Category:James Bonds | James Bond Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia "Bond... James Bond." ― The iconic James Bond introduction. [src] Royal Navy Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVR, is a fictional character created by British journalist and novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. He is the main protagonist of the James Bond series of novels, films, comics and video games. The Bond character is a Secret Service agent, code number 007, residing in London but active internationally. Bond was a composite character who was based on a number of commandos who Fleming knew during his service in the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, to whom Fleming added his own style and a number of his own tastes. The character of James Bond first appeared in the 1953 Ian Fleming novel Casino Royale , and appeared in the thirteen subsequent novels, as well as short stories by Fleming and other writers. He first appeared on the silver screen in the 1962 film Dr. No , portrayed by Sean Connery . He has since been portrayed by George Lazenby , Roger Moore , Timothy Dalton , Pierce Brosnan , and is currently helmed by Daniel Craig .

He also appears in many video games and other branches of the James Bond franchise. There have also been legal disputes regarding Ian Fleming's works, so some non-EON versions of James Bond exist. Contents Shared background Bond's Chelsea apartment. In the novels, James' parents (Andrew Bond of Scotland and Monique Delacroix-Bond of Switzerland) were tragically killed during a climbing accident in the French Alps when he was eleven. He had acquired a first-class command of the French and German languages during his early education, which he received entirely abroad. After the death of his parents, Bond goes to live with his aunt, Miss Charmian Bond, where he completes his early education. Later, he briefly attends Eton College at "12 or thereabouts", but is removed after two halves because of girl trouble with a maid. After being sent down from Eton, Bond was sent to Fettes College in Scotland, his father's school. [1] Chart showing an estimate of the various 007's portrayals, body counts, women bedded and number of famous quote utterances. After leaving Fettes, the EON films note that Bond studied at Cambridge University. [2] [3] There, he achieved a first in Oriental languages.

[4] In Fleming's novels, Bond alluded to briefly attending the University of Geneva (as did Fleming), before being taught to ski in Kitzbühel. [5] Following his graduation, Bond joined the Ministry of Defence and became a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves, rising though the ranks to commander. Bond applied to M for a position within the " Secret Service ", part of the Civil Service, and rose to the rank of principal officer. Shared characteristics Personal tastes Bond has a number of character traits which run throughout the books and movies, including an enjoyment of cars, women, gambling, food and drink. In the novels, Bond is portrayed as a heavy drinker and smoker, largely mirroring Fleming's own personal tastes. Age Because the James Bond Film Franchise has lasted nearly sixty years, the characters do not age in relation to release of the first film. Rather, Bond is always mid-aged. Likewise, in Ian Fleming's stories, James Bond is in his mid-to-late thirties. Firearms & Gadgets Main article: List of firearms , Gadgets In the Fleming novels prior to Dr. No , Bond's firearm of choice had been the Beretta 418 .

However, following suggestions from firearms collector Geoffrey Boothroyd, from Dr. No on-wards Bond was equipped instead with the Walther PPK . Aside from this weapon, 007 also carried a revolver for long-range shooting and made use of weapons as an when he obtained them. From his first EON film appearance in 1962 through to 1997 Bond's primary firearm was the Walther PPK . Similar to his novel counterpart, M notes that Bond's Beretta almost cost the secret agent his life and insists that he replace it with the Walther PPK . Following 1997 the character was armed instead with the modern Walther P99 until Quantum of Solace , where the character was equipped once more with the PPK. Relationships Main article: Bond girl Bond has had many romantic encounters with women, although most have been short-lived. He was married only once, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, to Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo , but their marriage was short-lived as she was tragically murdered on their wedding day by Ernst Stavro Blofeld .

Tracy's death would be a reoccurring theme over the course of the EON films, explicitly referenced in The Spy Who Loved Me , For Your Eyes Only and Licence to Kill . References James Bond (Character) James Bond (Character) from Dr. No (1962) The content of this page was created by users. It has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff. There may be more photos available for this character. To select more photos to be displayed in this character's gallery, click the Edit Photos link. Overview COMMANDER JAMES BOND, CMG, RNVR (Sean Connery, George Lazenby... See more » Alternate Names: 007 / 007 Boyfriend / Agente 007 / Ajay 'James Bond 009' / Chandu alias James Bond / Cyborg 007 / Daniel Craig Bond / Derek Flint / F.D.

James Bond / Fake James Bond / Hue Bond / Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 / Jaggu 'James Bond' / James Bond 007 / James Bond in Gunbarrel Sequence / Noble_Savage_007 / Previous Bonds / Prison Officer JRB007 / Sean Connery Bond / Sir James Bond / Spanish James Bond 007 / Young James Bond / Young James Bong / james Bond Filmography ... aka "Abide with Me" - International (English title) (segment title) ... aka "And in the End..." - International (English title) (segment title) ... aka "Bike a.m." - International (English title) (segment title) ... aka "Countdown" - International (English title) (segment title) ... aka "Frankie & June Say... Thanks Tim" - International (English title) (segment title) ... aka "Green and Pleasant Land" - International (English title) (segment title) ... aka "Happy & Glorious" - International (English title) (segment title) ... aka "Interlude" - International (English title) (segment title) ... aka "Let the Games Begin" - International (English title) (segment title) ...

aka "Pandemonium" - International (English title) (segment title) ... aka "Second to the Right, and Straight on Till Morning" - International (English title) (segment title) ... aka "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" - International (English title) (segment title) ... aka "Welcome" - International (English title) (segment title) James Bond History - Discover The Secret Agent's Origins And More SEE ALSO – Top Ten James Bond Cars That I Would Love To Own A new novel, written by William Boyd, is planned for release in 2013. Additionally, Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond, and Kate Westbrook wrote three novels based on the diaries of a recurring series character, Moneypenny. The fictional British Secret Service agent has also been adapted for television, radio, comic strip, and video game formats in addition to having been used in the longest continually running and the second-highest grossing film series to date, which started in 1962 with Dr. No, starring Sean Connery as Bond. As of 2013, there have been twenty-three films in the Eon Productions series.

The most recent Bond film, Skyfall (2012), stars Daniel Craig in his third portrayal of Bond; he is the sixth actor to play Bond in the Eon series. There have also been two independent productions of Bond films: Casino Royale (a 1967 spoof) and Never Say Never Again (a 1983 remake of an earlier Eon-produced film, Thunderball). The Bond films are renowned for a number of features, including the musical accompaniment, with the theme songs having received Academy Award nominations on several occasions, and one win. Other important elements which run through most of the films include Bond’s cars, his guns, and the gadgets with which he is supplied by Q Branch. James Bond History As the central figure for his works, Ian Fleming created the fictional character of James Bond, an intelligence officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond was also known by his code number, 007, and was a Royal Naval Reserve Commander. James Bond Name Fleming took the name for his character from that of the American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies.

Fleming, a keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond’s guide and he later explained to the ornithologist’s wife that “It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born”. He further explained that: “When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument … when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, (James Bond) is the dullest name I ever heard.” —Ian Fleming, The New Yorker, 21 April 1962 Inspiration Fleming based his fictional creation on a number of individuals he came across during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, admitting that Bond “was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war”. Among those types were his brother, Peter, who had been involved in behind-the-lines operations in Norway and Greece during the war.

Aside from Fleming’s brother, a number of others also provided some aspects of Bond’s make up, including Conrad O’Brien-ffrench, Patrick Dalzel-Job and Bill “Biffy” Dunderdale. Tastes Fleming also endowed Bond with many of his own traits, including sharing the same golf handicap, the taste for scrambled eggs and using the same brand of toiletries. Bond’s tastes are also often taken from Fleming’s own as was his behavior, with Bond’s love of golf and gambling mirroring Fleming’s own. Fleming also used his experiences of his espionage career and all other aspects of his life as inspiration when writing, including using names of school friends, acquaintances, relatives and lovers throughout his books. Background It was not until the penultimate novel, You Only Live Twice, that Fleming gave Bond a sense of family background. The book was the first to be written after the release of Dr. No in cinemas and Sean Connery’s depiction of Bond affected Fleming’s interpretation of the character, to give Bond both a sense of humor and Scottish antecedents that were not present in the previous stories.

In a fictional obituary, purportedly published in The Times, Bond’s parents were given as Andrew Bond, from the village of Glencoe, Scotland, and Monique Delacroix, from the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Fleming did not provide Bond’s date of birth, but John Pearson’s fictional biography of Bond, James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007, gives Bond a birth date on 11 November 1920, while a study by John Griswold puts the date at 11 November 1921. Ian Fleming novels Whilst serving in the Naval Intelligence Division, Fleming had planned to become an author and had told a friend, “I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories.” On 17 February 1952, he began writing his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica, where he wrote all his Bond novels during the months of January and February each year. He started the story shortly before his wedding to his pregnant girlfriend, Ann Charteris, in order to distract himself from his forthcoming nuptials.

After completing the manuscript for Casino Royale, Fleming showed the manuscript to his friend (and later editor) William Plomer to read. Plomer liked it and submitted it to the publishers, Jonathan Cape, who did not like it as much. Cape finally published it in 1953 on the recommendation of Fleming’s older brother Peter, an established travel writer. Between 1953 and 1966, two years after his death, twelve novels and two short-story collections were published, with the last three books – The Man with the Golden Gun, Octopussy and The Living Daylights – published posthumously. All the books were published in the UK through Jonathan Cape. 1953 Casino Royale 1954 Live and Let Die 1955 Moonraker 1957 From Russia, with Love 1958 Dr.

No 1960 For Your Eyes Only (short stories) 1961 Thunderball 1962 The Spy Who Loved Me 1963 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 1964 You Only Live Twice 1965 The Man with the Golden Gun 1966 Octopussy The Living Daylights (short stories) Post-Fleming novels After Fleming’s death a continuation novel, Colonel Sun, was written by Kingsley Amis (as Robert Markham) and published in 1968. Amis had already written a literary study of Fleming’s Bond novels in his 1965 work The James Bond Dossier. Although novelizations of two of the Eon Productions Bond films appeared in print, James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me and James Bond and Moonraker, both written by screenwriter Christopher Wood, the series of novels did not continue until the 1980s. In 1981, thriller writer John Gardner picked up the series with License Renewed.

Gardner went on to write sixteen Bond books in total; two of the books he wrote – License to Kill and GoldenEye – were novelizations of Eon Productions films of the same name. Gardner moved the Bond series into the 1980s, although he retained the ages of the characters as they were when Fleming had left them. In 1996, Gardner retired from writing James Bond books due to ill health. 1981 Licence Renewed 1995 GoldenEye (novelization) 1996 COLD In 1996, American author Raymond Benson became the author of the Bond novels. Benson had previously been the author of The James Bond Bedside Companion, first published in 1984. By the time he moved on to other, non-Bond related projects in 2002, Benson had written six Bond novels, three novelizations and three short stories.

1997 “Blast From the Past” (short story) 1997 Zero Minus Ten 1997 Tomorrow Never Dies (novelization) 1998 The Facts of Death 1999 “Midsummer Night’s Doom” (short story) 1999 “Live at Five”[60] (short story) 1999 The World Is Not Enough (novelization) 1999 High Time to Kill 2000 DoubleShot 2001 Never Dream of Dying 2002 The Man with the Red Tattoo 2002 Die Another Day (novelization) After a gap of six years, Sebastian Faulks was commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications to write a new Bond novel, which was released on 28 May 2008, the 100th anniversary of Ian Fleming’s birth. The book—titled Devil May Care—was published in the UK by Penguin Books and by Doubleday in the US. American writer Jeffery Deaver was then commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications to produce Carte Blanche, which was published on 26 May 2011.

The book updated Bond into a post-9/11 agent, independent of MI5 or MI6. James Bond For TV And Movies In 1954 CBS paid Ian Fleming $1,000 ($8,549 in 2013 dollars) to adapt his novel Casino Royale into a one-hour television adventure. The episode aired live on 21 October 1954 and starred Barry Nelson as “Card Sense” James ‘Jimmy’ Bond and Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre. The novel was adapted for American audiences to show Bond as an American agent working for “Combined Intelligence”, while the character Felix Leiter—American in the novel—became British onscreen and was renamed “Clarence Leiter”. In 1962 Eon Productions, the company of Canadian Harry Saltzman and American Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, released the first cinema adaptation of an Ian Fleming novel, Dr. No, featuring Sean Connery as 007. Connery starred in a further four films before leaving the role after You Only Live Twice, which was taken up by George Lazenby for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Lazenby left the role after just one appearance and Connery was tempted back for his last Eon-produced film Diamonds Are Forever. In 1973, Roger Moore was appointed to the role of 007 for Live and Let Die and played Bond a further six times over twelve years before being replaced by Timothy Dalton for two films. After a six-year hiatus, during which a legal wrangle threatened Eon’s productions of the Bond films, Irish actor Pierce Brosnan was cast as Bond in GoldenEye, released in 1995. Brosnan remained in the role for a total of four films, before leaving in 2002. In 2006, Daniel Craig was given the role of Bond for Casino Royale, which rebooted the series. The twenty-third Eon produced film, Skyfall, was released on 26 October 2012. The series has grossed just over $6 billion to date, making it the second-highest-grossing film series (behind Harry Potter), and the single most successful adjusted for inflation. Dr.

No 1962 Sean Connery From Russia with Love 1963 Goldfinger 1964 You Only Live Twice 1967 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 1969 George Lazenby Diamonds Are Forever 1971 Sean Connery Live and Let Die 1973 Roger Moore The Man with the Golden Gun 1974 The Spy Who Loved Me 1977 Moonraker 1979 For Your Eyes Only 1981 Octopussy 1983 A View to a Kill 1985 The Living Daylights 1987 Timothy Dalton Licence to Kill 1989 The World Is Not Enough 1999 Die Another Day 2002 Casino Royale 2006 Daniel Craig Quantum of Solace 2008 Skyfall 2012 James Bond Music The “James Bond Theme” was written by Monty Norman and was first orchestrated by the John Barry Orchestra for 1962’s Dr. No, although the actual authorship of the music has been a matter of controversy for many years.

A Bond film staple are the theme songs heard during their title sequences sung by well-known popular singers. Several of the songs produced for the films have been nominated for Academy Awards for Original Song, including Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”, Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better”, Sheena Easton’s “For Your Eyes Only” and Adele’s “Skyfall”. Adele won the award at the 85th Academy Awards. For the non-Eon produced Casino Royale, Burt Bacharach’s score included “The Look of Love”, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song. James Bond Video games In 1983, the first Bond video game, developed and published by Parker Brothers, was released for the Atari 2600, the Atari 5200, the Atari 800, the Commodore 64 and the ColecoVision. Since then, there have been numerous video games either based on the films or using original storylines. In 1997, the first-person shooter video game GoldenEye 007 was developed by Rare for the Nintendo 64, based on the 1995 Pierce Brosnan film GoldenEye.

The game received very positive reviews, won the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award for UK Developer of the Year in 1998 and sold over eight million copies worldwide, grossing $250 million. In 1999, Electronic Arts acquired the license and released Tomorrow Never Dies on 16 December 1999. In October 2000, they released The World Is Not Enough for the Nintendo 64 followed by 007 Racing for the PlayStation on 21 November 2000. In 2003, the company released James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, which included the likenesses and voices of Pierce Brosnan, Willem Dafoe, Heidi Klum, Judi Dench and John Cleese, amongst others. In November 2005, Electronic Arts released a video game adaptation of 007: From Russia with Love, which involved Sean Connery’s image and voice-over for Bond. In 2006 Electronic Arts announced a game based on then-upcoming film Casino Royale: the game was canceled because it would not be ready by the film’s release in November of that year.

With MGM losing revenue from lost licensing fees, the franchise was removed from EA to Activision. Activision subsequently released the 007: Quantum of Solace game on 31 October 2008, based on the film of the same name. In October 2012 007 Legends was released, which featured one mission from each of the Bond actors of the Eon Productions’ series. James Bond Guns For the first five novels, Fleming armed Bond with a Beretta 418 until he received a letter from a thirty-one-year-old Bond enthusiast and gun expert, Geoffrey Boothroyd, criticizing Fleming’s choice of firearm for Bond, calling it “a lady’s gun – and not a very nice lady at that!” Boothroyd suggested that Bond should swap his Beretta for a Walther PPK 7.65mm and this exchange of arms made it to Dr. No. Boothroyd also gave Fleming advice on the Berns-Martin triple draw shoulder holster and a number of the weapons used by SMERSH and other villains. In thanks, Fleming gave the MI6 Armorer in his novels the name Major Boothroyd and, in Dr.

No, M introduces him to Bond as “the greatest small-arms expert in the world”. Bond also used a variety of rifles, including the Savage Model 99 in “For Your Eyes Only” and a Winchester .308 target rifle in “The Living Daylights”. Other handguns used by Bond in the Fleming books included the Colt Detective Special and a long-barreled Colt .45 Army Special. The first Bond film, Dr. No, saw M ordering Bond to leave his Beretta behind and take up the Walther PPK, which the film Bond used in eighteen films. In Tomorrow Never Dies and the two subsequent films, Bond’s main weapon was the Walther P99 semi-automatic pistol. James Bond Vehicles In the early Bond stories Fleming gave Bond a battleship-gray Bentley 4½ Liter with an Amherst Villiers supercharger. After Bond’s car was written off by Hugo Drax in Moonraker, Fleming gave Bond a Mark II Continental Bentley, which he used in the remaining books of the series. During Goldfinger, Bond was issued with an Aston Martin DB Mark III with a homing device, which he used to track Goldfinger across France. Bond returned to his Bentley for the subsequent novels.

The Bond of the films has driven a number of cars, including the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, during the 1980s, the V12 Vanquish and DBS during the 2000s, as well as the Lotus Esprit; the BMW Z3, BMW 750iL and the BMW Z8. He has, however, also needed to drive a number of other vehicles, ranging from a Citroën 2CV to a Routemaster Bus, amongst others. Bond’s most famous car is the silver gray Aston Martin DB5, first seen in Goldfinger; it later featured in Thunderball, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, Casino Royale and Skyfall. The films have used a number of different Aston Martins for filming and publicity, one of which was sold in January 2006 at an auction in the US for $2,090,000 to an unnamed European collector. James Bond Gadgets Fleming’s novels and early screen adaptations presented minimal equipment such as the booby-trapped attaché case in From Russia with Love, although this situation changed dramatically with the films. However, the effects of the two Eon-produced Bond films Dr.

No and From Russia with Love had an effect on the novel The Man with the Golden Gun, through the increased number of devices used in Fleming’s final story. For the film adaptations of Bond, the pre-mission briefing by Q Branch became one of the motifs that ran through the series. Dr. No provided no spy-related gadgets, but a Geiger counter was used; industrial designer Andy Davey observed that the first ever on screen spy-gadget was the attaché case shown in From Russia with Love, which he described as “a classic 007 product”. The gadgets assumed a higher profile in the 1964 film Goldfinger. The film’s success encouraged further espionage equipment from Q Branch to be supplied to Bond, although the increased use of technology led to an accusation that Bond was over-reliant on equipment, particularly in the later films. Davey noted that “Bond’s gizmos follow the zeitgeist more closely than any other … nuance in the films” as they moved from the potential representations of the future in the early films, through to the brand-name obsessions of the later films.

It is also noticeable that, although Bond uses a number of pieces of equipment from Q Branch, including the Little Nellie autogyro, a jet pack and the exploding attaché case, the villains are also well-equipped with custom-made devices, including Scaramanga’s golden gun, Rosa Klebb’s poison-tipped shoes, Oddjob’s steel-rimmed bowler hat and Blofeld’s communication and bacteriological warfare agents vanity case. Who Inspired James Bond? Who Inspired James Bond? James Bond (ornithologist) Although the stories and characters were fictional, a number of elements had a real life background, taken from real people or events that Ian Fleming knew or about which he had read. These included the name James Bond, which Fleming took from the American ornithologist James Bond. [1] World War I The number 007 was also assigned by Ian Fleming in reference to one of British naval intelligence's key achievements of World War I: the breaking of the German diplomatic code. One of the German documents cracked and read by the British was the Zimmermann Telegram, which was coded 0075, and which was one of the factors that led the US entering the war.

Subsequently if material was graded 00 it meant it was highly classified and, as journalist Ben Macintyre has pointed out, "to anyone versed in intelligence history, 007 signified the highest achievement of British military intelligence." [3] Ian Fleming During World War II Ian Fleming was the personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral John Godfrey. He reached the rank of commander—a rank he subsequently gave to his fictional creation—and was the planner for special operations unit 30th Assault Unit. Many of James Bond's tastes and traits were Fleming's own, including sharing the same golf handicap, the taste for scrambled eggs and using the same brand of toiletries. Bond's tastes are also often taken from Fleming's own as was his behaviour, with Bond's love of golf and gambling mirroring Fleming's own. [4] Sidney Cotton Ian Fleming based his fictional creation on a number of individuals he came across during his time in Intelligence. One of the inspirations for James Bond was Sidney Cotton, a close friend of Ian Fleming during World War II. After having served as a pilot in World War I, Cotton worked for MI6 photographing German factories, military installations and airfields from a camera hidden in a plane's fuselage.

[5] Patrick Dalzel-Job Patrick Dalzel-Job was a Naval Intelligence Officer and Commando of World War II. He was also an accomplished linguist, author, mariner, navigator, parachutist, diver and skier and knew Ian Fleming through his service with 30AU. Like James Bond, he had a rebellious streak when he disagreed with orders on points of principle. [6] Dalzel-Job was widely acclaimed as one of the main inspirations for James Bond, Ian Fleming's fictional character, though he stated that he personally "only ever loved one woman" and was "not a drinking man". [7] Wilfred (Biffy) Dunderdale Wilfred Albert (Biffy) Dunderdale was a British spy and intelligence officer. It has been suggested that Dunderdale was used by Ian Fleming as a basis for the character of James Bond. [8] Dunderdale was the MI6 head of station in Paris. He would regularly dine at Maxim's; he drove an armour-plated Rolls-Royce and dress in handmade suits and Cartier cufflinks.

Dunderdale was a bon viveur who enjoyed attractive women and fast cars and was a friend of Fleming's during World War II. [9] Peter Fleming James Bond was also modeled after Peter Fleming, Ian Fleming's brother. He was a wartime expert of military intelligence and irregular warfare. He spent time behind enemy lines in Norway and Greece during the war. He also spent time in Delhi, organizing deception plans to fool the Imperial Japanese Army. [11] Sandy Glen Sandy Glen knew Ian Fleming and is often given as one of the inspirations for James Bond. [12] Glen was a former Arctic explorer who worked with Fleming in Naval Intelligence. Like Bond, Glen went to Fettes College and had Scottish antecedents. [13] Duane Hudson According to The Sunday Times, Ian Fleming used Duane Hudson as a model for his character James Bond. [14] Hudson spent much of the Second World War behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia, initially with the British Secret Service and subsequently with the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Hudson survived assassination attempts and recruited a network of agents to blow up Axis shipping—blowing up an Italian ship single-handedly.

[15] Michael Mason Michael Mason is also one of the inspirations for James Bond. Mason ran away from his wealthy family at an early age to go to Canada where he worked as a trapper and professional boxer. At the outbreak of war he worked in then-neutral Bucharest where he killed two German agents who were trying to assassinate him. [17] Merlin Minshall Merlin Minshall is often claimed to have been one of the inspirations behind James Bond, the fictional spy created by Ian Fleming. Minshall worked for Fleming during the Second World War, as a member of the Royal Navy's Naval Intelligence Division. [18] Conrad O'Brien-ffrench Conrad O'Brien-ffrench was a distinguished British Secret Intelligence Officer, decorated army officer, skier, mountaineer, linguist, traveller and artist. He met Fleming in Austria in the 1930s while working for Claude Dansey's "Z" network gathering information on German troop movements. [19] Conrad's style, athletic endeavors, personal adventures and experience in espionage may have provided Ian Fleming with some of his inspirations for James Bond.

[20] Dušan Popov Dušan Popov was a Serbian double agent of both MI5 (code named Agent Tricycle) and the Abwehr. Ian Fleming knew Popov and followed him in Portugal, witnessing an event in the Estoril Casino where Popov placed a bet of $40,000 ($632,036 in 2012 dollars) in order to cause a rival to withdraw from a baccarat table: Fleming used this episode as the basis for Casino Royale. [21] Sidney Reily Sidney Reilly was an agent for Scotland Yard's Special Branch and the British Secret Service Bureau. In 1918, Reilly was employed by Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming as an operative for MI1(c), an early designation for the MI6. Reilly's friend Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart knew Ian Fleming for many years and told him of Reilly's espionage adventures; Fleming subsequently mentioned to a colleague at The Sunday Times that he had created James Bond after hearing about Reilly. [22] Peter Smithers Sir Peter Smithers, who was known to Fleming, organized passage for British refugees from France as the Nazis advanced through France.

Later, as a naval attaché, he worked in Washington on spreading disinformation about the Nazis. Smithers spent part of the war working in Naval Intelligence. Ian Fleming later named a character in Goldfinger after him. [23] William Stephenson William Stephenson was a Canadian spymaster, best known by his code name, Intrepid. Stephenson was the head of the British Security Coordination, an MI6 organisation based in New York. Regarding him, Fleming wrote in The Sunday Times of 21 October 1962 that Bond was: "a highly romanticized version of a true spy. The real thing, the man who became one of the great agents of the [Second World War] is William Stephenson." [24] James Bond (Literary) | James Bond Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia [ show ] Background In the novels, James' parents ( Andrew Bond of Scotland and Monique Delacroix-Bond of the Canton de Vaud, Switzerland) were tragically killed during a climbing accident in the French Alps when he was eleven.

He had acquired a first-class command of the French and German languages during his early education, which he received entirely abroad due to his father's work as a Vickers armaments company representative. When his parents are killed in a mountain climbing accident in the Aiguilles Rouges near Chamonix, eleven-year-old James is orphaned. After the death of his parents, Bond goes to live with his aunt, Miss Charmian Bond in the small village of Pett Bottom, Canterbury, where he completed his early education. Later, he briefly attends Eton College at "12 or thereabouts", but is removed after two terms because of girl trouble with a maid. After leaving Eton, Bond was sent to Fettes College in Scotland, his father's school. [1] On his first visit to Paris at the age of sixteen, Bond lost his virginity, later reminiscing about the event in " From a View to a Kill ". [2] After leaving Fettes, Bond studies briefly attending the University of Geneva (as did Fleming), before being taught to ski in Kitzbühel by Hannes Oberhauser . [3] Following his graduation, Bond joined the Ministry of Defence shortly before the outbreak of World War II .

Bond applied to M for a position within the " Secret Service ", part of the Civil Service, and rose to the rank of principal officer. It was not until the penultimate novel, You Only Live Twice , that Fleming gave Bond a sense of family background, using a fictional obituary, purportedly from The Times. The book was the second to be written after the release of Dr. No in cinemas and Sean Connery 's depiction of Bond affected Fleming's interpretation of the character, to give Bond both a sense of humour and Scottish antecedents that were not present in the previous stories. The novel reveals Bond is the son of a Scottish father, Andrew Bond , of Glencoe, and a Swiss mother, Monique Delacroix , of the Canton de Vaud. The young James Bond spends much of his early life abroad, becoming multilingual in German and French because of his father's work as a Vickers armaments company representative. When his parents are killed in a mountain climbing accident in the Aiguilles Rouges near Chamonix, eleven-year-old James is orphaned.

At the start of Fleming's first book, Casino Royale, Bond is already a 00 agent having been given the position after killing two enemy agents, a Japanese spy on the thirty-sixth floor of the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in New York City and a Norwegian double agent who had betrayed two British agents; it is suggested by Bond scholar John Griswold that these were part of Bond's wartime service with Special Operations Executive (SOE), a British World War II covert military organisation. In 1954, according to the Soviet file on him in From Russia, With Love, Bond is made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. In Ian Fleming's stories, James Bond is in his mid-to-late thirties, but does not age. In Moonraker, he admits to being eight years shy of mandatory retirement age from the 00 section—forty-five—which would mean he was thirty-seven at the time.

Fleming did not provide Bond's date of birth, but John Pearson's fictional biography of Bond, James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 , gives him a birth date of 11 November 1920, whilst a study by Bond scholar John Griswold puts the date at 11 November 1921. According to Griswold, the Fleming novels take place between around May 1951, to February 1964, by which time Bond was aged 42. Personal life Bond lives in a flat off the King's Road in Chelsea. His flat is looked after by an elderly Scottish housekeeper named May. May's name was taken from May Maxwell, the housekeeper of Fleming's close friend, the American Ivar Bryce. In 1955 Bond earned around £2,000 a year net (£39,058 in 2012 pounds), although when on assignment he worked on an unlimited expense account.

Much of Fleming's own daily routine whilst working at The Sunday Times was woven into the Bond stories and he summarised it at the beginning of Moonraker: "..elastic office hours from around ten to six; lunch, generally in the canteen; evenings spent playing cards in the company of a few close friends, or at Crockford's; or making love, with rather cold passion, to one of three similarly disposed married women; weekends playing golf for high stakes at one of the clubs near London." —Moonraker, Chapter 1: Secret paper-work Only once in the series does Fleming install a partner for Bond in his flat, with the arrival of Tiffany Case , following Bond's mission to the US in Diamonds Are Forever . By the start of the following book, From Russia, With Love, Case had left to marry an American. Bond was married only once, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, to Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo , but their marriage was short-lived as she was killed on their wedding day by Ernst Stavro Blofeld . In the penultimate novel of the series, You Only Live Twice', Bond suffers from amnesia and has a relationship with an Ama diving girl, Kissy Suzuki .

As a result of the relationship Kissy becomes pregnant, although she does not reveal this to Bond before he leaves the island. In Never Send Flowers it is said that at some point in his life Bond visited Disney World with a girlfriend, intending to stay only two days, but liked the park so much that they had stayed for a whole week. Bond also showed that he recognized a great deal of Disney's characters. Inspiration Fleming took the name for his character from that of the American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies; Fleming, a keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond's guide and he later explained to the ornithologist’s wife that "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born".

He further explained that: "When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument...when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, (James Bond) is the dullest name I ever heard." —Ian Fleming, The New Yorker, 21 April 1962 On another occasion Fleming said: "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, "James Bond" was much better than something more interesting, like "Peregrine Carruthers". Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure—an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department." Fleming based his creation on a number of individuals he came across during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, admitting that Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war".

Amongst those types were his brother, Peter, who Fleming worshipped, and who had been involved in behind the lines operations in Norway and Greece during the war.&nbsp Aside from Fleming's brother, a number of others also provided some aspects of Bond's make up, including Conrad O'Brien-ffrench, a skiing spy whom Fleming had met in Kitzbühel in the 1930s, Patrick Dalzel-Job, who served with distinction in 30 AU during the war, and Bill "Biffy" Dunderdale, station head of MI6 in Paris, who wore cufflinks and handmade suits and was chauffeured around Paris in a Rolls-Royce. Sir Fitzroy MacLean was another figure mentioned as a possibility, based on his wartime work behind enemy lines in the Balkans, as was the MI6 double agent Dušan Popov. Tastes Beverages Fleming biographer Andrew Lycett noted that, "within the first few pages [of Casino Royale ] Ian had introduced most of Bond's idiosyncrasies and trademarks", which included his looks, his Bentley and his smoking and drinking habits.

The full details of Bond's martini were kept until chapter seven of the book and Bond eventually named it "The Vesper", after Vesper Lynd. Bond's drinking habits run throughout the series of books. During the course of On Her Majesty's Secret Service alone, Bond consumes forty-six drinks: Pouilly-Fuissé, Riquewihr and Marsala wines, most of a bottle of Algerian wine, some 1953 Château Mouton Rothschild claret, along with Taittinger and Krug champagnes and Babycham; for whiskies he consumes three bourbon and waters, half a pint of I.W. Harper bourbon, Jack Daniel's whiskey, two double bourbons on the rocks, two whisky and sodas, two neat scotches and one glass of neat whisky; vodka consumption totalled four vodka and tonics and three double vodka martinis; other sprits included two double brandies with ginger ale, a flask of Enzian Schnaps and a double gin: he also washed this down with four steins of German beer. For his non-alcoholic drinks, Bond eschews tea, calling it "mud" and blaming it for the downfall of the British Empire.

He instead prefers to drink coffee. P Blue Mountain Jamaican Coffee erferably Blue Mountain Jamaican coffee Cuisine When in England and not on a mission, Bond dines as simply as Fleming did on dishes such as grilled sole, oeufs en cocotte and cold roast beef with potato salad. When on a mission, however, Bond eats more extravagantly. This was partly because in 1953, when Casino Royale was published, many items of food were still rationed, and Bond was "the ideal antidote to Britain's postwar austerity, rationing and the looming premonition of lost power". This extravagance was more noteworthy with his contemporary readers for Bond eating exotic, local foods when abroad, at a time when most of his readership did not travel abroad. On 1 April 1958 Fleming wrote to The Manchester Guardian in defence of his work, referring to that paper's review of Dr. No . Whilst referring to Bond's food and wine consumption as "gimmickery", Fleming bemoaned that "it has become an unfortunate trade-mark. I myself abhor Wine-and-Foodmanship.

My own favourite food is scrambled eggs." Fleming was so keen on scrambled eggs that he used his short story, " 007 in New York " to provide his favourite recipe for the dish: in the story, this came from the housekeeper of his friend Ivar Bryce, May, who gave her name to Bond's own housekeeper. Bond believes that a steak has a flavor of its own, and as such should not be eaten with anything on them, save for salt and pepper. Smoking Bond is a heavy smoker, at one point smoking 70 cigarettes a day. Bond has his cigarettes custom-made by Morland of Grosvenor Street, mixing Balkan and Turkish tobacco and having a higher nicotine content than normal; the cigarettes have three gold bands on the filter. Bond carried his cigarettes in a wide gunmetal cigarette case which carried fifty; he also used a black oxidised Ronson lighter. The cigarettes were the same as Fleming's, who had been buying his at Morland since the 1930s; the three gold bands on the filter were added during the war to mirror his naval Commander's rank.

On average, Bond smokes sixty cigarettes a day, although he cut back to around twenty five a day after his visit to a health farm in Thunderball . Fleming himself smoked up to 80 cigarettes a day. In Carte Blanche he is a former smoker. Drugs Bond occasionally supplements his alcohol consumption with the use of other drugs, for both functional and recreational reasons: Moonraker sees Bond consumes a quantity of the amphetamine benzedrine accompanied by champagne, before his bridge game with Sir Hugo Drax (also consuming a carafe of vintage Riga vodka and a vodka martini); he also uses the drug for stimulation on missions, such as swimming across Shark Bay in Live and Let Die , or remaining awake and alert when threatened in the Dreamy Pines Motor Court in The Spy Who Loved Me . Looks Hoagy Carmichael Facially, Bond resembles the composer, singer and actor Hoagy Carmichael. In Casino Royale Vesper Lynd remarks, "Bond reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless." Likewise, in Moonraker, Special Branch Officer Gala Brand thinks that Bond is "certainly good-looking . . . Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way.

That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold." Others, such as journalist Ben Macintyre, identify aspects of Fleming's own looks in his description of Bond. General references in the novels describe Bond as having "dark, rather cruel good looks". In the novels (notably From Russia, with Love ), Bond's physical description has generally been consistent: slim build; a three-inch long, thin vertical scar on his right cheek; blue-grey eyes; a "cruel" mouth; short, black hair, a comma of which falls on his forehead. Physically he is described as 183 centimetres (6 feet) in height and 76 kilograms (167 lb) in weight. After Casino Royale, Bond also had the faint scar of the Russian cyrillic letter "Ш" (SH) (for Shpion: "Spy") on the back of one of his hands, carved by a SMERSH agent. Abilities Ian Fleming and Geoffrey Boothroyd.

From Casino Royale to From Russia, with Love, Bond's preferred weapon is a .25 ACP Beretta automatic pistol carried in a light-weight chamois leather holster. However Fleming was contacted by a Bond enthusiast and gun expert, Geoffrey Boothroyd, who criticised Fleming's choice of firearm for Bond and suggested a Walther PPK 7.65mm instead. Fleming used the suggestion in Dr. No, also taking advice that it should be used with the Berns-Martin triple draw shoulder holster. By way of thanks, the MI6 Armourer who gives Bond his gun was given the name Major Boothroyd , and is introduced by M as "the greatest small-arms expert in the world". Kingsley Amis, in The James Bond Dossier, noted that although Bond is a very good shot and the best in the Secret Service, he is still beaten by the instructor, something that added realism to Bond's character. Amis identified a number of skills where Bond is very good, but is still beatable by others. These included skiing, hand-to-hand combat, underwater swimming and golf.

Driving was also an ability Amis identified where Bond was good, but others were better; one of those who is a better driver than Bond is Sir Hugo Drax, who causes Bond to write off his battleship-grey Bentley 4½ Litre with an Amherst Villiers supercharger. Bond subsequently drives a Mark II Continental Bentley, which he uses in the remaining books of the series, although he is issued an Aston Martin DB Mark III with a homing device during the course of Goldfinger . Novels and related works Ian Fleming novels Whilst serving in the Naval Intelligence Division, Fleming had planned to become an author and had told a friend, "I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories." On 17 February 1952, he began writing his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica , where he wrote all his Bond novels, during the months of January and February each year. He started the story shortly before his wedding to his pregnant girlfriend, Ann Charteris, in order to distract himself from his forthcoming nuptials. After completing the manuscript for Casino Royale, Fleming showed the manuscript to his friend (and later editor) William Plomer to read.

Plomer liked it and submitted it to the publishers, Jonathan Cape, who did not like it as much. Cape finally published it in 1953 on the recommendation of Fleming's older brother Peter, an established travel writer. Between 1953 and 1966, two years after his death, twelve novels and two short-story collections were published, with the last two books – The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy and The Living Daylights – published posthumously. All the books were published in the UK through Jonathan Cape. James Bond creator Ian Fleming dies - Aug 12, 1964 - HISTORY.com James Bond creator Ian Fleming dies Share this: James Bond creator Ian Fleming dies Author James Bond creator Ian Fleming dies URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1964, the British author and journalist Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, the world’s most famous fictional spy, dies of a heart attack at age 56 in Kent, England. Fleming’s series of novels about the debonair Agent 007, based in part on their dashing author’s real-life experiences, spawned one of the most lucrative film franchises in history.

Ian Lancaster Fleming was born into a well-to-do family in London on May 29, 1908. As an adult, he worked as a foreign correspondent, a stockbroker and a personal assistant to Britain’s director of naval intelligence during World War II–experiences that would all provide fodder for his Bond novels. The first Bond book, Casino Royale, was published in 1953. In all, Fleming wrote 12 novels and two short story collections about Agent 007, which together sold more than 18 million copies. According to The New York Times: “Bond himself, Fleming said, was ‘a compound of all the secret agents and commandos I met during the war,’ but his tastes– in blondes, martinis ‘shaken, not stirred,’ expensively tailored suits, scrambled eggs, short-sleeved shirts and Rolex watches–were Fleming’s own. But not all the comparisons were ones the author liked to encourage. Bond, he said, had ‘more guts than I have’ as well as being ‘more handsome.’” The first Bond film, Dr. No, was released in 1962; it starred the Scottish actor Sean Connery in the title role.

Connery played Bond in six films altogether; From Russia With Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964) were the only ones made during Fleming’s lifetime. Since that time, five other actors–George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig–have played the superspy in some two dozen films from EON Productions. Fleming, who did much of his writing at his Jamaican home, Goldeneye, also penned a children’s book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and several works of non-fiction. Following Fleming’s death, a string of other authors were commissioned to write Bond novels. Related Videos

Question: Who created the character of James Bond?
Answer: Ian Fleming