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I think it's because both were quite striking looking. I just can't imagine Bond looking ordinary or quintessentially 'English' if that makes sense.
I must admit Craig does work for me sometimes, he feels right.
I don't picture anyone in particular. Although, I sort of imagine the book Bond as a cross between Ranulph Fiennes and the late Duke of Edinburgh; distinctly upper-class Englishmen (although much like Bond, the Duke wasn't actually English), but with a tougher edge, and an imposing, slightly intimidating presence.
Funnily enough, I was just watching an episode of the UK Crimewatch from the late-80s, and one of the police officers in the reconstruction looked exactly like Hoagy Carmichael.
The one I remember is him in Blades during MR and he imagines how the other patrons would see him. I think he acknowledges that there's something a bit alien and Un-English about him, especially with his tan from the previous book. Reed I can more easily imagine when Bond is being humorous (or let's be honest, a bit of a d*ck, especially when he's trying to wind up the villains) in Fleming, and Plummer when he has to be a bit colder.
Yeah, I know what you mean, it does seem a bit of a cheat. Especially when, I'd say, it kind of doesn't really matter exactly how they look.
Didn't Dan Brown famously write that Robert Langdon looks like Harrison Ford? I've never read any of those, but that does seem kind of laughable.
That's great: I'm pretty sure Ranulph Fiennes was actually approached to play Bond, wasn't he? Despite not being an actor!
EDIT: Just had a search and here's what he said about it in Reader's Digest:
Describing how he had been living with his wife Ginny, a childhood sweetheart, in Scotland at the time, where he had found work “adventure training”, teaching soldiers “how to canoe and climb to stop them beating each other up in the canteen when they were bored”.
He said: “One day a person delivered a note from the William Morris Actors Agency, which said that Cubby Broccoli—who made the Bond films—was fed up with George Lazenby because he was asking for too much.
“Broccoli decided he’d find somebody who did Bond-type things and train that person to be an actor.
“They approached about 200 of us from all over the place.
“I auditioned because it allowed me to have a free rail ticket from Inverness to London, which I wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise.
“This enabled me to go to the Ministry of Defence, where they were looking for an ex-officer to lead an expedition in Canada with the BBC covering it.”
Despite the ruse, he did not get out of auditioning, writing in his autobiography that filmmakers were seeking a man to “shoot rapids, climb drainpipes, parachute, kill people...you know.”
“For some reason—God knows why—I got into the last six,” Sir Ranulph told the magazine. “Having practised Shakespeare the night before, I got into the room where Cubby Broccoli was smoking a cigar, with director Guy Hamilton just over his shoulder.
“Broccoli took one look at me and said to Hamilton, ‘This one looks like a farmer. Look at his hands.’
“Even though I had proper fingers in those days, they apparently weren’t what they were after.
“Still, I got the expedition and we never looked back.”
Yeah it's funny, arguably the character he plays in the movies isn't quite Fleming's Bond, but there's something about the no-nonsense attitude and sort of stillness that works for the book character I think.
Yeah I can definitely see something of Reed's dry swagger in there!
I think Lazenby's physique is probably the one I picture when I think of Bond; according to Fleming is 6' or 6'1 and ranges from 76-80 kg so he's quite slim and light weight but also is described as muscular and sinewy.
I mean, character descriptions are certainly important (or at least, not unimportant), and I otherwise like the way Fleming describes Bond's appearance; cold blue-grey eyes, cruel mouth, etc. It paints a very evocative picture of the man and how he comes across. But I think 'evocative' is the key word. Evocative, rather than precise. What a 'cruel mouth', actually looks like, is left to the imagination.
Yes, it was during that strange period after Connery left. They seemed to be looking at various non-actors who lived vaguely Bond-like lifestyles. I believe Lord Lucan was also interviewed around the same time.
I think, at one point, they even put an ad in army journals, asking ex-servicemen to audition, but they had to pull it due to actor's union rules.
I know what you mean. And Ian was often envious of his brother and his adventurous exploits, so it makes sense that his characteristics would go into his own fantasy creation. Personally, I don't think Peter looked that much like Carmichael, but if that's the reason Ian made reference to him, then I'll take it.
EDIT:
I just found this Fleming quote from an interview he gave about a year before his death:
"I quite deliberately made him rather anonymous. This was to enable the reader to identify with him. People have only to put their own clothes on Bond and build him into whatever sort of person they admire. If you read my books you'll find that I don't actually describe him at all."
While that last bit obviously isn't true (or we wouldn't be having this discussion), it certainly gives insight into how Fleming viewed Bond's physical appearance in the later years; less clearly defined, more open to interpretation.
I'm taking a wild guess here: Ian Fleming wouldn't go for too famous, for fear of having Bond obscured by his star lookalike. Hoagie Carmichael was fairly famous, but not a big star, so readers could refer to him to have an image of Bond, but not much more. Also, giving your fictitious character the look of someone famous comes off as what we'd call today fan fiction.
Good point. That hadn't occurred to me.
Thanks.
I got this theory because James Grady once said that the casting of Robert Redford as Condor and the subsequent success of the movie completely derailed his plans of writing a series. And this was mere happenstance. And describing a character like a celebrity in a story almost always comes off as amateurish. Unless it's a plot point.
To prove my point here is what ChatGPT said about why Fleming chose Hoagy to be the celebrity to closely resemble James Bond.
By the early 1950s, Hoagy Carmichael was a well-known celebrity, especially in the English-speaking world. He was a successful composer, pianist, singer, and occasional actor — famous for writing timeless standards like “Stardust,” “Georgia on My Mind,” and “Heart and Soul.” His face was familiar from film roles too, often playing the easygoing piano player in movies like To Have and Have Not (1944) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
By the time Ian Fleming wrote Casino Royale (1953), Carmichael represented a kind of understated, intelligent charm good-looking in a subtle, relaxed way rather than glamorous. Fleming likely wasn’t saying Bond was a musician type, but rather that he had that same lean, composed, slightly rugged elegance Carmichael carried naturally.
So yes readers in 1953 would have recognized the name immediately. Carmichael was still prominent on radio, television, and in music, even if his peak songwriting fame had been a decade earlier. Fleming’s comparison would’ve evoked someone quietly attractive, mature, and distinctly civilized a contrast to the flashier cinematic heroes of the time.
I didn't fact check the roles that it mentions he played. But I do recall him writing Georgia on my mind.
That description of Bond found its way in Mafia Fix, one of the earlier Sapir and Murphy Destroyer novels. The british secret agent wasn't named, but his looking like Hoagy Carmichel was mentioned.
As far as I can tell it is. I wonder if Felix was in any early story drafts instead of Chuck Lee.
Chuck Lee sadly one of the most un-developed sacrificial lambs a shame too right after Vijay who was a strong one. Though I suppose Tibbet plays the part of the true sacrificial lamb in the film.
Wait, is AVTAK the only one where we have two people die so that James Bond may continue his mission?
I was so disappointed watching that on Blu Ray for the first time: it always looked great, and now suddenly in HD it's really clearly a camera being wobbled in front of a (very good) painting :D
I'm looking forward to the 4K remasters: there's a weird digital artefact halo around the helicopter as it flies along, plus of course Holly's missing diary dart.
I don't know if it's the only one, but it's certainly a little repetitive to have it in the same film, yeah. Especially as they both die the same way!