The James Bond spy series is one of the longest running and most successful in the history of cinema. The next Bond movie is called 007: Spectrum, and its premiere took place on October 26 this year in London. Such a significant event prompted us to the topic for another collection of facts.

Ian Fleming - head of the secret division

The author of a series of adventure novels about James Bond, which later formed the basis of movies, is Ian Fleming. Unlike many other authors who come up with their stories in the quiet of cozy offices and never held anything but a pen in their hands, he was perfectly familiar with all the intricacies of the work of secret agents. During the Second World War, Ian Fleming was the head of No.30 Commando, a special unit of the British commandos. It was created to conduct special reconnaissance operations behind enemy lines and on the front line, such as capturing military maps, samples of advanced German military equipment, as well as German military specialists and scientists.

Odessa became the prototype of James Bond

As a prototype of James Bond, several scouts acted at once, whose biographies and activities were known to Fleming on duty. But most often, among others, researchers name the name of Sidney Reilly, the famous British spy who operated in Russia and the Middle East in the 1910s and 1920s. This personality is completely mysterious, surrounded by secrets, adventures and adventures. Interestingly, Reilly was actually born in 1873 in Odessa under the name of Solomon Rosenblum.

The most boring name in the world

According to the memoirs of the author, he wanted to give his hero the most boring and inconspicuous name. Somehow, he came across a book by the ornithologist James Bond, standing on a shelf in his office, and he realized that this was exactly what he needed. The scientist James Bond was subsequently very dissatisfied with the super-popularity of his namesake, the literary hero, and in February 1964 he decided to express this to Ian Fleming personally. However, the conflict was settled, and the ornithologist received a new Bond novel with the dedication "To the real James Bond from the thief of his identity" (to the real James Bond from the kidnapper of his identity) as compensation.

Agent 007

Everyone knows that James Bond is agent 007. But why such a number? According to one version, this figure was borrowed by the author from the English spy John Dee, who signed his secret reports with a badge depicting two circles and an angle bracket similar to the number seven. This meant that the information was intended solely for the eyes of his royal majesty.

Some statistics

Films about James Bond are inconceivable without shooting, chases and beautiful women. Fans of numbers calculated that for all the time the on-screen hero killed 352 people and fired 4,662 shots. Not very good performance. But with the ladies, James Bond is more skillful: he managed to sleep with 52 women in 22 films. I wonder if the released "007: Spectrum" will make changes to these statistics?

Weapon

Ian Fleming armed his literary hero with a 1931 Walther PPK pistol. However, when making the film in 1963, the producers thought that on the poster, this model in the hands of Sean Connery (Sean Connery) does not look impressive enough. Then a pneumatic Walther Luftpistole 53 was purchased in a nearby store, which looks solid, but shoots at a dozen meters. This mistake subsequently greatly amused all connoisseurs and lovers of weapons. And the same toy gun was sold in 2010 at a Christis auction for 277,000 pounds.

Place of work

All connoisseurs of films about James Bond are well aware that he works in the British secret intelligence service MI-6 (Military Intelligence, MI6). Interestingly, until 1994, this foreign intelligence unit had no legal basis, and its existence was strongly denied by the British government.

Are you going to the premiere of the new James Bond movie?

October marked the 50th anniversary of the premiere of the first James Bond film, Dr. No, starring Sean Connery. In October, the world premiere of the 23rd film "007 coordinates of Skyfall" took place. Starring Daniel Craig.

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We know a lot about James Bond. But not all. Because its creator, the writer Ian Fleming, did not bother to present at least a somewhat coherent biography of his hero. The mystery of the origin, childhood and adolescence of agent 007 was later solved by numerous Bondovists. Here's what they got.

Where exactly he was born is unknown, but the Bondovists figured out who his parents were. Father - Andrew Bond, a Scot, mother - Monique Delacroix, a Swiss by birth. The father of our hero worked in a large arms company, the family traveled a lot around the world, so already in childhood, James Bond spoke fluent German and French. When the boy was eleven, his parents, avid climbers, died while climbing one of the Alpine peaks. James was sent to live with his aunt in the country. And at the age of thirteen he went to college at Eton University, from where he was expelled two years later "due to trouble with the maid": our urchin ripened early. After that, James Bond studied in Edinburgh and at the University of Geneva. In 1941, attributing a couple of years to himself, James Bond volunteered for the front. He served in the Royal Navy, from where he retired at the end of the Second World War with the rank of commander, which in our Navy corresponds to the rank of captain of the 2nd rank. At the same time, his spy career began.

Note that James is not a military man, but a civilian employee of the spy agency - the Secret Intelligence Service, or, as it is often called, MI6. Therefore, he is rather cheeky in dealing with superiors and often "decides things" at his own discretion. Because of what the authorities constantly scold him. By the way, until 1994, this same SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) had no legal basis in the United Kingdom, and its very existence was not confirmed by the government. So the liberties that James Bond allowed could not have any serious consequences for him: the bureaucrats, whom Bond dislikes with passion, simply did not have leverage over him. As for his immediate boss M (who was made a woman in the last seven films in the spirit of politically correct time - this role is played by actress Judi Dench), he simply has a weakness for Bond: well done, damn it!

And not only well done, but damn good-looking. Judging by various sources, he is now slightly above average in height - eighty-three meters, in excellent physical shape, of course - weighs 76 kilograms, despite his love for strong men's drinks (bondists have calculated that our hero takes one alcoholic drink for every seven pages of books written about him) and a passion for smoking. True, in recent films, James Bond, following the dictates of the century, does not smoke, and he practically refused alcohol.

But as for the face, opinions differ on this: its features have undergone significant changes from Sean Connery's Bond No. 1 to Daniel Craig's Bond No. 6. But, by the way, Ian Fleming himself in his books gave clear indications of how his hero looks like - he looks like ... the American composer Hoagy Carmichael.

Does this name mean anything to you? And it should! After all, it was Carmichael who wrote the four most famous American pop songs of the 20th century. At least four songs that have been recorded most frequently by different artists. These are Stardust, Georgia On My Mind, The Nearness Of You and Heart And Soul. They were performed, among others, by Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole. Alisha Keys, Lil Wayne, Norah Jones, Keith Richards and many, many others continue to sing them.

Hoagy Carmichael had a narrow face with a large nose, dark hair with an unruly curl that kept falling over his forehead. The gray eyes are the same as those of Bond, but if the composer's gaze, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, was kind, then steel is seen in the gaze of agent 007, and his mouth is twisted with a contemptuous grin. And on the right cheek of Bond there is a scar, one of those that adorn a man.

As for the female sex, James Bond ... What can I say! In promiscuous relationships, as seen!

However, few people know that James Bond was married, and even twice. The first time was on Countess Teresa de Vicenzo (in the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, 1969, she was played by actress Diana Rigg). The marriage did not last even a day: immediately after the wedding, the villains kill the newly minted Mrs. Bond. For the second time, Bond had to marry US Internal Revenue Service agent Harriet Horner in the 1988 novel Scorpion, written by John Gardner, the "official successor" of Fleming's case (the book has been translated into Russian, but there is no film based on its plot yet). But this marriage did not last long, for Mrs. Bond No. 2 was obligingly bitten by a moccasin snake.

Our hero had an illegitimate son, James Suzuki Bond, whose mother, Japanese Kissy Suzuki, was the "Bond Girl" in the 1964 film You Only Live Twice (played by Japanese actress Mii Hama). The son, alas, also dies - in the story "Blast from the Past" by the writer Raymond Benson, who is also considered the official successor to Ian Fleming's case.

Bond, James Bond, must be alone, all alone. So that nothing interferes with his exploits.

Interesting Facts

• The nineteenth Bond film is called And The World Is Not Enough (1999, in the role of Bond - Pierce Brosnan). "The World Is Not Enough", or - in Latin - "Orbis non sufficit": this is the family motto of the Bond family. This motto belonged to the real-life Sir Thomas Bond (1620-1685), on the relationship with which James Bond does not insist, but from whom he does not refuse.
• According to Fleming, according to his various novels, James Baud was born in 1917, 1930, 1921 and 1924. There is no need to talk about the date of birth of the current Bonds: the main thing is that the hero is “around forty”. As Carlson used to say, "a man in the prime of his life."
• Oddly enough, but most often James Bond does not drink the famous vodka-martini cocktail, which is “shake, but do not mix”, but whiskey, as well as champagne. He also likes coffee from drinks, but he hates tea. He calls it "dirty water" and considers it indirectly responsible for the decline of the British Empire.
• He is unpretentious in food: when he is at home in London (he has an apartment in Chelsea), he prefers grilled flounder and cold roast beef with potato salad. And his favorite food is scrambled eggs, cooked by his housekeeper May, who served with his aunt.
• Whatever the relationship of Bond with another beauty, access to his bachelor apartment for ladies is closed. The threshold of his dwelling is allowed to cross only the same housekeeper Mei and the eternal secretary of the head of the Secret Service, Moneypenny.

IT BECAME A SURPRISE to find out which plane Urquhart bought me a ticket for. He is the only employee with a sense of humor (which he considers unacceptable for use in that gray, mortuary-like building in Regent's Park where he works) and, when booking a ticket for me, he, of course, knew which flight he was on. The plane was supposed to leave Kennedy Airport at 1600, heading for Bermuda. What Urquhart told me was that it was a special offer for newlyweds on their honeymoon vacation.

Two hours after my arrival from London, I spent in the waiting room of Kennedy Airport, with real New York rain and snow beating against the windows, on this cold January Saturday. And now he had to spend three hours in the company of people making their first nuptial flight. Roses, California champagne - all this was not for me.

"Welcome aboard, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Pan American, the most experienced airline in the world, whose captain and crew wish you a pleasant flight on this truly unforgettable journey of your life!” Polite laughter. Someone's enthusiastic applause. And sitting in my seat by the aisle, I began to worry about

my

upcoming trip.

Where did old Urquhart's sense of humor end?

Between me and the porthole sat a young couple, completely absorbed in each other. He was in dark gray, she was in pink. None of them said anything. Their silence was disturbing, as if in disapproval of my so-called mission.

Lunch was served - four courses in plastic packaging - a triumph of the space age. As I devoured my Crispy Maryland Chicken, I suddenly experienced an intense yearning. However, back in London, Urquhart said that I would be taken care of when I arrived at my destination. They do it pretty well there.

I drank, then another, and as the big plane hummed through the night sky, making its way to the tropics, I tried to recollect in my mind the events that preceded this flight.

It all started two years ago - after I published my book The Life of Ian Fleming. After that, I received a lot of letters - from Japanese ballisticians, from French bondophile teenagers, from Swedes - lovers of detective stories, as well as from certified Americans writing their dissertations on the topic of thrillers. I tried to answer everyone. But there was one letter that put me in a difficult position. It was from Vienna, from a woman who signed as Maria Künzler.

The letter was long, a little sentimental, and written in purple ink. It talked about the pre-war winter spent with Ian Fleming at a ski resort in Kitzbühel. In my book, I did not attach much importance to this period of Fleming's life, describing it only briefly. Fleming visited this resort several times, and for the first time this happened in 1920, when he spent time there with a couple named Forbes-Dennis (Ms. Forbes-Dennis, by the way, turned out to be the writer Phyllis Bottom). Theoretically, Fleming studied German there, although in practice he enjoyed the mountains and the local girls most of his time. It appeared from the letter that Miss Kunzler was one of them. Her information about Fleming seemed genuine; in her letter she mentioned friends from Kitzbühel whom I once interviewed for my book. But most of all I was puzzled when I read the last paragraph of her letter. It sounded like this: “Now you can understand the excitement that we all felt when the handsome young man James Bond appeared in Kitzbühel. It turned out that he happened to visit Jan's house in Eton - and this despite the fact that he was much younger than Jan. Already at that time, James was engaged in a kind of espionage activity, and Ian, who liked to play tricks on people, used this in relation to James as well, thus extracting from him the information he needed. James was very angry with him for that."

After reading this, of course, I decided that Miss Kunzler was a little crazy, at least she clearly embellished the facts with speculation. I politely thanked her for the letter and wrote that her James Bond anecdote pleasantly amused me.

Here I must immediately make a reservation that in the process of writing The Life of Ian Fleming, I had no doubt that James Bond is Ian Fleming, and Ian created this image from his dreams and memories of his childhood. I have known Fleming personally for several years, the same years that he wrote his first Bond books. We were working together at the Sunday Times at the time, and in the Bond novels I found a lot of parallels between the hero and its author. Fleming even endowed Bond with his own personal qualities - preferences in clothes, food, even in how he looked. That is why, when I imagined the face of James Bond, I saw Fleming (and not Sean Connery).

However, there were some facts that went against the fact that Bond is Fleming. Despite the fact that Fleming himself denied this - categorically. It was about the fact that the more carefully you read the books, the more you began to notice the facts related to the life of James Bond.

off the storyline

Details about his family, love affairs, some glimpses of his high school career, as well as teasing references to his early espionage activities. In more than thirteen James Bond books, all these moments fit into a remarkably coherent picture. This is what gave rise to rumors that Fleming wrote the image of his hero from some real prototype - an agent he encountered while serving in the intelligence of the British fleet during the war.

One theory was that the "real" James Bond was a captain in the Royal Marines whose personality and exploits inspired Fleming. The other is that Fleming carefully studied the career of British double agent James Morton, whose body was found in the Shepherd Hotel in Cairo in 1962. There were other rumors as well. However, none of them stood up to scrutiny, and could not make me change my attitude to the fact that James Bond is Ian Fleming. Then I received a second letter from the mysterious Miss Kunzler from Vienna. It arrived about three months after I wrote her a reply, in which Miss Künzler apologized for the delay, citing health problems. (According to all reports, at that time she was about sixty-five). This time the letter was shorter. It stated that the last time Miss Künzler saw James Bond was at a party in Kitzbühel in 1938. She also added that he wrote her several letters after the holiday, and that's it. When she gets better, she will find them and send them to me, attaching some photographs to them. And surely there must be people who knew James Bond at Eton. Why don't I contact them? I answered her immediately, asking her to send me the said letters. There was no answer.

I wrote to her a few more times - again without success. Then, following her advice, I decided to check possible evidence regarding the young Bond at Eton. Fleming showed up at Eton in the autumn of 1921. I had no data on the age of James Bond, except, perhaps, Ms. Kunzler's statement that he was younger than Fleming. I checked all the data for the twenties. I did come across a few Bonds, but none of them were named James, and none of them had been to Fleming's old house. It was clear that Miss Kunzler was wrong, but intrigued, I decided to check the thirties. Suddenly I

discovered

A certain James Bond, who was enrolled in the Slater boarding school* in the autumn of 1933.

// one of the dormitories at Eton College - hereinafter - approx. transl.//

He was on the list for more than two years, after which he disappeared from it in 1936, in the spring. By itself, this fact did not yet prove Miss Künzler's assertion, but I could no longer ignore it. James Bond, who had been to Eton, certainly existed, but he seemed to me too young to be familiar with Fleming. It was unlikely that a man of his age could have been involved with the Secret Service by 1937. When I tried to find out more about this boy, I failed. The secretary in the school office told me that there was no record of him, neither about him nor about his family. She recommended that I contact the Eton Alumni Society. I contacted them, but again without success. All they could offer me was a list of some of Bond's peers.

15. Theme music

Known as the James Bond soundtrack, the tune is one of the most recognizable pieces of music in film history. The dramatic jazz riff keeps the audience excited and is commonly used during gun scenes. You'll also hear the soundtrack during Bond's daring exploits.

14. Gadgets

We're familiar with Bond's cars, weapons, and a host of other exotic gadgets that the superspy uses on his missions. But it's also not without more mundane technology like the pager, for the same reason people used it before the phone - to communicate. Constant contact with the office is as simple as that.

13. M and K

"M" is the code name for Bond's MI6 boss, who sends him on missions. None of the characters, including Bond, know his real name. And you might not know that it comes from the name of Messervy, Vice Admiral of the Royal Navy of Great Britain. "Q", a gunsmith who outfits agents, is mentioned as Mayor Bothroid in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me.

12. Jaws

The killer known as Jaws only appears in Bond 2 but is one of the most popular characters in the franchise. He is based on a character in Ian Fleming's novels called "Horror", who also had metal jaws. The rampaging beast is eventually tamed by true love and retreats from its murderous path.

11. Ian Fleming

The prolific author of the Bond novels was inspired by his tenure in Naval Intelligence during World War II. He published Casino Royale in 1953. Although the novel was not a huge success, Fleming continued to write and published Live and Let Die two years later, which was a great success. Several more books soon followed, and in the early 1960s, filming began on the first film. Dr. No was released in 1962 with Sean Connery as 007.

10 The Other Bond Girl

The studio was concerned that the accents of Bond's exotic ladies would be difficult for viewers to understand. The solution was Nikki van der Zyl, who provided voice work for most of the Bond films from 1962 to 1979. Ms. Zyl's performance was not widely recognized in the film, although she is one of the Bond girls in absentia.

9. George Lazenby

George who? Most fans are unfamiliar with the actor Lazenby, who played James Bond in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The handsome and suave Australian actor has not won the hearts of fans. However, contrary to popular belief, he was not fired, but turned down the role himself on the advice of his agents.

8. S.P.E.K.T.R

Agents of the shadowy criminal group Specter have appeared throughout the series since Dr. No. The latest film, aptly titled S.P.E.K.T.R., promises to reveal some of the secrets of this criminal enterprise and their connection to Bond.

7. Best Bond Girl

There were so many beautiful and memorable Bond girls that it's hard to pick just one. However, most fans think the former is still the best. Ursula Andress played Honey Ryder in the first Dr. No movie. Although, probably, she does not have the brightest name. Such an honor probably belongs to Dr. Holly Goodhead from the movie Moonraker. Nevertheless, Ms. Andress was an unsurpassed combination of sexiness and strength, which still attracts fans decades later.

6. MI 6

"We are working overseas to make the UK a safer and more prosperous place." This phrase greets visitors to a real UK spy agency, the one where our fictional super spies work. The real name of the organization is the SIS Special Intelligence Service, or Military Intelligence, Division 6.

5. The first James Bond

Do you think Sean Connery was the first 007 on screen in Dr. No? Not really. In 1954, Ian Fleming sold the rights to his novel to CBS for $1,000. Barry Nelson played Bond in the episode. CBS made Bond an American and the character was sometimes referred to as "Jimmy" instead of the more familiar British "James".

4. High profile fans

Fleming's novels were a hit in England, but not as popular in the US. Until one of the presidents paid attention to them. Yes, apparently JFK had time to read spy novels. They made such an impression on the president that he reportedly asked Fleming how to catch the communist dictator Fidel Castro. Fleming came up with the idea of ​​a content in which the dictator's beard would be shaved, ostensibly to the detriment of his masculinity.

3. Never say never

In a nutshell, other directors got the rights to make Bond pictures, and instead of ex-Bond Sean Connery, they hired Roger Moore. The result was a mediocre 1983 Never Say Never, a remake of an earlier Connery film, Thunderball. Bond was busy in 1983; it was also the year that Roger Moore starred as Bond in the more entertaining Octopussy.

2. Secret photography

For many Bond fans, the poster that accompanied the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only is an indelible memory. Those long, perfect legs and a small bikini were considered too provocative at the time. Photographer Morgan Kane achieved this effect by having a model wear a bikini back to front. The model must have thought this request was strange, but it was worth it.

1. The Bond family

Ian Fleming apparently killed 007 on purpose in You Only Live Twice. Along with the death, an obituary was released, which revealed family details. The special agent's father was a Scottish weapons manufacturer, his mother is from Switzerland. Parents died when James was a boy. At seventeen, he entered the Royal Navy and was later recruited into the intelligence service. We also recognize the Bond family motto: "The world is not enough."

Biography of James Bond

Born in Scotland to Andrew Bond and Maurice Delacroix Bond between 16 and 21 November 1924. He spent his childhood in Moscow, where his father was a representative of the British arms firm Vickers. After the death of his parents in a car accident in November 1935, he returned to England. In 1938 he entered Eton, in 1940 he was expelled from the college. Spring 1941 is Bond's first love story. In the same year, he joined the Ministry of Defense, correcting his age from 17 to 19 in his documents. Participated in the Second World War, wounded (a scar on his face remained for life). In 1946 he joined the British secret service MI-6. In 1950, he received the number 007 and the right to kill while on duty. Conducted at least 22 covert operations - all successful. At the end of 1961 he married and became a widower the same day. Went missing in June 1964, two months before the death of Ian Flemming.

Many researchers find in Fleming's character a romanticized image of the author himself - a ladies' man. Both Fleming and Bond went to the same schools, eat the same food (eggs and coffee), have similar habits, like the same women, and finally both went through similar careers in the Navy, rising to the rank of Commander. .

At the age of 42, Fleming moved to Jamaica. There, in the Goldeneye Villa surrounded by tropical greenery, he drank gin and experienced the collapse of the empire. He found some outlet for his nostalgic feelings in the fact that he began to describe the adventures of an invincible agent of the British secret service, whom he named after the author of a book about the feathered inhabitants of the Caribbean that came to hand ( "Birds of the West Indies" ornithologist James Bond. Fleming, himself an avid bird watcher, had this book in his library. In an interview with Reader's Digest, Ian Fleming noted that he needed a simple and neutral name - "a stupid anonymous instrument of government, a neutral figure surrounded by exoticism." Ornithologist James Bond was extremely offended by the use of his name as the name for a spy. In retaliation, he christened the rather unpleasant bird "Fleming" he found in India.

Bond serial number - 007 - according to one version, Fleming borrowed from the English spy John Dee, who signed his secret reports to Queen Elizabeth I with a glyph depicting two circles and an angle bracket similar to the number seven. The glyph meant that the reports were intended exclusively for the eyes of the monarch.

Thus was born an officer of the British intelligence service MI6, a reserve commander of the Royal Navy and a holder of the Order of St. Michael and St. George James Bond. His parents were Andrew Bond, a Scot from Argyll, and Monique Delacroix from the Swiss canton of Vaud. The nationalities of Bond's parents were mentioned in the book On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Regarding the date of birth of James Bond, there is no consensus; John Pearson's biography mentions November 11, 1920. At the same time, the book "Casino Royale" states that Bond bought the car in 1933, and became an experienced player in the pre-war years. Two more books later, in Moonraker, Bond reveals that he is about 35 years old, while the plot dates back to 1954. It is also said in "You Only Live Twice" that James Bond was born in the Year of the Rat (/or/).

In the short story On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the Bond family motto is mentioned: Orbis non sufficit("And the whole world is not enough"). However, at the same time, it is noted that the Bond family with such a motto is not necessarily the very Bonds to which James belongs.

Fleming treated his work and his hero without respect. In a conversation with the American detective writer Raymond Chandler, Fleming said self-critically: "If someone has at least an ounce of intelligence, then he is unlikely to seriously talk about such a hero as Bond." Nevertheless, this did not stop him from writing a dozen and a half stories, which sold about 40 million copies. Unassuming fantasies fell on the fertile psychological ground of the peak of the Cold War. In addition, readers found in the hero and his adventures something that a person is deprived of in everyday life: a kaleidoscope of exotic countries and places, charm and masculine strength that no beauty can resist, the ability to escape from any chase, drink without getting drunk, and more.

Although James Bond is a secret agent for MI6, he has made several appearances in his official military uniform as a Commander of the British Navy.

We learn about Bond's life from Fleming's novels:

№	Name	Year
1.	Casino Royale	1953
2.	Live and let die	1954
3.	moon racer	1955
4.	Diamonds are forever	1956
5.	From Russia with love	1957
6.	Dr. No	1958
7.	goldfinger	1959
8.	For your eyes only(storybook)	1960
9.	Ball lightning	1961
10.	The Spy Who Loved Me	1962
11.	On Her Majesty's Secret Service	1963
12.	You only live twice	1964
13.	The man with the golden gun	1965

First James Bond film

The first attempt at a film adaptation of the James Bond books was an episode in the American television series Climax! ("Climax!"), released in 1954. The episode was based on Fleming's first book, Casino Royale, with American actor Barry Nelson as Jimmy Bond. Ian Fleming wanted to go further and invited the famous British film producer Alexander Korda to film another book - Live and Let Die or Moonraker, but Korda was not interested. On October 1, 1959, Fleming announced that he would write an original Bond film screenplay for Irish film producer Kevin McClory. Famous screenwriter Jack Whittingham was also involved in working on the script. It was planned to invite Alfred Hitchcock to the director's place, and Richard Burton to the role of Bond, but later their candidacies were abandoned. It soon became clear that McClory was unable to secure funding, and the film had to be cancelled. Fleming used the script for his next novel Thunderball ().

Bond Girls

In the film adaptations of the novels, Bond appears to the viewer as a kind of hero-lover, while in the books James was not so loving. But how can one not become a Casanova with such young ladies?

Ursula Andress in the movie Dr. No

The first Bond girl was the Swiss actress Ursula Andress.

The girl began her film career with the filing of Marlon Brando, who noticed a talented fashion model in Rome. The role in the first James Bond movie "Doctor No" brought Andress real fame and overnight made the girl a European sex symbol. In the film, Andress played the beautiful shell diver Hanni Ryder. In the film, Andress had a fake tan and was voiced by another actress. Ursula received only $10,000 for shooting in Bond. Hannie Ryder has remained the most memorable film image of the actress, but many still consider her one of the most sexy girls in James Bond. In 1968, Andress starred in the 007 parody film Casino Royale.

Vice-Miss Universe 1960 Daniela Bianchi became the next contender for the heart of agent 007. The film "From Russia with Love", in which Bianchi played the role of Tatyana Romanova, an employee of the Soviet consulate in Turkey, became her hallmark. After the release of the film, Bianchi was often invited to the cinema, but subsequent roles did not bring the actress much fame.

Unlike Ursula Andress and Daniela Bianchi, Honor Blackman got the role of 007's girl, already being a fairly well-known actress in Europe. She became famous for her role as Kathy Gale in the British television series The Avengers. This success prompted producer Albert Broccoli to cast Blackman as pilot Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, despite the fact that the American public had never seen Honor before. “The British will love her because they remember Kathy Gale, and the Americans will love her simply because she is so good. It's the perfect combination," said Broccoli. Blackman became the first and one of two actresses who was older than the Bond performer, and she is still the oldest 007 girl - at the time of filming, Blackman was 38 years old.

Frenchwoman Claudine Auger was vacationing in the Bahamas, where she was noticed by producer Kevin McLaury, who offered her a role in the next Bond film. The girl impressed McLaury so much that the role of Domino, which in the first draft of the script was called Dominetta Petacci, was rewritten under Auger. Before filming began, the actress took English lessons, but her character in the film was still voiced by Nikki van der Zyl.

Japanese actress Akiko Wakabayashi was first cast as Kissy Suzuki, with the more significant role, Aki, going to Mie Hama. According to the plot, both girls are agents of the head of Japanese intelligence Tanako, but it is Aki who becomes the chosen one of agent 007. Due to problems with learning English from Mie Hama, it was decided that Akiko Wakabayashi will play the female lead, at whose request the Bond girl in You Only Live Twice is called Aki (in the first draft of the script, the name Suki is indicated). After the role of Aki, Wakabayashi starred in only one film and decided to leave the cinema. In one of the interviews, the actress admitted that she was "tired of the huge number of problems that arise during the filming."

Diana Rigg, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"

Diana Rigg played not just a Bond girl, but his only wife, Teresa di Vicenzo. According to the plot of the sixth series of Bondiana “On Her Majesty's Secret Service”, the agent's wife (he was played by George Lazenby) dies immediately after the wedding ceremony - one of Bond's enemies decided to take revenge on the newlyweds, but agent 007, unlike his wife, manages to escape. As Rigg later admitted, she agreed to this role in the hope of gaining popularity in America. During the filming, rumors appeared that the work was far from going smoothly - a conflict arose between the performers of the main roles. However, both Rigg and Lazenby denied all speculation and only laughed off questions about the quarrel.

The role of Tiffany Case, who, together with James Bond, is sent to investigate the theft of South African diamonds, has become the most famous work in the cinema of American Jill St. John. The name of the heroine was chosen by representatives of the sponsor of the film, the jewelry company Tiffany. Raquel Welch, Jane Fonda and Faye Dunaway also auditioned for the female lead. Jill St. John became Bond's first American girlfriend, and Sean Connery played 007 himself for the last time.

Jane Seymour woke up famous after the release of the film "Live and let die", where for the first time Bond was played by Roger Moore. If until 1973 the actress was popular only in her homeland, then thanks to the role of Solitaire, the whole world learned about her. Subsequently, the IGN portal included Seymour in the top 10 best Bond girls, giving the actress 10th place. However, many viewers remember the actress more thanks to the television series "Dr. Quinn, a female doctor."

In the ninth film about the English superspy, The Man with the Golden Gun, Bond was played for the second time by Roger Moore, and Swedish actress Britt Eklund became his partner. In the film, Ackland played the role of MI6 agent Mary Goodnight, with whom Bond escapes from the blown-up island of the main villain, Francisco Scaramanga.

The role of the Soviet spy Anya Amasova in the tenth series of the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me made Barbara Bach a real sex symbol of that time. And the actress herself after filming called Bond "a chauvinist who uses girls to shield himself from bullets." After the Bond movie, Barbara was not very lucky with movie roles, but everything turned out better with her personal life - in 1981, the actress married the ex-drummer of The Beatles, Ringo Starr.

Actress Lois Chiles was offered to become a Bond girl even before the filming of the tenth series, but then the actress decided to take a break from her career. In 1979, Chiles returned to the profession and accepted the role that has remained the most famous in her career - space explorer and part-time CIA agent Holly Goodhead in the movie Moonraker.

Carole Bouquet, "For Your Eyes Only"

The beautiful Carole Bouquet got a role in the 12th episode of the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only. In the film, she played Melina Havelock, who wants to avenge her family. Unlike many Bond girls, Bouquet managed to make a successful film career: in 1990 she received the César Award for her role in Too Beautiful for You and was a leading model for Chanel for a long time.

Before becoming a Bond girl, Maud Adams had already starred in Bond once - in the film "The Man with the Golden Gun" she played the role of Andrea Anders. The producer of the film series liked working with the actress, and in the 13th film about agent 007, he called her for the main female role. In the film, Adams played a mysterious woman, nicknamed Octopussy, who invites Bond to live on her personal island. In Adams' first Bond film, her character did not live to see the end credits, but in Octopussy, Bond and his lover escaped death by jumping out of a falling plane. “How can you not be happy that you became a Bond girl? This is a modern culture, and it's great to be a part of it, ”the actress later admitted.

Tanya Roberts played the charming geologist Stacey Sutton in A View to a Kill. Her character, who even has to drive a fire truck during the film, helps Bond uncover the evil plan of the villain Max Zorin (played by Christopher Walken) to flood Silicon Valley. Later, she was twice nominated for the Golden Raspberry anti-award as the worst actress.

The 15th episode of the Bond series, "Sparks from the Eyes", was the first for Timothy Dalton, and the Englishwoman Maryam d'Abo became the partner of the new Bond. The actress got the role of a cellist and pseudo-sniper from Bratislava Kara Milovi, with whom the super agent falls in love. D'Abo posed for the cover of the Playboy issue, timed to coincide with the release of the next film about the adventures of James Bond. “Now I wouldn’t do it ... I have understood a lot since then,” the actress said later.

Another beloved super agent, CIA pilot Pam Bovier, was played by American actress Carey Lowell. In the story, Bond (the second and last time performed by Timothy Dalton) and Bovier fight with the powerful drug lord Frank Sanchez. The role of the Bond girl became the most notable in the career of Carrie Lowell, and from her subsequent work, the series Law & Order: Trial by Jury can be noted.

Isabella Scorupco in the movie "Golden Eye"

Actress Isabella Skorupko played the second Bond girl from the Soviet Union in Goldeneye, and Pierce Brosnan played 007 for the first time. Programmer Natalya Simonova, along with Bond, confronts the main villain of the series, agent 006 Alec Travelyan. Before becoming a super agent's girlfriend, Isabella Skorupko was a successful singer: her album IZA in 1991 went gold in Sweden.

The role of Colonel Wei Ling of the Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China in the film "Tomorrow Never Dies" was played by Malaysian actress of Chinese origin Michelle Yeoh. The creators of the picture, it seems, did not regret their choice at all: in particular, Bond actor Pierce Brosnan described his partner as "a wonderful actress who is completely focused on work." In the film, Michelle Yeoh did most of her own stunts, for which Brosnan called her "the female version of James Bond." After the Bond movie, Michelle's career went uphill, as they say - she has roles in such films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memoirs of a Geisha.

Sophie Marceau in the 19th series of Bond got the role of the insidious Elektra King, the kidnapped daughter of a major English businessman. During the mission, Bond meets Elektra and spends time with her in the mountains. The girl pretends to be in love with a super agent, but later it turns out that she is at the same time with her kidnapper, the terrorist Renard. At the end of the film, Bond kills his former lover, and, as always, he emerges victorious. It cannot be said that for the actress this role became a turning point in her career - both before and after Bond, Marceau was one of the main faces of French cinema.

Halle Berry, who played Jacinta Johnson in the film "Die Another Day", by the beginning of filming was already not only a famous actress, but also an Oscar winner for the film "Monster's Ball". "Die Another Day" was released on the 40th anniversary of Bond and contains references to other films about 007. So, the scene where Berry comes ashore in a bikini was taken from the very first film - "Dr. No" with Ursula Andress . By the way, Berry became the first black Bond girl. But the shooting for the actress was dangerous: in the scene with the helicopter explosion, a grenade hit the actress in the eye, after which Berry was rushed to the hospital and operated on. Another time, the actress choked on a bone, but Pierce Brosnan, who arrived in time, saved her partner on the site.

Eva Green received an offer to play a James Bond girl in 2005 but decided to turn down the role. Director Martin Campbell saw the actress play in the film Kingdom of Heaven and again offered her a role in Casino Royale. After reading the script, Green came to the conclusion that Vesper Lind is much more interesting and deeper than all the other girls of the super agent, and agreed. Vesper is the true love of Daniel Craig's last sixth Bond, even after her death, Bond still suffers in the next film, although he tries not to show it. The work of the actress in Casino Royale was well received by viewers and critics: Entertainment Weekly magazine included her in the top four Bond girls, and the British public awarded her a BAFTA award.

For the role of the Bolivian secret service spy Camilla Montes in the film Quantum of Solace, the Bond producers chose 28-year-old Olga Kurylenko. Many fans of the super agent remembered her character as the only girl of agent 007 whom he failed to seduce. Meanwhile, Kurylenko herself approached the role extremely seriously. “Preparing for Quantum of Solace was incredible… I learned a lot of tricks in a month before we started filming. It was quite intense, but I liked that I was not a typical Bond girl - according to the script, I acted a lot on my own and struggled, ”said the actress.

The 23rd James Bond film, 007: Skyfall, was released at the end of October last year. Daniel Craig's company in the film was Frenchwoman Berenice Marlo and British Naomie Harris. The film, like the previous two series, tells about the first years of Bond's work in the service of Her Majesty.

What else did agent 007 do besides giving attention to women? Of course, he fought against evil. Over the years of his life, Mr. Bond faced a lot of opponents. Here are just a few names.

Ernst Stavro Blofeld- the head of the terrorist organization SPECTRUM and one of the main enemies of the secret agent of the British intelligence service Mi-6 James Bond. An avid cat lover, in some films Blofeld's petting cats appear in the frame instead of him.

Dr. No

Dr. No, a purebred Chinese who was once the treasurer of China's largest criminal organization, escaped with a huge amount of money, and eventually joined the terrorist organization SPECTRE. He led the SPEKTRA base on the island of Crab Key, from which he shot down American missiles using a powerful laser gun.

Joz (Jaws)

This charming hired killer - a giant with iron teeth, played by American actor Richard Keel, was remembered by many. First appears in The Spy Who Loved Me, where he works for Stromberg. After Stromberg's death, he continues to hunt for Bond. In the movie "Moonraker" ( moonraker), when Bond kills the regular hitman of the villain Drax, the latter hires Jaws. In the same film, he met his love - a petite blonde named Dolly, because of which he began to help Bond (since everyone who did not fit the definition of superhumans (including her and him) had to be destroyed). He remains the last with his girlfriend on the only module of the Drax space station that did not explode, but, according to the American special forces, he was rescued from there. Consequently, he lived on, not intersecting with Bond.

Mr White

Mr White first appears in films