Reilly, Ace of Spies. The RL person on whom Ian Fleming modeled James Bond.
I found this interesting, Carol, because I'd always heard that Bond was inspired by Ian Fleming's own adventures working for British Intelligence - he was a pretty amazing character in RL himself, by all accounts. I don't know where I got that impression from, although it might have been from a biography of Fleming. Wherever it comes from, I read it many, many years ago, so the memory's hazy. Here's what Wikipedia has to say on the subject, which is quite fascinating:
Since the fictional James Bond's creation, hundreds of reports by various news outlets have suggested names for Ian Fleming's inspiration of Bond. Usually these people have a background of some kind in espionage or other covert operations. Although some names share similarities with Bond, none have ever been confirmed by Fleming, Ian Fleming Publications or any of Ian Fleming's biographers such as Fleming's assistant and friend, John Pearson. Most researchers agree that James Bond is a highly romanticised version of Fleming himself; the author was known for his jetsetting lifestyle and reputation as a womaniser. Both, for the most part, went to the same schools, like the same foods (e.g., scrambled eggs), have the same habits (e.g., drinking and smoking), share the same view on women (e.g., how they should look and how they should dress), and have similar education and military careers both rising to the rank of Commander. Although the character of Bond is not known to be based on anyone but Fleming himself, the look of James Bond, famed for being "suave and sophisticated", is based on a young Hoagy Carmichael. In Casino Royale the character Vesper Lynd says of Bond, "He reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless." Other characteristics of Bond's look are said to be based on Fleming, such as his height, his hairstyle and his eye colour.
Fleming has, however, admitted to being inspired by true or partially-true events that took place during his career at the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty. Most notably, and the basis for Casino Royale, was a trip to Lisbon that Fleming and the Director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral Godfrey, took during World War II en route to the United States. While there they went to the Estoril Casino in Estoril, which, due to the neutral status of Portugal had a number of spies of warring regimes present. Fleming claimed that while there he was cleaned out by a "chief German agent" at a table playing Chemin de Fer; however, Admiral Godfrey tells a different story, that Fleming only played Portuguese businessmen and that afterwards Ian had fantasised about them being German agents and the excitement of cleaning them out.
If it was, the first actor to play James Bond was David Niven, believe it or not.
Surprisingly enough - no. This was brought up in one of my favourite quiz shows recently - QI. And the answer was pretty surprising. It's quite amazing how far back it goes. Here are the details from Wikipedia:
Barry Nelson portrayed Bond in an Americanised television episode adaptation of Casino Royale in 1954. Bob Holness portrayed James Bond in a 1956 South African radio adaptation of Moonraker.
The Bob Holness thing is kind of amusing for those of us from the UK, because he's known mostly over here for being a somewhat bland TV quiz host.
So, Barry Nelson (who? <g>) was the first ever actor to portray Bond. You're right though, that David Niven was the third.
All of which suggests I'm much more interested in Bond than I truly am. <g> I've never been that keen on the movies. Barring a somewhat uncharacteristic (and quite brief) fascination with The Spy Who Loved Me, which I trotted to the cinema to see 19 times when it was released. Don't ask me now what I saw in it then. These days, I just get mighty irritated with the whole 'disposable female' theme.
LabRat
