The Search For Bond Part 2 of an exclusive 3-part article

Since his first run in with Bond back in 1968, Michael Billington had been cast as Colonel Paul Foster in the cult Gerry and Sylvia Anderson sci-fi series UFO. He was still working on that show when Bond came back into his life. According to Billington, Saltzman came to the studio to see some footage from the show, as he was planning to follow Diamonds Are Forever with Moonraker and was looking for some expertise with Special Effects. Sylvia Anderson, an accomplished casting director herself, suggested to Saltzman that Billington might be right to play Bond. Indeed, Billington had been cast as Foster to bring a bit of action man heroics to UFO. 'When I was spruced up, I did look a little bit Bond-like,' confirmed Billington. ‘I think the Andersons felt that could be an influence. Foster was a veiled attempt to introduce a Bond-type character into the series.’

Nothing came of Saltzman’s visit to the set of UFO, but when the casting for Live And Let Die began, Billington heard that Broccoli wanted to see him. ‘I felt the meeting went well and I liked Cubby as a person. I also think I did well on the test and liked Guy Hamilton. The scene was a specially written one, which I played with actress Caroline Seymour. I heard from my agent that there was going to be an offer made. When it was announced that Roger Moore was going to do it, I was stunned. Getting the Bond role was as close as could be really. I think I was the unanimous choice at one point of both Cubby & Harry and Guy Hamilton; they all at one time or another gave me the seal of approval.’

Billington didn’t hear from the Bond team for quite a while, the only feedback he received was from Jane Seymour, who had played his wife in the BBC Television Series The Onedin Line (1973/1974) and had been cast as Solitaire in Live And Let Die. She told Billington that Harry Saltzman from time to time quizzed her about him, probing questions about his sexuality and such like. Something about Billington’s test must have stuck in Broccoli’s mind too, because the producer asked the actor in 1977 to appear in The Spy Who Loved Me, in a small role as KGB agent Sergei Barsov, who as the film begins is in bed with Barbara Bach’s Anya and is then killed by Roger Moore’s 007 in the famous pre-title ski chase. Billington knew that if he did that picture, it might prevent him from having another crack at playing Bond. In the end he thought, “Why not?” After all, it was a couple of weeks in San Moritz.

The actor didn’t have to wait too long this time for his next Bond encounter. He’d just finished a guest starring role in The Professionals (1978) TV series when he got the call to go to Paris for another series of tests. The next Bond, Moonraker, was being ‘prepped’ and they wanted Billington to stand in as 007 opposite a few potential Bond Girls they were looking at. Billington recalls Shelly Hack being one of them, and also Emmanuelle star Sylvia Kristel. ‘During the testing Lewis Gilbert, who was directing Moonraker, told me that he thought I should do the next one, but it was up to Cubby. My final obstacle, according to Lewis, would be if Cubby invited me out to dinner on the last night of the tests. He did and we had a pleasant dinner with Cubby, Mrs Broccoli, John Glen, myself and Barbara, Cubby’s daughter. Barbara and I spent a night ‘on the town’ in Paris, with John Glen as chaperone. The next day I was on a plane back to London; and that was that for me and James Bond.’ – or so he thought.

United Artists were making it very clear to Broccoli & Saltzman that this time they wanted an established actor with solid professional experience playing Bond; in other words, not another Lazenby. Incredulously they’d set their sights on Paul Newman and Robert Redford. They actually approached Clint Eastwood, without the producers’ knowledge. Eastwood laughed off the offer. ‘I couldn’t play that part,’ he said. ‘For one thing I’m not British, and for another, I couldn’t follow Sean Connery. No matter how much money you offer me, I can’t play Bond.’

Broccoli felt that he owed something to John Gavin, while Hamilton was again pushing for Burt Reynolds, who had since grown in status as an actor with appearances in films like Deliverance (1972). This time Hamilton had the backing of Saltzman, according to Tom Mankiewicz. ‘Harry was not averse to casting an American and Burt Reynolds was very seriously considered. In the end Cubby put his foot down and said, “Bond must be British.” Cubby had another fixation which was he had to be tall, Cubby wanted Bond to be over six feet.’

As contenders came and went, always at the back of the producer’s mind was someone who they’d considered their most realistic option almost from the start – Roger Moore. United Artists were not convinced about him, having backed Moore’s 1969 spy film Crossplot that flopped badly. Never formally approached to play Bond in Dr. No, it’s interesting to speculate what the series might have been with Moore in the role from the beginning. He wouldn’t have looked out of place in Goldfinger for example, but can you visualise him in From Russia With Love?

Again, Moore was considered for Diamonds Are Forever, but was tied up with The Persuaders, and despite the TV series failing to take off in America, TV tycoon Lew Grade was anxious to commit to a second season, according to the show’s creator and producer Robert S. Baker. ‘Lew wanted to make more Persuaders but Roger didn’t. By that time Roger had the offer to play Bond. He was being groomed by Broccoli & Saltzman. So at the end of the series we knew Roger was going to be Bond.’ Interestingly when Moore agreed to make The Persuaders he did voice concerns about signing a long-term contract that might see him saddled to the show for years and thus unavailable should the Bond role become free. ‘So Roger had no contract to do The Persuaders,’ says Baker. ‘Tony Curtis had a contract, but Roger wouldn’t sign, so it just became a gentlemen’s agreement.’

During the 60s, Moore had become acquainted socially with both Saltzman & Broccoli, they’d go to London casinos together and sometimes Moore would be invited to EON’s private screening room to see the latest Bond. Deep down he was always their number one choice to replace Connery, and on August 1st 1972 it was made official, Moore was introduced as the new James Bond at a press conference called at the Dorchester hotel in London. No sooner had the announcement been made than Cosmopolitan magazine wrote to Broccoli & Saltzman asking if Moore would pose as a nude centrefold with a Walther PPK covering the more important parts. Moore answered, “Not even with a Thompson sub machine gun!”

Asked by the press what would be different about his 007 from Connery, Moore replied, “white teeth!” That one jokey response was the key to how Moore intended to play Bond, to chisel off the hard edge surrounding the character and approach the whole thing in a far more sardonic way, as though he were sharing the joke with the audience. The man most responsible for Bond’s new sense of humour was an American called Tom Mankiewicz, who’d written Diamonds Are Forever and then Moore’s first two entries in the 007 role. He recognised that Moore’s strong points as an actor were in exact contrast to Connery. ‘They were very different people to write for,’ he says. ‘Because when Sean walks into a room on screen there’s a twinkle in his eye and he looks like a bastard. It looks like violence might happen at any moment. Roger looks like a nice guy. But Roger oddly enough, because I’d read the books, was much closer to Fleming’s idea of Bond. Bond was terribly English, not British, English, and I always thought of Fleming’s Bond as a slightly more muscular young David Niven and I would have thought that Fleming would have been happier with Roger in the beginning.’

Moore was too established and experienced an actor to be truly bothered or nervous about taking over from Connery. As he said at the time, hundreds if not thousands of different actors had played Hamlet down the years. He’d not even been the first actor to play The Saint. Moore confessed that it wasn’t until the press screening of Live And Let Die that he was suddenly hit by nerves. “I said, well, if they don’t like it they don’t like it and I’ll go back to modelling sweaters.” He needn't have worried, his Bond debut was an international hit and Moore would eventually make the role of 007 his own.

Robert Sellers and 007 MAGAZINE wish to thank the following for making this feature possible, some of whom are sadly no longer with us: Robert S. Baker (1916-2009), Michael Billington (1941-2005), Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Julian Glover, Roger Green, Guy Hamilton (1922-2016), Dyson Lovell (1940-2024), Michael McStay, Tom Mankiewicz (1942-2010), John Ronane (1933-2019), Simon Oates (1932-2009), Peter Snow.

©007 MAGAZINE JUNE 2023

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