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| Birth Name(s) : George Lazenby |
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Full George Lazenby Biography
George Robert Lazenby (born September 5, 1939) is an Australian actor best known for portraying James Bond only once in the 1969 James Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
George Lazenby was born in Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia. After leaving school he worked as a salesman at a Morris Motor Company dealership in Canberra and as a ski instructor. He also won several skiing competitions and played bass guitar in a band called The Corvettes. He served in the Australian Army Special forces, reaching the rank of Sergeant and becoming an unarmed combat instructor. He moved to London in 1964 as a model, then as an advertising actor. By 1968, he was the highest-paid male model in the world (reportedly, in 1967, he made £40,000 directly from modelling, and £60,000 from commercials and product endorsements — equivalent to more than one million pounds in 2004); he was also the European Marlboro Man.
He then focused on business and real estate investments and ended up owning mansions in Hawaii, Brentwood, California, Australia, and a 600-acre (2.4 km²) ranch estate in Valyermo, California, a small town about 17 miles southeast of Palmdale, California; he also owns a portside penthouse apartment in Hong Kong, and an estate home in Maryland. Lazenby had a son, Zachary (who died from brain cancer) and an adult daughter, Melanie, from his first marriage to Christina Gannett, heiress to the Gannett Newspaper Publishing empire.
Although he had previously worked in TV advertising and an Italian B-movie spy movie, Lazenby's first serious acting role was as James Bond in the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Lazenby is the second official actor to portray the British secret agent in a movie, following Sean Connery, who had become a cultural icon in the role (there had been a live TV version of Casino Royale in 1954 with American actor Barry Nelson and a spoof movie version of Casino Royale in 1967 with James Bond played by David Niven — Ian Fleming's own first choice for a cinematic James Bond, but this is generally considered not to be a 'proper' Bond film.) Lazenby had a difficult task in filling Connery's shoes, and nearly everything about his portrayal of Bond has been controversial.
During the film's production, Lazenby's manager Ronan O'Rahilly talked him into refusing a seven-movie contract on grounds that the James Bond character was out of touch with the times; Lazenby later stated that he regretted the decision not to continue playing Bond.
Lazenby's performance as James Bond is controversial. Most viewers appreciate his athletic prowess in the part, especially in action scenes, but many have been dismissive - even hostile - toward his interpretation of Bond. Moreover, viewers tend either to find Lazenby's laconic style cold-blooded, at times callous and humorless, or else perfectly appropriate to the character of a determined and superficially charming spy. However, for those who have read the Fleming books, Lazenby's Bond is probably the closest to the author's intent. Certainly, Lazenby's Bond is a man less amused by life than that of Connery, less accessible, stoic and resigned. This treatment was the deliberate approach of the film's director, Peter Hunt, who has stated in an interview: "I was very insistent that we stay with the story of the book". Hunt later re-shot scenes in which he was unhappy with Lazenby's portrayal of emotion ().
Although the film was not as commercially successful at the box office as previous Bond films, some aficionados consider this the best film of the series, with many critics feeling Lazenby 'nailed' Ian Fleming's characterization of 007. Commercially, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is widely believed to have paled in comparison to the previous Bond film, You Only Live Twice, and to the following, Diamonds Are Forever (both featuring Connery); this has been partly attributed to a poor publicity campaign.
In fact, the film was not much less successful than You Only Live Twice, taking about 80% of the box office gross with 74% of the budget, and was the second highest-grossing film of 1969. When adjusted for inflation, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the median performer of the entire James Bond franchise; the box office was undoubtedly compromised by Lazenby's public announcement before the film's release that he had refused to play the part again.
Lazenby is, along with Daniel Craig, one of only two actors to portray James Bond in only one 'proper' Bond film, though Craig has since signed on for another take as 007 in a follow-up movie in production for 2008, tentatively called Bond 22. Lazenby was also, at age 30, the youngest actor to portray Bond at the time of filming. He is also the only James Bond who, during the gun barrel sequence, dropped to one knee to fire his gun. Lazenby is also the only official Bond to make reference to the fact that other actors have played the role. In the opening teaser, after rescuing the girl only to have her immediately drive away, he states "This never happened to the other fellow", obviously referring to Sean Connery. The only other Bond film to draw attention to this is the unofficial spoof film Casino Royale. Lazenby is also the tallest actor to play James Bond. |
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