Robert Brown
Who was the performer of M (James Bond) from 1983 to 1989?
M ( James Bond ) M is a fictional character in Ian Flemings James Bond book and film series ; the character is the Head of the Secret Intelligence Service—also known as MI6 . Fleming based the character on a number of people he knew who commanded sections of British intelligence . M has appeared in the novels by Fleming and seven continuation authors , as well as appearing in twenty-four films . In the Eon Productions series of films , M has been portrayed by four actors : Bernard Lee , Robert Brown , Judi Dench and Ralph Fiennes , the incumbent ; in the two independent productions , M was played by John Huston , David Niven and Edward Fox . Background . Fleming based much of Ms character on Rear Admiral John Godfrey , who was Flemings superior at the Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War . After Flemings death , Godfrey complained He turned me into that unsavoury character , M . Other possible inspirations include Lieutenant Colonel Sir Claude Dansey , the deputy head of MI6 and head of the wartime Z network , who achieved different interpretations of his character from those who knew him : Malcolm Muggeridge thought him the only professional in MI6 , while Hugh Trevor-Roper considered Dansey to be an utter shit , corrupt , incompetent , but with a certain low cunning . A further inspiration for M was Maxwell Knight , the head of MI5 , who signed his memos as M and whom Fleming knew well . The tradition of the head of MI6 signing their name with a single letter came from Mansfield Smith-Cumming , who would sign his initial C navy-style , with green ink . Another possibility for the model of M was William Melville , an Irishman who became the head of the Secret Service Bureau , the forerunner of both MI5 and MI6 : Melville was referred to within government circles as M . Melville recruited Sidney Reilly into government service and foiled an assassination plot against Queen Victoria on her 1887 Golden Jubilee . Flemings biographer John Pearson also hypothesised that Flemings characterisation of M reflects memories of his mother : Novels . Flemings third Bond novel , Moonraker , establishes Ms initials as M**** M******* and his first name is subsequently revealed to be Miles . In the final novel of the series , The Man with the Golden Gun , Ms full identity is revealed as Vice Admiral Sir Miles Messervy KCMG ; Messervy had been appointed to head of MI6 after his predecessor had been assassinated at his desk . A naval theme runs throughout Flemings description of M and his surroundings , and his character was described by journalist Ben Macintyre as every inch the naval martinet . Macintyre wrote that in his study of Flemings work , Kingsley Amis outlined the way Fleming had described Ms voice , being : angry ( three times ) ; brutal , cold ( seven times ) ; curt , dry ( five times ) ; gruff ( seven times ) ; stern , testy ( five times ) . Over the course of twelve novels and two collections of short stories , Fleming provided a number of details relating to Ms background and character . In On Her Majestys Secret Service it is revealed that Ms pay as head of the Secret Service is £6,500 a year , ( £ in 2021 pounds ) £1,500 of which comes from retired naval pay . Although his pay is good for the 1950s and 1960s , it is never explained how M received or can afford his membership at Blades , an upscale private club for gentlemen he frequents in London to gamble and dine . Blades has a restricted membership of only 200 gentlemen and all must be able to show £100,000 ( £ in 2021 pounds ) in cash or gilt-edged securities . Kingsley Amis noted in his study , The James Bond Dossier , that on Ms salary his membership of the club would have been puzzling . As a personal favour to M , the staff at Blades keeps a supply of cheap red wine from Algeria on hand but does not include it on the wine list . M refers to it as Infuriator and tends only to drink it in moderate quantities unless he is in a very bad mood . The academic Paul Stock argues that Ms office is a metonym for England and a stable point from which Bond departs on a mission , whilst he sees M as being an iconic representative of England and Englishness . In the first post-Fleming book , Colonel Sun , M is kidnapped from Quarterdeck , his home , and Bond goes to great lengths to rescue him . The later continuation books , written by John Gardner , retain Sir Miles Messervy as M , who protects Bond from the new , less aggressive climate in the Secret Service , saying that at some point Britain will need a blunt instrument . In Gardners final novel , COLD , M is kidnapped and rescued by Bond and finishes the book by retiring from MI6 . Continuation Bond author Raymond Bensons 1998 novel The Facts of Death continued Messervys retirement , where he still resides in Quarterdeck . The book also introduces a new M , Barbara Mawdsley . Films . Eon Productions films . Bernard Lee : 1962–1979 . M was played by Bernard Lee from the first Bond film , Dr . No , until Moonraker ( 1979 ) . In Dr . No , M refers to his record of reducing the number of operative casualties since taking the job , implying someone else held the job recently before him . The film also saw M refer to himself as head of MI7 ; Lee had originally said MI6 , but was overdubbed with the name MI7 prior to the films release . Earlier in the film , the department had been referred to as MI6 by a radio operator . A number of Bond scholars have noted that Lees interpretation of the character was in line with the original literary representation ; Cork and Stutz observed that Lee was very close to Flemings version of the character , while Rubin commented on the serious , efficient , no-nonsense authority figure . Smith and Lavington , meanwhile , remarked that Lee was the very incarnation of Flemings crusty admiral . Lee died of cancer in January 1981 , four months into the filming of For Your Eyes Only and before any of his scenes could be filmed . Out of respect , no new actor was hired to assume the role and , instead , the script was re-written so that the character is said to be on leave , with his lines given to either his Chief of Staff Bill Tanner or the Minister of Defence , Sir Frederick Gray . Later films referred to Lees tenure as head of the service , with a painting of him as M in MI6s Scottish headquarters during the 1999 instalment The World Is Not Enough . - Featured in : - The likeness of Lee was used in the 2005 James Bond video game adaptation of James Bond 007 : From Russia with Love for the role of M by EA Games . Robert Brown : 1983–1989 . After Lees death in 1981 , in the thought to recast M , some minds went to Ralph Truman , the supporting actor who brought distinguished bearing to many an authority figure , quickly quashed as he had died in 1977 . The actor the producers hired to play M in Octopussy was Robert Brown . At the time of the films release , the general thought was that this was the same M whom Lee had played , but was now being played by Brown , in the same way that Roger Moore and George Lazenby had replaced Sean Connery . Brown , however , had previously played Admiral Hargreaves , Flag Officer Submarines , in the 1977 film , The Spy Who Loved Me and Bond scholars Steven Jay Rubin , John Cork , and Collin Stutz all consider Admiral Hargreaves would have been appointed to the role of M , rather than Brown playing either the same M as Lee , or even a different character altogether . Pfeiffer and Worrall considered that whilst Brown looks perfect , the role had been softened from that of Lee ; they also considered him far too avuncular , although in Licence to Kill they remarked that he came across as being very effective as he removed Bonds double-0 licence . Continuation author Raymond Benson agrees , noting that the M role was once again under written , and Brown is not allowed the opportunity to explore and reveal his character traits ; Benson also considered the character to be too nice . - Featured in : Judi Dench : 1995–2015 . After the long period between Licence to Kill and GoldenEye , the producers brought in Dame Judi Dench to take over as the new M replacing Robert Brown . The character is based on Stella Rimington , the real-life head of MI5 between 1992 and 1996 . For GoldenEye , Denchs M is cold , blunt and initially dislikes Bond , whom she calls a sexist , misogynist dinosaur , a relic of the Cold War . Tanner , her Chief of Staff , refers to her during the film as the Evil Queen of Numbers , given her reputation at that stage for relying on statistics and analysis rather than impulse and initiative . Following Pierce Brosnans departure from the role as Bond , Dench continued playing M for the 2006 film Casino Royale , which rebooted the series with Daniel Craig playing Bond at the beginning of his career . In this new continuity , M has worked for MI6 for some time , at one point muttering , Christ , I miss the Cold War . According to Skyfall , M was previously in charge of MI6s operations in Hong Kong during the 1990s . Her ability to run MI6 has been questioned more than once ; in Casino Royale , she is the subject of a review when Bond is caught shooting an unarmed prisoner and blowing up a foreign embassy on camera ; in Quantum of Solace , the Foreign Secretary orders her to personally withdraw Bond from the field in Bolivia and to stop any investigations into Dominic Greenes eco-terrorist organisation ; and in Skyfall , she is the subject of a public inquiry when MI6 loses a computer hard drive containing the identities of undercover agents around the world . Skyfall marked Denchs seventh appearance as M , where she is targeted by former MI6 agent Raoul Silva , whom she turned over to the Chinese in order to save six other agents . She is shot and killed in the film , making her the only M to die in the Eon Bond films . Denchs M makes a final appearance in Spectre in a video will , giving Bond a final order to hunt down and terminate someone , which ultimately leads him to the films titular criminal organisation . There have also been brief references to Ms family : in GoldenEye , she responds to Tanner calling her the Evil Queen of Numbers by telling him that when she wants to hear sarcasm she will listen to her children . Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster suggested that Denchs casting gave the character maternal overtones in her relationship with Bond , overtones made overt in Skyfall , in which Silva repeatedly refers to her as Mother and Mommy . In Skyfall she is revealed to be a widow ; in Casino Royale she is shown briefly in bed when she takes a call from MI6 ; there is a man sleeping beside her who was presumably her husband . - Featured in : Ralph Fiennes : 2012–present . After the death of Judi Denchs M at the end of Skyfall , she is succeeded by Gareth Mallory , played by Ralph Fiennes . Mallory had been the Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee prior to heading MI6 , and is a former in the British Army . He served in Northern Ireland ( with the Special Air Service ) during the Troubles , where he had been held hostage by the Irish Republican Army for three months . In Spectre , the 00 Section of MI6 is briefly dismantled in addition to Mallory being demoted . He assists Bond in the field when it is revealed that the Nine Eyes initiative is part of Spectres plan for world domination . - Featured in : Non-Eon films . John Huston/David Niven : 1967 . The 1967 satire Casino Royale featured not one but two Ms . The first is played by John Huston , who also co-directed . In this film , Ms real name is McTarry and he is accidentally killed when , in order to get Bond out of retirement , he orders the military to fire mortars at Bonds mansion when the retired spy refuses to return to duty . The first quarter of the film features Bonds subsequent visit to McTarry Castle in Scotland , on a quest to return the only piece of Ms remains recovered after the attack—his bright red toupée . Subsequently , Bond—played by David Niven—becomes the new M and proceeds to order that all MI6 agents , male and female , be renamed James Bond 007 in order to confuse the enemy . Edward Fox : 1983 . In 1983s Never Say Never Again , Edward Fox played M as a bureaucrat , contemptuous of Bond—far removed from the relationship shared between Bernard Lees M and Sean Connerys Bond ; the academic Jeremy Black notes that the contempt felt for the 00 section by Foxs M was reciprocated by Connerys Bond . Foxs M is very notably younger than all of the previous portrayals , and indeed his portrayal is the only instance ― to date ― of the actor playing M being younger than the actor playing Bond . The media historian James Chapman notes that whilst M considers Bond to be an out-dated relic , the Foreign Secretary orders the 00 section to be re-activated . Outside the James Bond series . Alan Moore and Kevin ONeills The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic series establishes that the 1898-era League ( led by Mina Harker ) was directed by Campion Bond ( James Bonds grandfather ) , who served under a master called M . This M was later revealed to be none other than James Moriarty in disguise , using the League to win a gang war against Fu Manchu . After the death of Moriarty , Sherlock Holmess older brother Mycroft Holmes assumed the role of M . In the sequel volume , set during a moribund and dystopian 1950s post-war Britain , the head of the British secret service , M , is Harry Lime , from Graham Greenes The Third Man . In the final volume of , spanning from 1910 to 2009 , the M of 2009 is an elderly Emma Peel from The Avengers . In the 2003 film adaptation of the series , M is once again Moriarty , and played by Richard Roxburgh . In the fifth book of the Belinda Blinked series , the subject of the podcast My Dad Wrote a Porno , the Duchess is revealed to be M in the eighth chapter , titled Ms the Word . The Duchess , after explaining her position and informing Belinda that she has been observing her movements since their meeting in the first book of the Belinda Blinked series , grants Belinda top-level security clearance , along with MI6 agent James Spooner , and sends the two characters to Australia in an attempt to bring The Special One to justice after kidnapping Professor Slints .