag's secretaresse

Fengslende dager for Christina Berg (1988) – Krags hustru

Julie Ege (1943–2008)

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0250774/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Actress

2008: Quantum of Solace films the chase through the opera house at Bregenz, Austria.

2012: Skyfall stops filming the pre-titles sequence to allow principal cast and crew to attend a press conference at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul. (Then resumes the same day.)

2017: Robert Davi receives a lifetime achievement award at the 12th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival, St. Petersburg, Florida.

Robert Davi will be awarded
https://www.007travelers.com/uncategorized/robert-davi-will-be-awarded/

Robert Davi, best known for his role as Bond villain Franz Sanchez in "Licence to Kill" (1989), will be awarded lifetime achievement award today, 29th of April 2017 at 12th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, where his documentary, "Davi's Way" will be screened.

Source: Everything Sinatra (Facebook)

2021: Frank McRae dies at age 77--Santa Monica, California.
(Born 18 March 1941--Memphis, Tennessee.)

Frank McRae, Actor in ‘Licence to Kill’ and
‘Last Action Hero,’ Dies at 80

See the complete article here:

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/frank-mcrae-dead-actor-last-action-hero-1234967488/

Haley Bosselman

Courtesy of Universal/Everett Collection

Frank McRae, the actor who appeared in films such as “Licence to Kill” and “Last Action Hero,” has died. He was 80.

McRae died in Santa Monica, Calif. on April 29 as a result of a heart attack, his daughter-in-law confirmed to Variety.

The NFL player-turned-actor was born in Memphis, Tenn. A star athlete in high school, he went on to Tennessee State University as a double major in drama and history. McRae had a brief career as a professional football player and was the defensive tackle for the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams.

Making the pivot to a new kind of stage, McRae found his calling in the entertainment industry. In his 30-plus years as a character actor, he appeared in over 40 movies. Standing at approximately six-and-a-half feet tall, McRae took advantage of scooping up tough guy roles in movies like “Hard Times,” “Big Wednesday” and “F.I.S.T.” with Sylvester Stallone. McRae would go on to appear in three more films with Stallone in the ’70s and ’80s, including “Paradise Alley,” “Lock Up” and “Rocky II.”

In the 1973 gangster film “Dillinger,” McRae played Reed Youngblood, a grinning inmate who helps Warren Oates’ titular John Dillinger escape. According to IMDb, he got the role by standing in a production executive’s parking space until granted a meeting. McRae also appeared in the 1989 James Bond film “Licence to Kill” as Sharkey, a close friend of Bond (Timothy Dalton) and Felix Leiter (David Hedison).

Not to be tied down to just playing tough guys and authority figures — he played a police captain four separate times from 1982 to 1983 — McRae was also featured in comedies like “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “Batteries Not Included” and “Used Cars.” He even parodied his own role in “48 Hours” with a performance in 1993’s “Last Action Hero” alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger.

McRae is survived by his son Marcellus and his grandchildren Camden, Jensen and Holden. Donations in his memory can be made to Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an orphan elephant rescue and wildlife rehabilitation program in Kenya.

Frank McRae (I) (1941–2021)

Actor
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0574433/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

2021: An Instagram share of Quantum of Solace gunbarrel filming appears.

https://z-p42.www.instagram.com/p/COP8W7ZNS9F/

2024: New exhibition 007 Science - Inventing the World of James Bond at the Museum of Science+Technology Chicago, Illinois. Open since 7 March and until 27 October.

new exhibition
007 Science:
Inventing the World of James
Bond

https://www.msichicago.org/explore/whats-here/exhibits/007-science-inventing-the-world-of-james-bond/

now open
Museum hours Open tomorrow from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Access the adventure where science and imagination meet.

Explore the iconic cars, gadgets and props of the James Bond film series. 007 Science: Inventing the World of James Bond is the first-ever official exhibition to focus on the science and technology behind the world’s longest-running movie franchise.

Go behind the scenes to learn how the Bond production teams harness real-world science to craft 007’s on-screen adventures. See fantastical gadgets created for the Bond films alongside the real-life inventions they prefigured—see a prototype jetpack from “Thunderball” and the modern Gravity Industries Jet Suit.

You’ll also enter a lab space inspired by “Q”—the source of secret field technologies in the Bond movies—and test your abilities to design the perfect spy vehicle, dangle from a steel beam, and devise amazing stunts. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the science behind the tech and technique of the world’s most famous spy.

007 Science: Inventing the World of James Bond is open through October 27, 2024. It is not included in Museum Entry and requires an additional ticket.

RichardTheBruce

April 30th

1945: Adolph Hitler commits suicide in the Führerbunker using a gold-plated Walther PP handgun.

1963: From Russia With Love conducts nighttime filming at the Sehzade Mosque, Istanbul.
1964: De Rusia con amor released in Argentina.

1969: On Her Majesty's Secret Service films the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. James Bond in Estoril, Portugal.

https://www.facebook.com/JamesBond007/videos/on-her-majestys-secret-service/161619492444653/?locale=en_GB

1977: Steven Jay Rubin interviews screenwriter Richard Maibaum at Los Angeles, California.

Regarding the line of dialogue "This never happened to the other fellow", Maibaum says:

“It was the first time that we actually spoofed ourselves in the series. We decided this time that we would break the aesthetic distance for once. It was a different guy. We knew, and we knew the audience knew. So we decided, what the hell. Let’s have a little fun. And the audience laughed and accepted it, and they were pleased that we didn’t try some kind of phony B-picture thing to excuse the fact that we had a new James Bond.”

1988: Ana de Armas is born--Santa Cruz del Norte, Cuba.

2015: The BOND 24 production releases an on set photo of Dave Bautista as Hinx to the press.

RichardTheBruce

May 1st

1929: Frederick Allen Nutter (Rik Van Nutter) is born--Los Angeles, California.
(He dies 15 October 2005 at age 76--West Palm Beach, Florida.)

Rik Van Nutter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rik_Van_Nutter
Born: Frederick Allen Nutter - May 1, 1929 - Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died: October 15, 2005 (aged 76) - West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.

Nationality American
Years active 1959-1979
Spouse(s) Anita Ekberg (1963-1975)

Rik Van Nutter (May 1, 1929 – October 15, 2005) was an American actor who appeared in many minor films and the James Bond picture Thunderball.

Career

He is best known for playing the third version of Felix Leiter in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965). He also had a role alongside Peter Ustinov in Romanoff and Juliet (1968), and his later films included Foxbat (1977) with Henry Silva and Vonetta McGee and the Jim Brown WW2 adventure Pacific Inferno (1979).

Personal life
Van Nutter was married to film actress Anita Ekberg from 1963 until 1975. They lived in Spain and Switzerland and started a shipping business together.

Death
Van Nutter died on October 15, 2005 at the age of 76.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1959 Guardatele ma non toccatele Charlie
1959 Uncle Was a Vampire Victor Uncredited
1960 Space-Men Ray Peterson (IZ41)
1960 The Passionate Thief
1960 Some Like It Cold German Officer
1961 Romanoff and Juliet Freddie
1962 Tharus Son of Attila Oto
1965 The Revenge of Ivanhoe Ivanhoe
1965 Aventuras del Oeste Buffalo Bill Cody
1965 Thunderball Felix Leiter
1966 A Stroke of 1000 Millions Fraser
1967 Dynamite Joe Agent Joe Ford
1977 Foxbat Crays
1979 Pacific Inferno Dennis (final film role)

1945: Rita Coolidge is born--Lafayette, Tennessee.
1946: Joanna Lumley is born--Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir India.

1963: From a hospital bed in London Ian Fleming comments to wife Ann he is working on a children's book.

She replies: "Oh! those poor kids ...you'll frighten them to death with James Bond Jr.!"

1967: Roger Ebert reviews Casino Royale in The Chicago Sun-Times.

Casino Royale

See the complete article here:

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/casino-royale-1967

| Roger Ebert | May 1, 1967 | 7

Cast

Peter Sellers as Evelyn Tremble
Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd
David Niven as Sir James Bond
Joanna Fetter as Mata Bond
Orson Welles as Le Chiffre

Directed by

Ken Hughes
John Huston
Val Guest
Robert Parrish
Joe McGrath

Screenplay by

Wolf Mankowitz
John Law
Michael Sayers

Production: Famous Artists, Ltd.,
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Foreign
Rated NR | 131 minutes

At one time or another, "Casino Royale" undoubtedly had a shooting schedule, a script and a plot. If any one of the three ever turns up, it might be the making of a good movie.

In the meantime, the present version is a definitive example of what can happen when everybody working on a film goes simultaneously berserk.

Lines and scenes are improvised before our very eyes. Skillful cutting builds up the suspense between two parallel plots -- but, alas, the parallel plots never converge. No matter; they are forgotten, Visitors from Peter O'Toole to Jean-Paul Belmondo are pressed into service. Peter Sellers, free at last from every vestige of' discipline goes absolutely gaga,

This is possibly the most indulgent film ever made. Anything goes. Consistency and planning must have seemed the merest whimsy. One imagines the directors (there were five, all working independently) waking in the morning and wondering what they'd shoot today. How could they lose? They had bundles of money, because this film was blessed with the magic name of James Bond.

Perhaps that was the problem. When Charles Feldman bought the screen rights for "Casino Royale" from Ian Fleming back in 1953, nobody had heard of James Bond, or Sean Connery for that matter. But by the time Feldman got around to making the movie, Connery was firmly fixed in the public imagination as the redoubtable 007. What to do?

Feldman apparently decided to throw all sanity overboard instead of one Bond, he determined to have five or six. The senior Bond is Sir James Bond (David Niven). He is called out of retirement to meet a terrible threat by SMERSH.

Unfortunately, the threat is never explained. Other Bonds are created on the spot. Peter Sellers is the baccarat-playing Bond. He meets Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) in a baccarat game. Why? The movie doesn't say.

The five directors were given instructions given only for their own segments, according to the publicity, and none knew what the other four were doing. This is painfully apparent.

There are some nice touches, of course. Woody Allen rarely fails to be funny, and the massive presence of Welles makes one wish Le Chiffre had been handled seriously.

But the good things are lost, too often, in the frantic scurrying back and forth before the cameras. The steady hand of Terence Young, who made the original Bond films credible despite their gimmicks, is notably lacking here.

I suppose a film this chaotic was inevitable. There has been a blight of these unorganized comedies, usually featuring Sellers, Allen, and-or Jonathan Winters, in which the idea is to prove how zany and clever everyone is when he throws away the script and goes nuts in front of the camera.

In comedy, however, understatement is almost always better than excess.

Sellers was the funniest comedian in the movies when he was making those lightly directed low-budget pictures like "I'm All Right, Jack." Now he is simply self-infatuated and wearisome. And so are the movies he graces.

One wishes Charlie Feldman had sat down one bright morning, early in the history of this film, and announced that everyone simply had to get organized.

1971: Diamonds Are Forever films at the Techtronics Plant (Johns Manville Gypsum Plant).

1985: George Pravda dies at age 68--London, England.
(Born 19 June 1916--Prague, Czechia.)

George Pravda (1918–1985)
Actor

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0695590/

1987: This month Jonathan Cape publishes No Deals, Mr. Bond by John Gardner.

Between the Danish island of Bornholm and
the Baltic coast of East Germany a nuclear
submarine of the Royal Navy surfaces under
the cloak of darkness. James Bond and two
marines slip quietly from the forward hatch
into their powered inflatable and set off for a
lonely beach where they are to collect two
young women who have to get out in their
socks. Planed to seduce communist agents to
run for cover in the West, they have been
rumbled by the other side. Bond little knows
that this routine exercise is but the prelude to a
nerve-racking game of bluff and double-bluff,
played with consummate skill by his own chief
M against the East German HVA and the élite
branch of the KGB, formed out of Bond's old
adversary SMERSH.

Over a plain lunch in the sober dining room
in Blades, Bond learns of M's predicament. he
cannot tell the police what he knows about the
series of grisly murders of young women,
found with their tongues removed, which
occupy the day's headlines. Two of his
undercover 'plants' have gone; Bond must find
three others and conduct them to safety before
they meet a similar fate. The first he spirits
away from her Mayfair salon just as the next
strike is made, taking her with him to the Irish
Republic in pursuit of the second. But the
urbane HVA boss, Maxim Smolin, is ahead of
him this time, despite the astute ministrations
of the Irish police. The KGB is soon on the
scene, but nothing is at all what is seems, and
Bond finds he needs all his wits to negotiate the
labyrinth of double-crossing that is to lead him
to a bewildering showdown in a remote corner
of the Kowloon province of Hong Kong.

There, with only the trusted belt of secret
weapons specially devised by Q branch, he has
to fight a terrifying duel in the dark, with all
the cards in the hands of his opponents. No
Deals, Mister Bond is the sixth and by far the
best of John Gardner's OO7 adventures.

1992: Marvel Comics releases James Bond Jr. #5 Dance of the Toreadors.
Mario Capaldi, penciller. Dan Abnett, writer.

James Bond Jr. #5 Dance of the Toreadors

https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/7836929/james-bond-jr-5
Released May 1st, 1992 by Marvel Comics

S.C.U.M. plans to take control of a nuclear power plant in England and blackmail the country out of one million pounds. Based on the TV episode of the same title aired 11-05-91.

Creators
Dan Abnett, Writer
Mario Capaldi, Penciller
Bambos Georgiou, Inker
Euan Peters, Colorist
Stuart Bartlett, Letterer

James Bond Jr Episode 26 Dance of the Toreadors


Also in Swedish:

1993: Dark Horse Comics releases James Bond 007: A Silent Armageddon #2.
John M. Burns, artist. Simon Jowett, writer.

James Bond 007: A Silent Armageddon #2

https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/92-437/James-Bond-007-A-Silent-Armageddon-2

Omega, the most powerful computer in the world, is the prize coveted by agents of CERBERUS -- a prize they will kill to possess. With Omega under CERBERUS' control, they will have access and control of a worldwide communications system. What will Bond do to prevent this silent coup, especially when Omega seems to be evolving a consciousness of its own?

Creators
Writer: Simon Jowett
Artist: John M. Burns
Letterer: Ellie de Ville
Editor: Dick Hansom & Jerry Prosser
Cover Artist: John M. Burns
Genre: Action/Adventure
Publication Date: May 01, 1993
Format: FC

1995: Dark Horse Comics releases James Bond 007: Quasimodo Gambit #3.
Gary Caldwell, artist. Don McGregor, writer.

James Bond 007: Quasimodo Gambit #3

https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/92-472/James-Bond-007-Quasimodo-Gambit-3

It's the shortest day of the year in the heart of the Big Apple and, for some, the last day. Maximillian "Quasimodo" Steel has found The Truth and all who stand in his way are targets. Her Majesty's finest, James Bond, is ready to stop him any way possible, but there's a final wild card in this deck and no one may live to see the light of tomorrow!

Creators
Writer: Don McGregor
Artist: Gary Caldwell
Letterer: Elitta Fell
Editor: Edward Martin III & Robert Conte
Cover Artist: Christopher Moeller
Genre: Action/Adventure
Publication Date: May 01, 1995
Format: FC

2008: John Murray publishes Samantha Weinberg's The Moneypenny Diaries: The Final Fling.

2019: A rotating selection of new [Bond] works from The Playboy Paintings ends this date.

‘Bond, James Bond’

https://frameexpeditions.com/bondjamesbond
A rotating selection of new works from The Playboy Paintings. 25 April 2018 - 1 May 2019

Exhibitions

Meet the Artist Inspired by Vintage
James Bond Movie Posters

See the complete article here:

https://airows.com/creative/jarren-frame-artist-inspired-by-vintage-james-bond-movie-posters

Jared Paul Stern | Jun 4, 2019

Jarren Frame is one to watch. The young South African-born painter's first solo show in New York City – titled 'Bond, James Bond' – sold out thanks to subject matter we'd like to see more of in the art world.

Jarren Frame

Exhibited at a loft in Soho, the 'Playboy Paintings' as Frame refers to them consist of 33 acrylic on wood paintings featured the 'recontextualization' of vintage James Bond movie poster art of the sort seen in foreign countries, with an additional nod to the cool illustrations seen in Playboy in the 1960s and '70s.

Jarren Frame

Frame first got the idea for them during a trip to Sardinia, where scenes from the 1977 classic The Spy Who Loved Me starring Roger Moore and a certain Lotus Esprit Turbo was shot. With iconic 007 imagery in mind, he created large scale reinterpretations in his own signature style.

Jarren Frame

“What I sought to do with the Playboy Paintings was neutralize some of the shame around sex and masculinity," Frame says. “As an artist, I render myself vulnerable to the risk of showing my impulses and being a channel for what I feel is going on in society at that moment, liberating myself from any self-judgement in what I’m creating.”

Jarren Frame

"'Bond, James Bond’ was created on such an impulse," he adds, noting that the key elements he had in mind were "fun, sex and champagne." A perfect formula as far as we're concerned, and the fun element is certainly something the modern-day brooding Bond could do with a bit more of.

Jarren Frame

Some of the paintings from the Bond series were acquired by boldface names such as Alex Pall of The Chainsmokers, socialite heir Barron Hilton, hip hotelier Jason Pomeranc and nightclub impresario Jason Strauss, and Frame's work is currently featured in high profile spots such as the Faena Hotel Miami Beach, Casa Apicii and Casa Malca Tulum, The Gramercy Park Hotel, and The Bowery Hotel.

Jarren Frame

Having had his fill of Bond for now, Frame is currently working on an ambitious new series of paintings that aim to 'frame the human experience' through the deconstruction of portraiture and historical narrative into the abstraction of line graphs, inspired by the daily information and data overload we.

We realize these artist types have to follow their creative impulses and all, but here's hoping Frame will turn his hand to more Playboy-style paintings in the near future. Until then we're saving some wall space and working on our martini game.

Jared Paul Stern

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2023: Deadline for paper submissions to the James Bond Studies Conference, to be held June 30th-July 1st at the University of Roehampton, London, England.

James Bond Studies Conference, June 30th-July 1st
2023

See the complete article here:

https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/03/22/james-bond-studies-conference-june-30th-july-1st-2023

deadline for submissions: May 1, 2023
full name / name of organization:
International Journal of James Bond Studies, University of Roehampton
contact email:
[email protected]

Call for Papers: James Bond Studies Conference

30th June – 1st July 2023

University of Roehampton, London

In association with the Centre for Literature and Inclusion and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Roehampton, the International Journal of James Bond Studies will host a 2-day international conference on the University’s beautiful parkland campus in South West London.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the publication of Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, we invite submissions for panels and individual papers on any aspect of the James Bond phenomenon (Ian Fleming’s original novels and short stories; the James Bond continuation novels; the James Bond film franchise and related media, etc.), although we are especially interested in papers and/or panel presentations on the local-global relationship between Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and London (where many Bond films have been produced and filmed), cultural geography, and global cinema tourism.

Suggested topics may include (but are not limited to):

• James Bond and Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and London
• James Bond and tourism
• James Bond and internationalism
• James Bond, gender, and sexuality
• James Bond, race, and neocolonialism
• James Bond and environmental ethics
• James Bond and political morality
• James Bond and technocracy
• James Bond and #MeToo
• James Bond, “Brexit”, and right-wing nationalism
• The future of James Bond

Prospective contributors are invited to submit a 300-word abstract along with a brief bio note to Dr. Ian Kinane ([email protected]).

Submission Deadline: 1st May 2023. (Applicants can be assured that they will hear back in good time so as to facilitate travel planning etc.)

Following the conference, contributors will be invited to submit their papers to a special issue of the International Journal of James Bond Studies, pending peer review.

This event is open to academics, casual scholars, and fans alike; and you do not have to present in order to attend. Details of how to register will follow the publication of the conference programme.

Expressions of interest and queries can also be addressed to the above email.

RichardTheBruce

May 2nd

1932: Bruce Glover is born--Chicago, Illinois.

1966: 007 contra Goldfinger released in Uruguay.

1967: CTS Studios in Bayswater, London, records the title song "You Only Live Twice" with a 60 piece orchestra.

1996: Hodder & Stoughton publish COLD, the final Bond novel by John Gardner. [Retitled Cold Fall in the US.]

In this white-knuckle 007 thriller,
John Gardner leads master spy
James Bond on a four-year search
for terrorists in the skies - and into
a deadly nest of doomsday killers.

The night that Flight 229 is torn apart
at Washington's Dulles Airport, killing
all 435 passengers aboard, a mission
begins that will become an obsession
for James Bond.

Who is responsible for destroying the
aircraft? Was it a straightforward act
of terrorism against a British-owned
symbol? An assassination aimed at
only one person? A ruthless attempt
to put the airline out of business? For
Bond, only one of the victims matters:
Principessa Sukie Tempesta.

The search for Sukie's killers will
turn out to be the most complex and
demanding assignment of Bond's
career. Across continents and through
ever-changing labyrinths of evil, he
follows the traces of clues into the
centre of a fanatical society more
deadly than any terrorist army. Its
code name is COLD: the Children of
the Last Days. What he finds there
could very well spell his own last days.

Once again John Gardner has
propelled James Bond squarely into
the path of high adventure, danger
and non-stop excitement.

JOHN GARDNER was educated in
Berkshire and at St John's College,
Cambridge. He has had many
fascinating occupations and was,
variously, a Royal marine officer,
a stage magician, theater critic,
reviewer and journalist.

As well as his James Bond
novels, most recently GoldenEye
and SeaFire, Gardner's other fiction
includes the acclaimed Secret
Generations trilogy and, most
recently, Confessor.

2002: Hodder & Stoughton publish Raymond Benson's sixth and final Bond novel The Man With the Red Tattoo.

In Raymond Benson's gripping new
James Bond novel, Bond returns to
Japan to face the terrifying threat of a
deadly biological weapon.

When a British businessman and his
family are killed in Japan by a virulent
form of West Nile disease, James
Bond suspects a mass assassination.
Investigating with the help of beautiful
Japanese agent Reiko Tamura and
his old his old friend Tiger Tanaka, Bond
searches for the killers and the one
surviving daughter, Mayumi.

Bond's discoveries lead him to
believe that two powerful factions
controlled by the mysterious terrorist
Goro Yoshida are playing God.
Between them they have created the
perfect weapon, one small and
seemingly insignificant enough to
strike anywhere, unnoticed.

With an emergency G8 summit
meeting just days away, Bond has
his work cut out for him discovering
when - and how - the next attack
will occur. It's a race against time as
Bond controls both man and nature
in a desperate bid to stop the release
of a deadly virus that could destroy
the Western world.

Raymond Benson is the author of Zero
Minus Ten, The Facts of Death, High
Time to Kill, Doubleshot, Never Dream
of Dying, and the novelizations of the
films Tomorrow Never Dies and The
World Is Not Enough. His Bond short
stories have been published in Playboy
and TV Guide magazines. His first
book, The James Bond Bedside
Companion, were nominated for an
Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best
Biographical/Critical Work and is
considered by 007 fans to be a
definitive work on the world of James
Bond. A Director of The Ian Fleming
Foundation, he is married and has one
son and is based in the Chicago area.

Praise for Raymond Benson



'Welcome back, Mr Bond. We've been waiting for you . . . Benson has
gone back to Bondian basics in a fast-moving world of bedrooms,
firm breasts, betting and bruises.' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

'Spectacular chases, gory killings and a spot of sado-masochism . .
addicts of the genre will love it.' THE TIMES

2008: Original confirmed release date for BOND 22, back at an earlier time when negotiations pursued director Roger Mitchell.

2023: The Politics and Enduring Cultural Relevance of James Bond research project discussed at Solent University, Southampton, Hampshire, England.

The Politics and Enduring
Cultural Relevance of James
Bond

See the complete article here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-politics-and-enduring-cultural-relevance-of-james-bond-tickets-427176254677

Dr Claire Hines (UEA) discusses her latest research project titled The Politics and Enduring Cultural Relevance of the James Bond

When and where
Date and time
Tue, 2 May 2023 14:00 - 16:00 BST
Location
Solent University East Park Terrace Southampton SO14 0YN United Kingdom

RichardTheBruce

May 3rd

1972: Bruce Cabot dies at age 68--Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.
(Born 20 April 1904--Carlsbad, New Mexico.)

Bruce Cabot, Film Actor, Dies; Playes the Hero in 'King Kong'

See the complete article here:

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/05/04/archives/bruce-cabot-film-actor-dies-played-the-hero-in-king-kong.html

May 4, 1972

HOLLYWOOD, May 3 (AP)— Bruce Cabot, whose starring role in the 1933 screen classic “King Kong” was his best known part during four decades of acting, died today at the age of 67. He succumbed to lung cancer at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills.

Mr. Cabot played the young man who rescued Fay Wray from the clutches of the giant ape in “King Kong.” In the nineteen‐thirties and forties, the 6‐foot 2‐inch actor appeared in numerous films as a cowboy, tough guy or soldier of fortune.

The brown‐haired, blue‐eyed Mr. Cabot was seen with Errol Flynn, who became a close friend, in “Dodge City” and “The Bad Man of Brimstone.”

After World War II service in the Army Air Forces that took him to Africa, Sicily and Italy as an intelligence and operations officer, Mr. Cabot cut down on his movie‐making. He spent much time in Europe during the nineteen‐fifties, making films and living there.

Mr. Cabot was in several movies with his close friend, John Wayne. Among them were “The Green Berets” in 1968 and “Big Jake” in 1971. He also had a role in “Diamonds Are Forever,” also made last year.

The actor, whose real name was Jacques de Bujac, was born in Carlsbad, N. M. He was married and divorced twice, to Adrienne Ames and Francesca de Scaffa, both actresses. In recent years he had lived in Hollywood.

Tackled Many Jobs
Before Mr. Cabot entered the movies he had had a variety of jobs—hauling bleached bones of animals from prairies, working on tramp steamers and as a paper salesman, a printing salesman and a real‐estate man. He tried the cotton goods business and even essayed an unsuccessful film test.

At a Hollywood party—he had been working in a cafe— he met David O. Selznick, the producer, who offered him a screen test. Mr. Cabot said he had been on the stage and offered to do a scene from the play “Chicago.”

He had seen the play several times and had all but memorized one scene, which he proceeded to enact. He recalled later that the test was “rather awful,” but it led to a job in his first film, “Roadhouse Murder.”

The article as it originally appeared.
May 4, 1972, Page 48

Bruce Cabot (1904–1972)
Actor | Soundtrack

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0127677/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Sinners in Paradise

Fay Wray and Bruce Cabot



Mr. Franks' credit's good!


Deleted scene

1997: Tomorrow Never Dies films Bond meeting Wai Lin.

2001: Hodder & Stoughton publishes Raymond Benson's Never Dream of Dying in the UK. Cover by Steve Stone.

NEVER
DREAM OF
DYING

After a moment's silence came the voice. "Here we are
again, Mister Bond. We seem to meet under the most
unusual circumstances."

Bond shot toward the voice, but then he heard
Cesari laugh behind him. Bond twisted again and fired.
There was silence and then the voice came from yet
another place in the dark.

"You're in my habitat now, Mister Bond," Cesari
said. "You can't see a thing, can you?"

Bond could hear Cesari's voice moving. He fired the
gun into the darkness again, but the laugh came from
a different direction.

Then the club struck him hard on the right shoulder
blade.

:"Have you had any strange dreams lately, Mister
Bond" Cesari asked as Bond fell to the ground in
agony. "You know what they say . . . never dream of
dying. It just might come true."

In Raymond Benson's chilling new James Bond
novel, 007 comes face to face at last with the
most cunning criminal mastermind he has ever
fought--the blind genius behind the brutal
organisation called the Union.

It begins in a movie studio in Nice, where
a police raid goes horribly wrong, with inno-
cent men, women and even children killed. It
continues in an English prison, where a corpse
discloses an intriguing secret about the Union.
The trail leads James Bond to Paris, where
he meets the tantalizing movie star Tylyn
Mignonne and embarks on a voyage of sensu-
al discovery.

But Tylyn is in mortal danger. Her former
husband, a volatile French film producer, has
not forgiven his glamorous ex-wife for ending
their trouble marriage--and he is connected
to the Union's thugs.

Meanwhile Bond's friend Mathis, a French
agent, has disappeared while tracking down
the Union's mysterious leader, Le Gérant.
Bond search for Mathis takes him to a
thrilling underwater brush with death, a chase
through a Corsican wilderness, a surprise
encounter with an old friend--and a final con-
frontation with a twisted criminal genius.

Raymond Benson is the author of Doubleshot,
High Time to Kill, The Facts of Death, and Zero
Minus Ten, and the novelizations of the films
World Is Not Enough and Tomorrow Never
Dies. A Director of The Ian Fleming Foundation,
he lives and works in the Chicago area.

2006: MGM and EON grant Activision rights to James Bond video game license through 2014.

2014: BBC Radio 4 Saturday Drama airs an audio production of On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Saturday Drama

James Bond seems more interested in gambling at the Casino Royale than tracking down elusive SPECTRE chief Blofeld. Then he meets Tracy, emotionally disturbed daughter of mafia boss Draco.

Now he has a double motive: seek and destroy Blofeld, and prevent Tracy killing herself.

Impersonating a College of Arms official Bond infiltrates Blofeld's Swiss mountain-top lair. He learns that Blofeld and aide Irma Bunt are brainwashing young women. Why? Is biological warfare involved? Backed by 'M' and Draco, Bond mounts an air assault. But can he pin down monstrous Blofeld? And what will happen to Tracy?

Toby Stephens is on top form as 007. A stellar cast includes Joanna Lumley, Alfred Molina, Alex Jennings, Lisa Dillon, John Standing, Janie Dee, Lloyd Owen, Joanna Cassidy, Clare Dunne and Julian Sands, with Jarvis himself as the voice of Fleming.

Specially composed music: Mark Holden and Michael Lopez
Dramatised by Archie Scottney

Director: Martin Jarvis
Producer: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres Production for BBC Radio 4.

2015: 007: Licencia para matar re-released in Barcelona, Spain.
2016: Science Daily announces a new botanical subgenus named Jamesbondia.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160503072555.htm

https://phys.org/news/2016-05-jamesbondianew-group-caribbean-james-bond.html

2017: Daliah Lavi dies at age 74--Asheville, North Carolina.
(Born 12 October 1942--Shavei Tzion, Israel.)

Obituary: Daliah Lavi

Actress whose memorable turn in the spoofy 1967 Casino Royale belied a prodigious talent

Israeli actress, singer and model Daliah Lavi arrives at London Airport, UK, 15th November 1967.
(Photo by Michael Stroud/Daily Express/Getty Images)

She came on the wing of the 1960s spoof spy thrillers, providing the glamour for a genre that had little to do with MI5 or national security but won audiences with sheer escapism. With her smouldering eyes and raven hair, the actress Daliah Lavi, who has died aged 74, fitted the bill perfectly, not just because of her exotic beauty, but for her linguistic skills and a typically Israeli sense of irony, which should have won her more serious roles.

Some might describe her as Israel’s answer to Italian star Gina Lollobrigida, who was active in the same era, or a brunette Brigitte Bardot. The great fortune of Lavi’s life was to meet the American actor Kirk Douglas when she was 10, and he was in Israel filming The Juggler near the village of Shavi Zion, in pre-Mandatory Palestine, where she was born.

The daughter of Reuben and Ruth Lewinbuk, who came respectively from Russia and Germany, informed Douglas that she wanted to be a ballet dancer. The actor convinced her parents to send her to Stockholm to study ballet. Two years later, he arranged a scholarship for her, but, after three years at the ballet school, low blood pressure put paid to her potential dancing career.

Instead she turned to acting and began her career in serious foreign films — only later moving to the lighthearted turns which helped to make her name.

Lavi’s first film, in 1955, made while she was still a teenager, was a Swedish adaptation of August Strindberg’s novel, The People of Hemso, and the young actress, who was fluent in numerous languages, found that her linguistic skills won her parts in several European ventures. She starred in German, French, Italian and Spanish films (changing her name to Lavi while living in Paris) and in a forerunner of her later roles, also appeared as a femme fatale in Blazing Sand (1960), described as a “matza western” in which she peformed an exotic dance.

Vincente Minnelli’s Two Weeks in Another Town (1962) was her first American film and not only brought her to wider notice, but also won her a Golden Globe Award for most promising female newcomer. She starred in the film with George Hamilton, and it also reunited her with her early mentor and now co-star Kirk Douglas.

She was cast as the love interest opposite Peter O’Toole in Lord Jim (1965), based on Joseph Conrad’s novel and filmed in Cambodia and Malaysia. However, the film was not a huge success and within a year she was taking on less dramatic roles.

In 1966 she played a sexy double agent in The Silencers with Dean Martin and, in the same year, was a Russian princess in the British film parody The Spy with the Cold Nose.

But her place in cinematic history was assured the following year with her part as a secret agent in the James Bond spoof Casino Royale. She was part of an ensemble cast including David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Woody Allen and Orson Welles.

She was a mysterious woman who runs a gambling house in Nobody Runs Forever (1968) and was the villain, opposite Richard Johnson in Some Girls Do, the following year.

Her gothic horror film, The Whip and the Body, directed by Mario Bava and co-starring Christopher Lee as a sado-masochist aristocrat who seduces her won her some minor acclaim, and, after her last film, the western, Catlow in which she plays a Mexican rebuffed by Yul Brynner (1971) she left the world of film and rebranded herself as a singer, on the advice of Israeli actor Chaim Topol, who had persuaded her to record Hebrew songs for the BBC.

In an interview with the Boston Globe in 1964, just before the opening of Lord Jim, she admitted somewhat ruefully that her first love of dancing remained the pre-eminent one — the one, of course, for which Kirk Douglas had provided her ballet education.

Her new singing career in the ’70s was particularly successful in Germany where she was one of the most popular vocalists of her era. She made her greatest mark with Oh Wann Kommst Du? (When Will You Come? And Willst du mit Mir Gehen? (Will You Go With Me?)

Daliah Lavi’s three marriages, to John Sullivan, Peter Rittmaster and Gianfranco Piacentini ended in divorce. She is survived by her fourth husband, the businessman Charles Gans, whom she married in 1977, and their children Kathy, Rouben, Alexander and Stephen; grandchildren Sophie, Ben, Emma, Hannah and Levi; and sister Michal.

Daliah Lavi: born October 12, 1942. Died May 3, 2017

Daliah Lavi obituary

Glamorous film actor who made her name in spy spoofs of the
1960s

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/09/daliah-lavi-obituary
Ronald Bergan | Tue 9 May 2017 07.57 EDT

In the 1970s Daliah Lavi left the silver screen behind and started a new career as a singer. She was particularly popular in Germany. Photograph: Alamy

With the huge success of the James Bond film franchise, starting with Dr No in 1962, a plethora of spin-offs appeared throughout the 1960s. They followed the original recipe of exotic locales, an evil genius who wishes to take over the world, a laidback, oversexed super spy hero and a bevy of (mostly treacherous) beautiful women. Among the actors portraying the last of these was Daliah Lavi, who has died aged 74.

Almost all Lavi’s film career took place in that swinging decade during which she was most likely to be seen in miniskirt and kinky boots, or displaying her underwear. The multilingual Lavi (born in the British Mandate of Palestine) had already made several French, German, Italian and Hollywood films before she starred as a sexy double agent opposite Dean Martin in The Silencers (1966), the first of the “bosoms and bullets” Matt Helm series.

Continuing in the light-hearted parodic tone was The Spy With a Cold Nose (1966) – the title refers to a bulldog with a microphone implant – in which Lavi as a Russian princess slips into the bed of a British counterintelligence agent (Lionel Jeffries), something he has long dreamed of. Lavi, with her tongue firmly in her cheek, was one of the plethora of 007s in Casino Royale (1967) and, her dark hair in a high beehive, was an alluring and mysterious woman who runs a gambling house in London in the cold war thriller Nobody Runs Forever (1968). The run of spy spoofs ended with Some Girls Do (1969), in which she was a villain, opposing and attracting “Bulldog” Drummond (Richard Johnson).[/img]

Daliah Lavi with Dean Martin in The Silencers, 1966. Photograph: Alamy

She was born Daliah Lewinbuk in the village of Shavi Zion in what was to become Israel. Her Jewish parents, Reuben and Ruth, were Russian and German respectively. When Daliah was 10 years old, she met the Hollywood star Kirk Douglas, who was making The Juggler near the Lewinbuks’ village.

Discovering that she wanted to become a ballet dancer, Douglas arranged for her to get a scholarship to study ballet in Stockholm. However, after three years she was advised to give up dancing because of low blood pressure. It was then that she switched her ambitions to acting, making her first screen appearance while still a teenager in Arne Mattsson’s The People of Hemso (1955), a Swedish production based on the August Strindberg novel.

Daliah Lavi in The Spy With a Cold Nose, 1966. Photograph: Alamy

On her return to Israel, Lavi worked as a model and starred as a femme fatale in Blazing Sand (1960), a trashy “matzo western”, in which she does an exotic dance in a nightclub, a foretaste of her later roles in campy spy movies. Then moving to Paris, and changing her surname to Lavi, which means lioness in Hebrew, she won the part of Cunégonde in Candide (1960), an update to the second world war of Voltaire’s satirical novel.

She had an uncharacteristic part in Violent Summer (Un Soir Sur La Plage, 1961) as a girl found murdered on the beach after a fleeting sexual encounter. For her role as the beautiful Italian woman causing friction between a washed-up movie star (Douglas) and a temperamental newcomer (George Hamilton) in Vincente Minnelli’s Two Weeks in Another Town (1962) – shot in Italy – Lavi won a Golden Globes award as the most promising female newcomer. One of her rare straight dramatic roles was as a young woman who brings comfort to the complex eponymous hero (Peter O’Toole) in Lord Jim (1965), Richard Brooks’s sluggish epic based on Joseph Conrad’s novel, and shot in Cambodia and Malaysia.

Daliah Lavi and Peter O’Toole in Lord Jim, 1965. Photograph: Alamy

But she had made only a slight impression in the films that preceded the spy spoofs, the exception being The Whip and the Body (1963), a gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava, the father of the Italian giallo genre. One of the fetish set pieces takes place on a beach when the cruel aristocrat (Christopher Lee) horsewhips his brother’s bride (Lavi), before they engage in sado-masochistic love play.

Daliah Lavi performing one of her biggest German hits

After a turn as a furious Mexican woman scorned by an outlaw (Yul Brynner) in the mediocre western Catlow (1971), Lavi deserted the silver screen and began a whole new career as a singer. The Israeli actor Topol had persuaded Lavi to make recordings of Hebrew songs for the BBC in 1969. She soon became one of the most popular singers in Germany, her biggest hits being Oh Wann Kommst Du? (Oh, when will you come?) and Willst Du Mit Mir Gehen? (Do you want to go with me?).

She is survived by her fourth husband, the businessman Charles Gans, and their three sons and daughter.

• Daliah Lavi (Daliah Lewinbuk), actor and singer, born 12 October 1942; died 3 May 2017

Daliah Lavi (1942–2017)
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0492002/

Filmography

Actress (33 credits)

1997 Duell zu dritt (TV Series)
- Manöver des letzten Augenblicks (1997)
1991 Mrs. Harris und der Heiratsschwindler (TV Movie) - Jill Howard

1975 Hallo Peter (TV Series)
- Episode dated 28 September 1975 (1975)
1970-1973 Die Drehscheibe (TV Series) - Singer
- Episode dated 29 November 1973 (1973) ... Singer
- Episode dated 25 August 1971 (1971) ... Singer
- Episode dated 25 July 1971 (1971) ... Singer
- Episode dated 6 June 1971 (1971) ... Singer
- Episode dated 23 April 1971 (1971) ... Singer 7 episodes
1972 Sez Les (TV Series)
- Episode #5.3 (1972)
1971 Catlow - Rosita
1970 Schwarzer Peter (TV Series) - Singer
- Episode #1.2 (1970) ... Singer

1969 Some Girls Do - Helga
1968 The High Commissioner - Maria Cholon
1967 Those Fantastic Flying Fools - Madelaine
1967 Casino Royale - The Detainer (007)
1966 The Spy with a Cold Nose - Princess Natasha Romanova
1966 The Silencers - Tina
1965 Ten Little Indians - Ilona Bergen
1965 Shots in 3/4 Time - Irina Badoni
1965 La Celestina - The Girl
1965 They're Too Much - Lolita, Charly's Step-sister
1964 Cyrano et d'Artagnan - Marion de l'Orme (as Dalhia Lavi)
1964 Old Shatterhand - Paloma
1963 Das große Liebesspiel - Sekretärin
1963 The Whip and the Body - Nevenka
1963 The Demon - Purificata
1962 Black-White-Red Four Poster - Germaine
1962 Two Weeks in Another Town - Veronica (as Dahlia Lavi)
1961 Le jeu de la vérité - Gisèle Palerse
1961 The Return of Dr. Mabuse - Maria Sabrehm
1961 Le puits aux trois vérités (uncredited)
1961 No Time for Ecstasy - Nathalie Conrad
1961 Violent Summer - Marie
1960 Candide - Cunégonde (as Dahlia Lavi)
1960 Blazing Sand

1955 The People of Hemso - Professor's Daughter

Soundtrack (6 credits)

2014 Tito's Glasses (Documentary) (performer: "Willst Du mit mir geh'n")
2010 Cindy Does Not Love Me (performer: "Willst du mit mir geh'n" (Original: "Would you follow me"))
2002 Richtung Zukunft durch die Nacht (performer: "Oh, wann kommst du?")
1996 Tohuwabohu (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)
- Beweisstück 30 (1996) ... (performer: "Oh, wann kommst du?" - uncredited)
1973 Die Rudi Carrell Show (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)
- Messe (1973) ... (performer: "Wär' ich ein Buch", "Auf 'ner Messe als antik" - uncredited)
1971 V.I.P.-Schaukel (TV Series documentary) (performer - 1 episode)
- Episode #1.1 (1971) ... (performer: "Wer hat mein Lied so zerstört" - uncredited)

Thanks (1 credit)

2008 The Making of 'Casino Royale' (Video documentary) (special thanks)

The Silencers 1966

The Spy with the Cold Nose, 1966

Nobody Runs Forever, 1968

Some Girls Do, 1969

Casino Royale, 1967





Liebeslied Jener Sommernacht (Love song that summer night)


Daliah Lavi - Willst Du Mit Mir Geh'n (Do you want to go with me) 1991

2017: Dynamite Entertainment releases James Bond Black Box Part 3 - Death Mask.
Rapha Lobosco, artist. Benjamin Percy, writer.

JAMES BOND #3

https://www.dynamite.com/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?PRO=C72513025652203011
Cover A: Dominic Reardon
Cover B: Patrick Zircher
Cover C: Rapha Lobosco
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Art: Rapha Lobosco
Genre: Action/Adventure, Media Tie-In
Publication Date: May 2017
Format: Comic Book
Page Count: 32 Pages
ON SALE DATE: 5/3

Black Box Part 3: Death Mask
Saga Genji -- the tech mogul with Yakuza ties -- has dispatched the unforgettable henchman, No Name, to dispose of everyone's favorite secret agent. And James Bond doesn't know who to trust. A mysterious assassin seems to be helping him. Felix Leiter appears to be tailing him. 007 tries to stick to the shadows, but he'll be thrust into the spotlight at a deadly sumo tournament where the fight extends beyond the arena.

2017: Dynamite Entertainment releases James Bond Hammerhead as a special edition hardcover.
Luca Casalanguida, artist. Andy Diggle, writer. Francesco Francavilla, cover.

JAMES BOND: HAMMERHEAD HARDCOVER

https://www.dynamite.com/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?PRO=C1524103225
Cover: Francesco Francavilla
Writer: Andy Diggle
Art: Luca Casalanguida
Publication Date: May 2017
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 142+ pages
ON SALE DATE: 5/3

Bond is assigned to hunt down and eliminate Kraken, a radical anti-capitalist who has targeted Britain's newly-upgraded nuclear arsenal. But all is not as it seems. Hidden forces are plotting to rebuild the faded glory of the once-mighty British Empire, and retake by force what was consigned to history. 007 is a cog in their deadly machine - but is he an agent of change, or an agent of the status quo? Loyalties will be broken, allegiances challenged. But in an ever-changing world, there's one man you can rely on: Bond. James Bond.

RichardTheBruce

May 4th

1946: SMERSH, as named by Joseph Stalin for operations started in 1942, transfers duties to the KGB and ends its existence.

1960: Gautam Paul Bhattacharjee is born--Harrow, London, England.
(He dies 12 July 2013--Seaford, East Sussex, England.)

Paul Bhattacharjee obituary

See the complete article here:

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/jul/18/paul-bhattacharjee

Elegant and meticulous actor whose work ranged from
Shakespeare to EastEnders

Paul Bhattacharjee as Benedick with Meera Syal as Beatrice in the RSC's Much Ado About Nothing,
directed by Iqbal Khan, at Stratford last year. Photograph: Nigel Norrington

Paul Bhattacharjee (1960–2013)

Actor
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0080335/

1981: New York magazine reports that in the new John Gardner novels Bond drives a fuel-efficient Swedish auto.

New James Bond Isn't Fuelish

See the complete article here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=8eUCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq="ian+fleming"+"may+4"&source=bl&ots=HIygL9-nh2&sig=HrnYikwgmyzYk1YwjfeX_wzZr6M&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwik5-_a4-raAhWwd98KHYHZCh44HhDoAQg0MAI#v=onepage&q="ian fleming" "may 4"&f=false

Times change, and so do superagents. In a new series of James Bond books, 007 will forsake the British-made $109,000 Bentley that he drove in the Ian Fleming novels for a $19,000 "fuel-efficient" Swedish car.

A spokesman for John Gardner, the British novelist who's reviving Fleming's fictional hero, said Bond will now drive a Saab Turbo 900, "because this is the eighties, and it gets nineteen to a gallon to the Bentley's eleven".

Just so everyone gets the message, a Saab has been outfitted with those little 007 features--gun portholes and X-ray goggles for seeing in smoke--to ferry Gardner to a New York party this week to launch his first Bond book for publisher Richard Marek.

Still, Rolls-Royce, which makes the Bentley, is unimpressed.

"I knew Ian Fleming, and the James Bond he created was a chap who lived hard and played hard and didn't care about fuel economy said company official Dennis Miller-Williams.

And not forgotten.

2000: Hodder & Stoughton publish Raymond Benson's fourth Bond book Doubleshot.

Meeting your double
means certain death.

Is this bizarre warning the catalyst for
a series of unsettling events that could
push James Bond close to the edge of
. . . madness?

The intricately organized criminal
conspiracy called the Union was vowed
its revenge on the man who thwarted
its last coup. Now, the Union's
mysterious leader sets out to destroy
James Bond's reputation and sanity
by luring the agent into a dangerous
alliance of deceit and treason with
a Spanish militant intent on
reclaiming Gibraltar.

Officially on medical leave as a result
of a head injury sustained on his last
adventure, 007 ignores M's orders and
pursues clues that he believes might
lead him to the Union's inner circle.
His search takes him from the seedy
underbelly of London's Soho to the
souks of Tangier; from a terrorist
training camp in Morocco to a bullring
in Spain; and from the clutches of
a murderous Spanish beauty to a
volatile summit conference on the
Rock of Gibraltar.

Each step bring 007 closer to the truth
about the Union's elaborate, audacious
plot to destroy both SIS and its best
agent: James Bond.

Raymond Benson's gripping new
James Bond adventure is one of the
strangest - and most terrifying - the
agent has ever endured.

RAYMOND BENSON
is the author of HIGH TIME TO KILL,
THE FACTS OF DEATH, ZERO MINUS TEN,
and the novelizations of the films THE WORLD
IS NOT ENOUGH and TOMORROW NEVER DIES.
His Bond short stories have been published in
PLAYBOY and TV GUIDE magazines. His first
book, THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION,
was nominated for an Edgar Allen Poe Award
for Best Biographical/Critical work and is
considered by 007 fans to be a definitive work
on the world of James Bond. A Director of The
Ian Fleming Foundation, he is married and has
one son, and is based in the Chicago area.

P R A I S E _ F O R
RAYMOND BENSON

'Welcome back, Mr Bond. We've been waiting for you . . .
Benson has gone back to Bondian basics in a fast-moving
world or bedrooms, firm breasts, betting and bruises.'
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

'Spectacular chases, gory killings and a spot of
sado-masochism . . . addicts of the genre will love it.'
THE TIMES

2006: Craig Bond is shown in action for the first time in the teaser trailer.

2017: Doubleday publish a special hardcover edition of Red Nemesis (Young Bond #9) by Steve Cole. Published this date in paperback by Red Fox.

https://www.youngbond.com/meet-the-characters-from-red-nemesis-coming-soon/

2020: An interview reveals how Pierce Brosnan got that Aston Martin Vanquish from Die Another Day.

Aston Martin Didn’t Want to Let Pierce
Brosnan Keep the James Bond V12
Vanquish

See the complete article here:

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/aston-martin-didnt-want-to-let-pierce-brosnan-keep-the-james-bond-v12-vanquish-143214.html

4 May 2020, 4:45 UTC · by Elena Gorgan

Talk about a job with extra perks. Back in 2002, after Pierce Brosnan completed his fourth James Bond movie, Die Another Day, and was in the middle of the promo tour, word got out that he got to keep the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish that he’d driven in the film.

[James Bond's Aston Martin V12 Vanquish in Die Another Day]

It turns out, this wasn’t without a fight on the part of the actor. In a recent interview / livestream with Esquire from his Hawaii home, Pierce Brosnan revealed one unknown fact about how he became the owner of a brand new, custom-made Vanquish, after driving one as James Bond. The video is available in full at the bottom of the page.

He recalls how thrilled he was to visit Aston Martin and get to test drive the Vanquish, which marked the carmaker’s return to the 007 franchise after three movies in which Bond had only driven BMWs. Brosnan had assumed from the start that he would get to keep the car once shooting was completed, only to be told one day before the promo tour that it wouldn’t happen.

So he instructed his agent to let Aston Martin know that he “wouldn’t go anywhere near that car” at the next day’s press conference, where the Vanquish would be unveiled. Unless, of course, he was told (“in writing”) that he would get to keep the car.

Aston Martin relented and, three months after filming wrapped, a custom-made Vanquish showed up at Brosnan’s home. “There was no other car like it on the road,” the actor recalls with obvious melancholy. It did not come with any of the 007 gadgets, like the passenger ejector seat or the forward mounted machine shotguns with auto-aim assist, the grenades in the trunk or the rockets in the grille, and it certainly couldn’t turn invisible. But it was Brosnan’s and came with plaques that attested it.

The plaques are all that’s left of the beautiful car today. In 2015, a house fire at Brosnan’s Malibu home burned the Vanquish to a crisp, and all he has as a reminder today are the memories and the two plaques and eight bolts.

2023: Publisher Ian Fleming Publications publish On His Majesty's Secret Service by Charlie Higson. Royalties go to the National Literacy Trust, independent U.K. charity working giving disadvantaged children the literacy skills to succeed in life.

New James Bond Story ‘On His Majesty’s Secret
Service’ Commissioned to Celebrate King Charles’
Coronation
By Naman Ramachandran
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/james-bond-king-charles-coronation-on-his-majestys-secret-service-1235569901/

2024: The Fourth recalls Craig's presence.