James Bond: How George Lazenby’s Bluffing and a Violent Screen Test Changed the Franchise’s Future
Sean Connery quit the role of James Bond in 1967 during the production of You Only Live Twice. Burned out by the pace of production (five films in five years), his abrupt rise to superstardom in the series and the endless press scrutiny that came with it—not to mention Connery’s increasing suspicion that he wasn’t getting paid his due—the actor walked away, leaving the massively successful franchise in doubt. It also opened up what became one of the most coveted characters in show business.
According to Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury’s book Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films, some 400 actors were considered to replace Connery, who many felt was irreplaceable. Among the names thrown around in the offices of producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman’s Eon Productions were One Million Years B.C. star John Richardson, Camelot cast member Anthony Rogers, Dutch actor Hans de Vries, British bad boys Oliver Reed and Terence Stamp, and even then-Batman star Adam West. Future 007 Roger Moore was also approached for the first time but was committed to his TV series The Saint at this moment.
Interestingly, the book also notes that Connery apparently had a change of heart at one point in early 1968 and was willing to come back under certain financial terms. But Broccoli and Saltzman, disappointed in their leading man’s public dismissal of the role for much of the year prior, were ready to move on and take a gamble with a new Bond. “We have to find a new approach,” Saltzman said at the time, adding that they also wanted to pivot away from the series’ increasing reliance on spectacle.
With that in mind, and with all the names above and more in contention for the “biggest star search in history,” Broccoli and Saltzman declared that the second actor to play James Bond in the official film series was… someone named George Lazenby.
Wait… who?!
A Blind Date and a Thrown Punch Led to Lazenby
Born in Australia in 1939, George Lazenby was a high school dropout who followed a woman to London and ended up becoming a successful male model for a string of print and TV ad campaigns. Acting wasn’t on his mind, and certainly not stepping into the role of the world’s greatest spy, when he went on a last-minute blind date with an agent. She called him a few days later and suggested that he might be right for a top-secret part she’d heard about.
When Lazenby found out the role was James Bond, he didn’t concern himself with his thin (or rather, nonexistent) acting resume. He was, however, worried about his look, which featured the long hair and sideburns quite prevalent in Swinging ‘Sixties’60s London. But he didn’t just go to any barber: he went to Sean Connery’s very own barber and got the same cut as the Scottish actor. Then he went to Connery’s tailor, who just happened to have a suit on hand that the former 007 star hadn’t claimed and which fit Lazenby perfectly. It was almost as if it was fate.
Lazenby talked his way into the office of Saltzman, too, and spun some tall tales about his work as an actor in Australia. (Oh, to apply for jobs in a pre-internet world!) Told to come back the next day to meet with director Peter Hunt, Lazenby asked his neighbor, an acting coach, for a quick lesson or two that evening. But when he met with Hunt, he confessed that he had no acting experience. Hunt was still impressed that he managed to fool the tough, no-nonsense Saltzman. “Stick to your story and I’ll make you the next James Bond,” he told the Australian upstart.
The producers screen-tested Lazenby in secret to stop word from getting out that they were looking seriously at a model to take on the role of Bond. They also observed him swimming, riding horses, playing baccarat, and allegedly even having sex—a production assistant was assigned to bring women to Lazenby’s apartment and observe discreetly how he performed to determine that he was not gay.
His final test was a mock fight with a stuntman so that the producers could see whether he would look convincing in hand-to-hand personal combat. But Lazenby, who had no experience in staged fisticuffs but had participated in his share of real-life brawls, punched the stuntman for real, bloodying his nose and sending him to the floor. “That’s when Harry stepped over him, grabbed me, and says, ‘We’re going with you,’” Lazenby recalled for Some Kind of Hero.
Lazenby was announced as the new James Bond on Oct. 7, 1968, and would make his debut in the role the following year in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The sixth official 007 film was based on Ian Fleming’s 10th Bond novel, widely considered one of the author’s best. It was also perhaps the most emotional and character-driven book in the series up to that point—and the film’s producers had just picked a non-actor to handle it.
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One and Done
Saltzman, Broccoli, Hunt, and screenwriter Richard Maibaum all concurred that the 007 films had to dial down the jetpacks, rockets, and volcano lairs and get back to the grittier spirit of the books. As a consequence, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service remaining to this day perhaps the most faithful of the movies adapted from a Fleming novel.
Like the book, the movie follows Bond as he tries to stop arch-nemesis Blofeld (Telly Savalas) from launching a biological weapon in a global blackmail scheme. At the same time, 007 meets and falls in love with a wealthy yet troubled countess named Tracy (Diana Rigg), and eventually decides to quit the Secret Service and marry her. Alas, Tracy is shortly thereafter gunned down in a devastating final scene by a vengeful Blofeld.
At the time of its release, reviews of OHMSS were mixed to negative, with many critics suggesting the series was running on fumes and targeting Lazenby for his lack of acting ability… or for simply not being Sean Connery. Noted critic Gene Siskel wrote in the Chicago Tribune that Lazenby “doesn’t fill Sean Connery’s shoes, Aston-Martin, or stretch pants. The new 007 is more boyish and consequently less of a man.” The box office also reflected what many surmised to be the franchise’s sagging fortunes. While You Only Live Twice hadn’t performed as well as either Thunderball or Goldfinger—the peak of Connery and arguably Bond’s popularity—OHMSS fared worse. It grossed just $82 million worldwide, a roughly 30 percent drop from YOLT, and did only half that film’s business in the U.S.
To make matter worse, Lazenby listened to some rather poor advice from a self-styled “guru” named Ronan O’Rahilly and came to believe that 007 was on the way out culturally. So he told Broccoli and Saltzman that he would not return for a sequel. The producers were shocked. Even though OHMSS did not perform as well at the box office as previous outings, it was still profitable, and they were prepared to offer Lazenby a contract for six additional films. But instead the second 007, who even showed up at the film’s premiere with a perhaps dismissive long hair and a beard, walked away.
OHMSS Is Forever
Bond producers Broccoli and Saltzman took a considerable risk—perhaps the biggest of the Bond series to date—when they hired unknown non-actor George Lazenby to follow in Sean Connery’s footsteps. So it’s no surprise that the producers and distributor United Artists both felt burned when Lazenby quit after one movie. To recast again would have been an absolute publicity crisis. So it perhaps was no surprise they decided to seriously open up hte check book and convince Connery to return for one more film, the farcical and now often ridiculed Diamonds Are Forever. They followed that with a series of increasingly lighthearted entries headlined by trusted international star Roger Moore.
What would have happened if Lazenby hadn’t listened to O’Rahilly and stuck around? Well, for one thing, the series’ always shaky continuity might have at least made a little more sense. Yes, Bond is hunting for Blofeld at the beginning of Diamonds Are Forever, but Tracy’s death is never mentioned and the fact that it’s a jaunty Connery on the job—instead of a potentially grief-stricken, vengeance-driven Lazenby—made any emotional connection to the previous film moot. It’s as if the producers wanted to erase OHMSS entirely from the canon. And in a way, they succeeded: the film was not shown on network TV for years and was almost forgotten.
We’ll never know if Lazenby’s box office fortunes or acting abilities as Bond would have improved with another couple of movies; he languished in obscurity for years, acting here and there, until shifting to real estate in Los Angeles and doing quite well for himself. But at the same time, something began to happen in the ensuing decades: OHMSS was rediscovered by critics, filmmakers, and newer 007 fans, with the movie being reappraised as one of the very best in the franchise. Even heavyweight directors like Christopher Nolan and Steven Soderbergh call it their favorite Bond movie. And the truth is, it deserves those accolades: OHMSS stands alone in the Bond canon with outstanding action sequences, a fantastic villain and love interest, and a genuine character arc for 007 that Lazenby, to his credit, ably manages to sell.
Most importantly, it proved that, although they didn’t live to see it, Broccoli and Saltzman’s gamble paid off. It just took years for audiences to recognize it. And it also proved that the Bond franchise was durable enough to occasionally take big swings, whether it was altering the tone of the series, adjusting to the mood of the times, or even changing the star himself. No matter what risks the franchise may take, one thing is certain… James Bond will always return.
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