Posted on 12/22/2019 11:32:24 PM PST by L.A.Justice
James Bond is having trouble with his cell phone.
“I seem to be having a bloody problem with this. It was acting up earlier this morning.” Turns out 007, or actually the actor who famously played the dashing spy just once, isn’t as tech savvy as his on-screen counterpart.
George Lazenby is speaking from his home in Santa Monica, 50 years to the day since the release of his one and only James Bond film, 1969’s “On Her Majesty's Secret Service.” Once considered the forgotten Bond film, the movie is now viewed as one of the strongest entries in the franchise. Lazenby’s performance has also been viewed more favorably over time, considered by many to be understated and underrated.
Now 80, Lazenby is in good spirits. Not only his film being screened around the world for its golden anniversary, the actor is returning to MI6 in a new audio drama, “Passport to Oblivion,” where he plays a spy, albeit a reluctant one.
So why return to the world of espionage after all these years?
“Well, I wanted to go to London and they paid for my flight and my accommodation” he says laughing. In reality Lazenby says he enjoyed the challenge of trying something new, after more than five decades in the business. However, he admits if he had to choose between the big screen or audio “I’d much rather see myself on film than listen to me on tape.”
With “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” celebrating a milestone anniversary, Lazenby is spending more time reflecting on his past these days, and on the role that made him him a global sex symbol.
“I’d never spoke before a camera in my life before that film, before testing for Bond” he says.
How Lazenby got the role of the world’s most famous spy is Hollywood lore. He bluffed his way into an audition unannounced. He had no agent, and a fake resume. That impressed the film’s director, Peter Hunt, so much, he insisted that the film’s producers give him a screen test.
He copied his look from Sean Connery's original version of Bond, even getting his hair cut by Connery’s barber, and buying a second hand suit Connery never picked up from his tailor.
“It’s my determination and my arrogance that got me the job," Lazenby said.
A former car salesman turned model from Gouldburn, Australia, was about to step into a role that only a handful of others have played.
“They sent me to voice training because I had an Australian accent, and taught me how to walk. I used to swagger when I walked, and you can’t do that [as James Bond]," Lazenby said. "They changed how I walked, how I talked, and how to be a tough killer, as James Bond is.”
Shooting the film took the better part of the year. Lazenby admits the work was harder than he expected, and there was a lot of pressure to follow in the footsteps of Connery.
Just 29 years old at the time he was hired to play 007, Lazenby grew bored by the slow pace it took to film the movie. So before filming had even finished, and after getting some bad advice from Irish businessman Ronan O’Rahilly, Lazenby decided one Bond was enough.
Diana Rigg, who played Bond’s wife, has gone on record saying Lazenby’s acting was fine, but didn’t understand why he decided to turn his back on the role.
“(It) made Sean Connery a millionaire.I truly don't know what's happening in George's mind so I can only speak of my reaction” she previously told The Chicago Tribune. “ I think it's a pretty foolish move.”
“People think (the producers) got rid of me, when I refused to do another one, even for a million pounds (roughly one and a half million U.S. dollars).” Lazenby says times were changing. It was the late 1960s, and “everyone had long hair and bell bottoms and ear rings, the guys were not into the James Bond look.” So he left.
So did the job offers.
“I couldn’t get a film, I couldn’t get a part. Everybody was afraid I was under contract to the Bond people and that they wouldn’t be able to release their film. It took a couple of years before I was able to get a part, and that was in Italy. So I got some money for that, and I went and bought a boat, even though I didn’t know how to sail because I was running out of money and needed a roof over my head. That tells you how crazy I was," Lazenby says.
Eventually, he was able to pick up small roles, but a reputation for being difficult followed Lazenby from England across the Atlantic to America, where he tried to get auditions.
These days Lazenby is busy raising his children he had with his ex-wife, former tennis pro Pam Shriver. He’d like to go back to his native Australia, but is rooted in Southern California.
“This is where we know everyone, and the kids have their friends," says Lazenby. "I want to be close to them, and be a part of their lives, so it’s the choice I’ve made.”
Lazenby’s also become a lot more comfortable with the choices he’s made since walking away from the role of 007 50 years ago. “”If I’m disappointed in myself today, I’ll fix that tomorrow. I won’t just stay in that same rut. I don’t have a problem with the way my life is now. I could get upset about things, but what’s the point? You’ve got to live your own life and help anyone you can along the way. “
Lazenby says he'll continue to look for roles and believes he's “a better actor than I’m given credit for,” and hopes to record more audio adventures if “Passport To Oblivion” proves to be successful.
“There’s a lot to my life when I reflect back on it, that I’ve had a lot luck” he says. “Something guided me in life that put me in the right place at the right time.”
I thought Lazenby was fine as James Bond...
I had no idea that Lazenby lived in Santa Monica...
Of the six (not counting David Niven in Casino Royale), I would rate Lazenby as number 4, behind Craig, Connery, and Brosnan.
As for the 1969 movie....the evil Telly Savalis, and the Swiss scenes made it a great movie, and toss in Diana Rigg...it was a fairly decent Bond-movie. The negative is the last five minutes where Bond marries ‘Tracey’ and then she gets killed off by Spectre. I think the ending plot really screwed up public reaction, and caused the movie to be regarded as a ‘loser’.
Casino Royale is the forgotten Bond film. I mean Woody Allen as a villian? I’d be more scared of a 2 year old!
It is the only Bond film that followed the novel religiously. In that sense, the other Bond movies are silly by comparison. Thanks to the director, Peter Hunt, OHMSS was true to Ian Fleming’s vision.
Tracy being killed was straight from the novel, and she had to be killed for the film to be top notch. I personally consider OHMSS as the best of the entire franchise. Lazenby was much preferable to Pirs Bonbons and Ice Queen Craig. Other than for Timothy Dalton, who was also excellent in his two outings, I think he was the only one who could believably (emotionally) deal with her murder. It would’ve been bizarre seeing Connery in such a scene, but it’s also a surprise he decided not to be in the best-written Bond film (but he was burned out by then after his bad experience filming YOLT in Japan).
His “Bond” was actually treated with that level of contempt and derision in the film. It was, after all, a farce.
And the musical score in OHMSS was excellent. One of the best in all of the Bond movies.
Excellent usage of a Moog synthesizer. Absolutely top-notch.
Also, Rigg at the time was popular for her leather jump suits in “The Avengers” series. So that also probably helped pull in the audience.
I met him at a DragonCon once.
He struck me as a likable fellow.
Connery once said his favorite was From Russia With Love as it was the only one with a realistic plot.
An interesting fact: In Japan, some foreign (non-Japanese) movies use voice overs and some use subtitles. Connery’s are always subtitled because people generally loved the sound of his voice.
I must say that OHMSS is one of the two or three JB films that I clearly remember. And as has been noted the film script was generally more true to the book than most of the others.
That and I have won free drinks by knowing the name of the actor who played Bond in that show. I mean really ... Lazenby is uncommon enough to be easily committed to memory.
There is a documentary on Laze by I watched recently (Netflix IIRC). He does come across as very likeable, a bit crazy, but a very free spirit.
Best line: “This never happened to that other fellow!”
Maybe that’s why I found it easy to talk to him.
I’ll need to go dig that Lazenby flick out. I can’t say that I ever remember seeing it.
Yeah, I know, late to the party (by a few decades), but....
No doubt. I would recommend watching it if you can find it. (Actually looked it up, its on Hulu, not Netflix, and is titled, “Becoming Bond”). I think what I like about the him (or at least the impression he leaves) is how he seems to “own” his life, all the ups and downs, good decision and bad, extreme runs of luck, and misfortune, good decisions and bad, and their consequences. He just rides the wave...
You’ve got it wrong, with Woody Allen as the villian, it’s the two year olds who’d be running scared.
The skis used in the movie were all by Kneissl. Oldest ski manufacturer in the World, and at that time, still owned by the Kneissl family. About the same time, Carl Schranz was an Austrian ski racer who skied Kneissl skis. Just before the 1972 Sapporo Olympics started, Avery Brundege kicked Schranz out of the Olympics for appearing in a Kneissl magazine ad and taking some income for it. This was the beginning of the end for amature athletics in the Olympics. That summer in Munic, the USSR(army team) beat the USA college all-star basketball team for the very first time. Now Tiger Woods is proud of his Olympic medal and prize money for winning it.
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