A little earlier than planned - partly because I have work tomorrow ...
2. Robert Campbell
Bond (Robert Campbell) and Martine (France Anglade) in 'Diamonds are Forever' (1968)
Time in Role: 1968 - 1970
Life: 1927 - 2000
First Film: Diamonds are Forever (1968)
Last Film: Moonraker (1970)
How He Got The Role:
Negotiations with Stanley Baker had continued up to a few months before the release of 'Thunderball' in 1966. As a result, producers knew that the next movie would see the debut of a new actor in the role of James Bond. Robert Campbell was one of five actors on the list of contenders which also included George Lazenby, Hans De Vries, Anthony Rogers and John Richardson. It came down to a crucial series of test scenes in late 1966, with Campbell and Lazenby coming out in the lead after shooting scenes with actress France Anglade wearing a blonde wig. Anglade would later feature in 'Diamonds are Forever' in the minor role of Martine.
The producers voiced a preference for Campbell's physicality over Lazenby's whilst his detractors pointed out that Campbell was from America. Some thought that whilst Lazenby was Australian, he was at least from the Commonwealth and therefore the more appropriate choice.
The choice would not change. Robert Campbell was announced to the world as the new James Bond in 1967 with a three movie contract (and an optional fourth). It was a decision that some would later regret.
The Campbell Era:
After his redraft of 'Thunderball', Roald Dahl was asked to draft the first version of the 'Diamonds are Forever' screenplay. Under the direction of the producers, as this was the fifth film but the first with a new Bond, the script would be a Greatest Hits - the plot structure was evocative of 'For Your Eyes Only' with Bonds investigation of a diamond smuggling operation in the South China Sea leading to him teaming up with the heroine and following a trail to the big villain.
Here the heroine was a revised version of the novels Tiffany Case (Raquel Welch) who finds herself exposed as part of the smuggling operation by Bond and hung out to dry by the villain - he takes out a hit on her, employing the mute hitman, Mr Tree, and she teams up with Bond to seek revenge, leading to a climactic boat chase on Lake Mead, with Bond and Tiffany pursuing the villain, the secretly-Communist billionaire Willard Whyte (Christopher Plummer, playing largely against type), who Bond figures out is connected to Blofeld.
It had passing similarity to the novel it was based on, but the most controversial plot element of the movie was wholly original. Producers designed an opening sequence in which Bond is given plastic surgery in order to continue the ruse he had died at the end of the previous film.
This provided drama within the movie as Bond figured out the connection between Whyte and Blofeld and worried that Whyte would see through his Peter Franks pseudonymn and expose his survival to the Russians.
In the end, Bond reveals himself to Whyte moments before he shoots the millionaire and saves Tiffany.
WHYTE
Only one man could have made
that shot, and Number One had
him killed ...
When the credits rolled at the end of the movie, audiences seemed unanimous that whilst the movie was enjoyable and both Welch and Plummer were acceptable, the new Bond was arguably the weakest element. Newspapers around the world ran reports about Campbell - that not only was he American (the plot contrived a reason for him to retain his real accent as part of Bond being undercover) but he was also a writer with virtually no acting experience. Had producers mistaken him for his actor brother William Campbell?
Behind the scenes panic set in, with the people who voiced opposition to Campbell's casting being undeniably smug. Campbell had signed the same contract as Baker - three films, with an option on a fourth. But Campbell had only made one film, and to buy him out of the contract would have cost the studio a ridiculous sum.
Several concepts were floated - a loose adaptation of 'The Spy Who Loved Me' in which Bond barely appears was front and centre. But Campbell's agent quickly vetoed that - he knew that he might be able to squeeze the full fee from the studio.
In the end, an agreement was reached with Campbell. The studio would buy him out of his contract after he starred in a second film - they would fail to exercise the option on a fourth, which meant they were only buying him out of his contract for a single movie.
And it would be one with a lower budget more in line with that of 'From A View To A Kill' and 'For Your Eyes Only' than 'Thunderball' and 'Diamonds are Forever'.
Abandoning plans to adapt Kingsley Amis' Bond novel, 'Colonel Sun', 'Moonraker' would debut in 1970 with a treatment penned by John Gardner, whose sixth Bond pastiche Boysie Oakes novel would come out the same year, and a script by Richard Maibum who had been the bridesmaid but never the bride for the past eight years.
'Moonraker' as a novel was set entirely in England, but as a film this wouldn't be conceivable with the travelogue element being of increasing importance in the first five films. After visiting locations as diverse as France, Brazil, Hong Kong, Miami and Las Vegas, Bond would visit Monaco (recreated on a sound stage) and Spain (or, at least, the Canary Islands, the only actual international filming) where he would encounter the villain, Hugo Drax (Omar Sharif). Given that the previous film had the villain being a secret Communist, and For Your Eyes Only had seen the villain, Von Hammerstein, being a Nazi living under an assumed identity, the producers and writers considered that the novels backstory for Drax essentially copied both and were reluctant to do that - so his backstory would change. The villains of the previous five movies had been Blofeld and the Soviets in some form or another - so why didn't they, someone suggested, make Drax an avaricious capitalist who intended to use the missile defence system of the novel to hold London and New York hostage.
The change was made - Blofeld and the Soviets were nowhere to be seen, other than Bonds initial suspicion that Drax might be working for his nemesis and eventual surprise that he isn't whilst Bond continues to use the Peter Franks alias handed to him in the previous installment.
American actress Jaclyn Smith, who would later find fame with her part as Kelly Garrett in the tv show 'Charlie's Angels' would take the part of an Americanized Gala Brand, a CIA plant in Drax's organisation, reporting to Felix Leiter (David Hedison) who would be appearing in the Bond films for the first time despite appearing in both novels of 'Thunderball' and 'Diamonds are Forever'.
With the release of 'Moonraker' in 1970, producers were surprised that audience reception to Campbell had moved from lukewarm to acceptable in a film that was designed to play to his strengths - looking good and fighting with a minimal amount of 'acting' required. But payments had already been made, contracts had been severed and Campbell was out.
A new actor was on the way in, but the world would have to wait three years for his debut.
Succeeded By William Gaunt