Roger Moore Fleming's first choice for Bond

[Gambit]

The wikipedia section on actors who could have been Bond:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_actors_considered_for_the_James_Bond_character

[Jake]

Dec 22, 2008 9:43:43 GMT -5 Gambit said:

The wikipedia section on actors who could have been Bond:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_actors_considered_for_the_James_Bond_character

Colin Farrell? He has the looks but I was never quite convinced by the prospect of him playing Bond.

[adam]

Colin Farrell has the eyebrows. He is good looking but still looks very young. BB said he looked too seedy. How tall is he ?

[adam]

Thanks for the link Gambit. I've never really seen John Gavin before. He looks like a 50's matinee idol Not sure if would had the charisma to be a good Bond. But then again I've never seen him on screen.

Can't beleive Adam West was'nt interested in 1970. Surely he would have preferred playing Bond to running around in a bat suit.

Jackman claims BB would'nt let him read the script for CR. I don't blame her as a star like him would have rejected it. Ditto for Farrell. DC was later allowed to read the script.

A 21 year old Dalton playing Bond is too young. I'm surprised he was'nt interested in Bond after M. Cubby Brocoli would have told him he wanted to bring Bond back down to earth.

[alex]

Colin Farrell seems to be generally listed as 5'10.

[Kadov]

I was reading Sir Roger's autobiography, My Word is My Bond, during the Christmas vacation, and he provides some insight into the history of his Bond casting. In my previous posts in this thread, I asserted that it wouldn't be inconceivable that Fleming was aware of Moore and that the various filmmakers Fleming interacted with in the late 50s and early 60s were most likely aware of Moore--unless of course Fleming and these filmmakers were idiots and didn't pay attention to the actors of the day (and Moore himself had some notoriety from the Ivanhoe series in the late 50s). Moore's book does suggest that he had always been in the sights of Eon. In the 1962 casting for Dr. No, Sir Roger repeats the old notion that he was on some shortlist of contenders: "I was, apparently, on the shortlist of would-be 007 actors back in 1962, when they were casting for Dr No. I certainly wasn't aware of that, nor was I approached" (p. 172). So he wasn't approached, and admits he knew nothing of the matter--which is understandable since he wasn't part of the casting process in the first place. It's also characteristic of him to express a sense of humility and even self-mockery. But you do get the impression that he was always on the radar of Eon, because he was good friends with the producers in the mid-1960s: "I first met the producers of the James Bond films, Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, across the Curzon Street gambling tables in the mid-1960s. We became good friends and thereafter often socialized at home, as well as over the tables" (p. 171).

Saltzman and his family even lived close to Roger Moore and often saw one another: "Their house at Iver was just a short drive from us in Denham.... Our kids loved nothing more than to while away their school holidays around each other's pools" (p. 172). Broccoli and Saltzman then approached him around 1967, when Connery announced he wouldn't do another film after YOLT: "The Bond adventure they discussed with me was planned for filming in Cambodia. I don't think preparations had got very far -- was there even a script? -- when all hell broke loose in that country and the plans were swiftly shelved. I continued making The Saint meanwhile, and was unavailable when they re-grouped an ddecided the next film would be On Her majesty's Secret Service" (p. 172).

Years later, as he made The Persuaders at Pinewood, DAF happened to be filming at the same time and Moore explains that he got to "see a lot of Harry and Cubby around the studio" (p. 173). Then one day, Saltzman called Moore to announce that he would replace Connery.

[adam]

I see another actor is claiming he turned down the Bond role before Moore. American actor Robert Wagner said he was approached by Cubby Brocoli after OHMSS. Wagner claims to have rejected his advances as he thought a British actor should play Bond & recommended Moore.

It is feasible that he was approached. He was handsome, suave and the right age. They were looking at American actors such as Burt Reynolds back then. I find it harder to beleive Wagner would turn it down. He was'nt exactly a major movie star in the 70's.

[Ranjit 007]

[alex]

I think John Gavin would have been a better choice than Wagner if they'd cast an American actor.

[007]

Well, here's Gavin in his prime for comparison:

[Gambit]

Gavin looked more like Bond.

[FormerBondFan]

Interestingly, Robert Wagner is married to Jill St. John of DAF.

[JackBurton]

If he'd made OHMSS he probably would have starred with her in DAF too.

[Terry]

Don't forget Adam West! He spoke to Cubby about the role around this era.

[FormerBondFan]

Feb 22, 2009 14:18:56 GMT -5 Terry said:

Don't forget Adam West! He spoke to Cubby about the role around this era.

Out of all the actors who played Batman, Christian Bale fits the Bond profile the most.