Post #312925 by DJ Terence Gunn on Thu, Jun 14, 2007 1:51 PM

Carey Grant was the first choice to play Bond, as, I reiterate, Grant was whom the Bond character was based. And that is a bit strange, as Bond in the books is described to look like a cross between Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton, but with a scar across one cheek. Before Connery was given the role Peter Anthony had won the role of Bond, but lacked the acting ability. Before Anthony, yes, Roger Moore and David Niven had been asked, as well as James Mason, Steve Reeves (an American), Patrick McGoohan, Richard Johnson, Richard Burton, Trevor Howard, Rex Harrison, Ian Hendry, and William Franklyn. I'm sure there were others, and some were American actors.

Barry Nelson (an American) was, however, the first actor to play James Bond (on the small screen), in a rather tame adaption (it was 1954, afterall) of 'Casino Royale' for the American TV show 'Climax'.

And to bring up George Lazenby again, he was, in fact, offered the role of Bond for 'Diamonds Are Forever', but he was turned off (much like Connery) of the intesity involving the whole Bond phenomena, so turned it down. Connery was called upon again, and because he hadn't had success since his last Bond film, and was offered an enormous sum of money to come back again, accepted the role one more time. Roger Moore was quite the veteran by this time, and he loved attention and loved to be loved, so finally accepting the role of Bond seems so fitting some how. By that time Moore required larger shoes to step into.

It's interesting how such a successful and overwhelmingly popular movie phenomena evolved on such clumsy calculation, last minute saves, and more misses than hits. But it did. And I'm not just referring to the role of Bond. Nearly every aspect of the Bond films have interesting stories behind their evolution.