Nov. 9, 2008
The Name Is Fleming ... Ian Fleming
The Creator of James Bond Had Almost As Colorful A Life As The Immortal Secret Agent
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Fans of secret agent James Bond are celebrating the 100th birthday of 007's creator, author Ian Lancaster Fleming (seen in this 1962 photo). Among Fleming's other creations? "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." (AP Photo/File)
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Sean Connery (posed with Bond's Aston Martin DB5) was the first to play Bond in the movies. (AP (file))
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Daniel Craig, the latest actor to take up the license to kill, is back in the new James Bond adventure "Quantum of Solace." (AP Photo/Sony Pictures)
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Interactive Bond-O-Rama Shaken, stirred, or otherwise, something is always going on in the world of James Bond. Here's a quick look at 007, his girls, and his gadgets.
Joan Bright Astley, now 97, came to know Fleming during the war. "I liked Ian. I thought he was awfully attractive and fun, but elusive," she told Mason. "I think he was a ruthless man."
"Ruthless?"
"In a way, yes."
"How so?"
"He would drop someone if they didn't want them anymore - that would be it," she said.
Astley, who dated Fleming a few times, insists they were just friends:
"No torrid love affair. I've got nothing to tell you on that side," she said.
"You had no torrid love affair?"
"No affair. No, no."
Ian Fleming always felt his character was ideal for the movies.
In fact, Bond made his first appearance on screen in 1954 in an hour-long TV production of "Casino Royale" here on CBS.
(CBS)
The enduring film Bond was born later, when Fleming sold the rights to 007 to producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, creating what has become the most successful movie franchise in history.
Fleming suggested his friend David Niven play the part of Bond. The producers first offered the part to Cary Grant who, at the age of 58, turned it down. In the end, the role of 007 went to a little-known actor from Scotland.
As "Dr. No" went into production in March of 1961, Fleming visited the set and star Sean Connery.
"He loved all that," Lucy Fleming said. "He didn't think it was his Bond. But he thought they were great fun."
But Fleming's health was worsening. After a heart attack in 1961, his doctor ordered him to cut back his smoking and drinking. On August 12, 1964, he suffered a second heart attack and died.
"None of us ever expected to have to write Ian Fleming's obituary so soon," Harry Reasoner reported that night on the CBS Evening News.
Of course, the Bond phenomenon was just taking off. Four decades later, 007 is a multi-billion dollar brand.
Did he have any sense, before he died, of how huge Bond was going to become, Mason asked Fleming's niece.
"I do," she said. "Somehow he knew that he had created this Everyman hero. He'd somehow tapped into something that people love."
Born in Ian Fleming's imagination in 1952, James Bond is 56 this year - the same age the author was when he died. Fleming's life was all too short, but 007 has survived the Cold War, changing fashions and countless assassination attempts.
The agent with the license to kill … continues to be born again.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
Posted by Chittychity at 11:43 AM : Nov 09, 2008
Really? Hmmm, that kind of ruins his JAMES BOND image for me.
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Fleming would have been 100 years old this year. The centenary of his birth is being celebrated in an exhibition at London''s Imperial War Museum, and with the release next week of the 22nd Bond film, "Quantum of Solace."
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just stating the obvious, Boss..........
from a teacher in Georgia