Written by
Douglass K. Daniel
You can still start a fight arguing whether Moore was a better Bond than Sean Connery, though that might show your age as much as your taste in 007s. Moore says he developed his approach to the character after noting a line from one of Ian Fleming's novels: "Bond did not particularly enjoy killing."
Indeed, in his seven outings as Bond, Moore brought a light humor that set him apart from Connery's more serious and at times sadistic manner.
- Did you know:
- Unlike Connery, Moore's Bond never smoked cigarettes. The actor writes that he had quit a few years before "Live and Let Die," his first Bond movie.
- Actor Desmond Llewelyn, who played armament expert "Q" in 17 of the films, was a technophobe who could barely operate a video recorder.
- Moviemakers would dress up an air base near Britain's Pinewood Studios, home to the Bond franchise, so it could stand in for air bases as needed — in Cuba, Azerbaijan and even America's Fort Knox.
- Actress Lois Maxwell contacted "Dr. No" director Terence Young, a friend, in search of a job to tide over her family in the wake of her husband's heart attack. A two-day gig as lovelorn secretary Miss Moneypenny in the first Bond film led to appearances in 14 films spanning 23 years.
- What vanquished arch-villain Blofeld and his evil organization SPECTRE? It wasn't sharks or lasers but lawsuits. Moore says a dispute over who created SPECTRE resulted in its being dropped from future films.
No other Bond, from Timothy Dalton to more recent stalwarts Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig, has managed to make 007 quite as charming and endearing as Moore. He brings those traits to "Bond on Bond," inviting us to sit back and enjoy the ride.