R.I.P. James Bond #3
May 23rd, 2017, 07:53 AM
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R.I.P. James Bond #3
Sir Roger Moore, James Bond actor, dies aged 89
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40018422
He was the third actor to play Bond. After Sean Connery, there was one movie with George Lazenby as Bond ("On Her Majesty's Secret Service"). Then Connery came back for one more film ("Diamonds Are Forever") before Moore took over with "Live and Let Die" in 1973.
We should all make it to age 89. That's a good long life. Here's to raising a glass in his memory.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40018422
He was the third actor to play Bond. After Sean Connery, there was one movie with George Lazenby as Bond ("On Her Majesty's Secret Service"). Then Connery came back for one more film ("Diamonds Are Forever") before Moore took over with "Live and Let Die" in 1973.
We should all make it to age 89. That's a good long life. Here's to raising a glass in his memory.
May 23rd, 2017, 08:37 AM
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I always found the sequence of events leading up to Moore's taking over as Bond interesting. Connery had made five Bond films (Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice), the last of which was in 1967. After that, Connery wanted out because he didn't want to spend his whole career being James Bond.
So they brought in Lazenby, a perfectly good, good-looking actor, but the film did not do well enough at the box office, so the producers went back to Connery to ask him to come back for another film, which he did. It was Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. But by '71, Connery was a different man. He was older and looked older, with gray hair at his temples and so forth. He certainly was not the virile young man he he was in the earlier films, and I think it showed. Diamonds was a decent movie, but I think it was obvious that this would be Connery's last Bond film regardless of how well it did at the box office or how much Connery wanted to continue playing the role, if he did at all.
So they brought in the very-handsome Roger Moore. What was always interesting to me is that Moore was three years older than the man he replaced. When Moore's first Bond film came out in 1973, he was 46 years old while Connery was 43. Then Moore went on to play Bond, as has been noted, in a total of seven films going all the way to A View to a Kill in 1985, when he was 58 years old. Had Connery continued to play Bond to that age, he would have looked like Santa Claus!
So they brought in Lazenby, a perfectly good, good-looking actor, but the film did not do well enough at the box office, so the producers went back to Connery to ask him to come back for another film, which he did. It was Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. But by '71, Connery was a different man. He was older and looked older, with gray hair at his temples and so forth. He certainly was not the virile young man he he was in the earlier films, and I think it showed. Diamonds was a decent movie, but I think it was obvious that this would be Connery's last Bond film regardless of how well it did at the box office or how much Connery wanted to continue playing the role, if he did at all.
So they brought in the very-handsome Roger Moore. What was always interesting to me is that Moore was three years older than the man he replaced. When Moore's first Bond film came out in 1973, he was 46 years old while Connery was 43. Then Moore went on to play Bond, as has been noted, in a total of seven films going all the way to A View to a Kill in 1985, when he was 58 years old. Had Connery continued to play Bond to that age, he would have looked like Santa Claus!
May 23rd, 2017, 09:49 AM
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May 23rd, 2017, 02:26 PM
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This movie is not considered "canon" because it was not made by the production company, Eon Productions, that has made all of the other Bond films. The plot has an older James Bond coming out of retirement "one more time" and facing a threat similar to the plot of Thunderball.
May 24th, 2017, 03:53 AM
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To be pedantic David Niven also played Bond in "Casino Royale", this before Dr No, generally considered to be the first "True" Bond movie.
RIP Sir Roger Moore, Entertaining us as "Ivanhoe" and with Tony Curtis in "The Persuaders", (great chemistry paired with each other) before the Bond movies, and in other roles besides.
Roger.
RIP Sir Roger Moore, Entertaining us as "Ivanhoe" and with Tony Curtis in "The Persuaders", (great chemistry paired with each other) before the Bond movies, and in other roles besides.
Roger.
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