Alternate Actors To Play James Bond

Sachyriel

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"You expect me to talk Goldfinger?" - Lysenko, Russian Immigrant to the USA, Actor
"Nyet Tovarich Bond I expect you to die." - Stalin, Russian Immigrant to the USA, Actor
 
1968- ONMSS- Timothy Dalton was interviewed but turned it down he was only 21.
1971 Diamonds are Forever- John Gavin was the favourite to replace Lazenby along with Adam West and Michael Gambon, before they got Connery back.
1973-Live and Let Die- Several actors where screen tested, Julian Glover would later play the baddie in For Your Eyes Only in 1981, John Gavin again, Jeremy Brett, Simon Oates, John Ronane, Michael Mcstay but the one man who CB wanted to offer to was Michael Billington, but United Artits wanted a big named american staff like Burt Reynols, paul Newman or Robert Redford, in then it was Roger Moore who got the job.
1981-For Your Eyes Only-It looked likely that Moore would not return, so Michael Billington was again tested 3 yaers after he had appeared in the pre-credits of the Spy who Loved Me as a Russian SA. Lewis Collins who would be tested again in 1986, and Ian Olgivy where also tested but in the end Moore returned.
1983-Octopussy- Again it looked like Moore would not return so American actor James Brolin was screen tested. Three scenes where included on the special edition DVD, and he is very good. See screen grab below....

1986- The Living Daylights- After Roger Moores retirement after View to a Kill in 1985, several actors where considered, Mel Gibson, Mark Greenstreet, Lambert Wilson, Anthony Hamilton, Findlay Leight, Chris Lambert, Andrew Clarke, and Sean Bean.
Timothy Dalton was CB first choice, but after a sucessfull screen test, he couldnt make it because it clashed with another film he was making. Three actors where then brought into screen test, Sam Neil, Lewis Collins for a second time and Pierce Brosnan. The Sam Neil screen test is included on the Living Daylights DVD. In the end Brosnan was offered the Part but the TV series he was doing in american Remington Steele at the last minute decided to shoot more shows, and so he could not do it. Instead Dalton could now do the film because of the delay and was cast.
 
Sean Bean " shot his bolt" or "had his six" in Golden Eye as Alec Trevelyan. Can they bring back a bad guy as Bond? He was a good bad guy.

Or how about reversing the process. Sean Connery would now make a great Bond Villain.

Cheers,
Nigel.
 
Sean Connery's character would have been Bond's mentor. An old master spy who grew embittered with how the sun set over the British Empire. He's furious with how the "greatest nation in the world" became "second fiddle to a bunch of uppity colonies!". His plot would be to somehow destroy the American economy and subsume America into a new British Empire. Naturally Bond would need to put a stop to this, and so mentor and protege face off against each other. Naturally this ends in Connery's character dying in a suitably spectacular fashion.
 
There was some talk about Dougray Scott playing Bond before they went with Daniel Craig. I think he would have done well. He can ham it up like in Mission: Impossible 2, but he can also display a more vulnerable side like in Enigma.
 
I think Michael Jayston who did play Bond in an adaptation of You Only Live Twice on BBC Radio in 1990 would have made a good alternative to Roger Moore and Jayston is a few years younger.

Bob Holness who played Bond on South African Radio and later became a game show host in Britain, "I'll have a PPK please Bob!"

John Snow a British TV news anchorman is reputed to have had a screen test for Bond. He would have made a fantastic replacement for Desmond Lewellyn as Q because he would have been in his element with the gadgets. "Bond this is just a bit of fun, but if we extrapolated you killing the double agent to the whole KGB!"

So if him, why not Jeremy Paxman, "Answer the question Mr Blofeld!" Who would have to be played by Michael Howard.

Bob Langley (another one for the kids) is also reputed to have auditioned for James Bond.

Julian Glover who usually plays villains in Hollywood films, including for Your Eyes Only, would have been a good 1970s Bond and is younger than Roger Moore so wouldn't be showing so much wear and tear by the time of the Living Daylights.

Jayston and Glover would probably have played Bond more like the blunt instrument portrayed in the books. This is why I'm also going to suggest Philip Madoc who played villains better than anyone else and even when he was playing the good guy he wasn't much better than the opposition.

I was watching a repeat of the Avengers during the week that had John Laurie in it being John Laurie and James (Mr Kipling) Hayter as the jovial leader of the villains. He would have made an excellent Bond villain in the Blofeld or Goldfinger mould.
 
Sean Bean " shot his bolt" or "had his six" in Golden Eye as Alec Trevelyan. Can they bring back a bad guy as Bond? He was a good bad guy.

How about Mr. Bean?

\Not for playing Bond, but Joe Don Baker played the villain/gun runner/mercenary Brad Whittaker in THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and then returned as playing CIA Agent Jack Wade in GOLDENEYE and TOMORROW NEVER DIES. He is not the only one either....
This makes Baker one of three actors to appear as both a Bond ally and a villain, the others being Charles Gray who appeared as Dikko Henderson in You Only Live Twice and as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever and Walter Gotell who appeared as Morzeny, the SPECTRE Island trainer in From Russia with Love and General Gogol, head of the KGB in six films between 1977 and 1987.
Although minor characters, they still have reused people to play different roles. TBH, it would be kinda far-fetched to have a major villain play the title role,but it is somehting i would love to see.
 
\Not for playing Bond, but Joe Don Baker played the villain/gun runner/mercenary Brad Whittaker in THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and then returned as playing CIA Agent Jack Wade in GOLDENEYE and TOMORROW NEVER DIES. He is not the only one either....
This makes Baker one of three actors to appear as both a Bond ally and a villain, the others being Charles Gray who appeared as Dikko Henderson in You Only Live Twice and as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever and Walter Gotell who appeared as Morzeny, the SPECTRE Island trainer in From Russia with Love and General Gogol, head of the KGB in six films between 1977 and 1987.
Although minor characters, they still have reused people to play different roles. TBH, it would be kinda far-fetched to have a major villain play the title role,but it is somehting i would love to see.

To which I would add:

Burt Kwok who was in at least two (Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice).

Shane Rimmer for YOLT and the captain of the American submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me. He said, "Have you never seen a major taking a shower before!" According to Rimmer it really was the present Mrs Ringo Starr in the shower and the whole of Pinewood turned up to see it.

Ed Bishop for YOLT and Diamonds are Forever.

I'm surprised that neither member of "Rent A Yank!" as they called themselves was Felix Leiter.
 
The current BBC Radio James Bond is Toby Stephens, who was also the villain in Die Another Day.

His father Sir Robert is a possible 1960s Bond and in OHMSS Tracy can be played by his real-life wife Maggie Smith.

That might mean he is not available for The Private Life of Sherlock Homes. But the upside is that Dian Rigg turned down the role of Tracy Bond because she is persuaded to do another series of The Avengers in place of Linda Thorson. I have nothing against Ms Thorson, but doubling the number of colour Emma Peel episodes is no bad thing. If Maggie Smith isn't available for OHMSS Linda Thorson gets the role.

The thought of Michael Howard as Blofeld made me think of Anne Widdecombe as Irma Bunt. She could also do Rosa Kleb or the old lady with the machine gun in Goldfinger.
 
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Or how about reversing the process. Sean Connery would now make a great Bond Villain.

Cheers,
Nigel.

you mean like the one he played in the avengers? (1998)

good potential bonds:
christopher lee
christopher eccleston
 
If you could get the timing right, I'd love to see Hugh Laurie as Bond.:cool::cool: ("Good thing I remembered by axe-cane.":p)
 
Hugh Grant might have been a cool Bond at a time. Now he is too old, but back in 1997 he would have been in the right age. He would have been a bit in the tradition of Roger Moore.
 
you mean like the one he played in the avengers? (1998)
Now that you mentioned Avengers, what about Ralph Fiennes, he has the rugged look of some one who has his way with the ladies but also a warn face that shows an agent who has seen his fear share of action.

If you could get the timing right, I'd love to see Hugh Laurie as Bond.:cool::cool: ("Good thing I remembered by axe-cane.":p)

How about in 2003, Pierce Brosnan, declines to do a fifth film claiming Die another day, was his last, the idea of a new Bond film is taken up by Mel Smith.

Cast
Hugh Laurie as James Bond.
Joely Richardson as Helen Back, an NSA agent.
Stephen Fry as M.
Tony Robinson as Q.
Miranda Richardson as Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary.
Bill Nighy as Prince Michael, 3rd in line to the throne.
Maggie Smith as Queen Anne II of Great Britain
Rowan Atkinson as Prince William of Wales, 1st in line to the throne.
Tim McInnerny as Prince John, 2nd in line to the throne.
Emma Thompson as Princess Elizabeth.

Plot: After the failed "assassination attempt" on Prince Michael, the royal family is thrown into more grief, when his two older brothers are killed in a suspected IRA bombing.

However at the end it turns out, Prince Michael, had planned the whole thing as to get him self onto the throne, when this is found out a week before the coronation, he is sent to prison with his sister Princess Elizabeth, becoming Queen Elizabeth II.
 
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