Sir Christopher Lee is one of the most fascinating characters in cinema history. The man was not only a legendary actor, but also lived a life that could easily become a big screen epic. He came from noble lineage, served in the British Army during World War II, worked for the British Secret Service as a Nazi hunter shortly after, became an accomplished stage and film actor, started a heavy metal project… He was a true powerhouse, and recently his fans have developed a theory that, as if his life wasn’t incredible enough, he might as well have influence the creation of cinema’s most famous spy, James Bond.
For decades, the true inspiration of the author who inspired Ian Fleming create 007 is a mystery for fans of the spy. With the Internet continually making more information available to fans, people have recently started to connect some dots and concluded that Christopher Lee could be the one James Bond is actually based on. That’s because Lee and Fleming were actually closer than people thought and held each other in deep admiration – perhaps enough for one to create an incredible Bond-like character based on the other.
Christopher Lee and Ian Fleming were cousins-in-law
It’s always interesting how life tends to bring great individuals together. Christopher Lee himself, for example, has always been the only one to have worked on an adaptation of Lord of the Rings having met JRR Tolkien himself, and that’s not nothing. However, with Ian Fleming, Lee had a different type of bond. (no pun intended), because they were cousins-in-law. In 1930, when Lee was eight years old, his mother, Countess Estelle Maria Carandini di Sarzano, married Harcourt George St. Croix Rose, whose sister, Evelyn St. Croix Fleming, was Ian Fleming’s mother, so Lee and Fleming grew up as a family.
With the start of World War II, both cousins joined the fight. Fleming was operating as an officer in the Naval Intelligence Division, so he didn’t actually fight on the front line. Yet it was his service during the war that provided much of his experience and inspiration when designing James Bond as a character. Christopher Lee, however, took a much more active role in the war.going so far as to operate behind enemy lines as an intelligence and liaison officer (or, simply, as a spy) and, later, became a member of a Nazi hunting team during the final years of his special forces service, according to his autobiography. Thus, between the two, Lee is undoubtedly the one whose trajectory most closely resembles that with which we usually associate James Bond.
Given their family ties and military background, it is natural that Lee and Fleming would become close friends. They remained so until Fleming’s death in 1964. Lee reportedly said that he knew the character of James Bond better than anyone, because he and Fleming often talked about the stories and characters. Unfortunately, neither Lee nor Fleming has ever asked whether the former was truly an inspiration behind Bond, but it’s hard to imagine that there may not have been even a small influence on Fleming’s writing of the character. However, until official information is discovered, Lee will forever be associated with one of the Bond villains.
Lee later played the role of the villain in one of the James Bond films
The theory that Christopher Lee inspired Ian Fleming to create James Bond is quite strong on the Internet, despite the lack of evidence for it. What is known, however, is that Fleming wanted Lee to play not Bond, but the lead villain role in the very first film. 007 movie. Both were regular golf partners and, as Lee told Total Film in 2005, Fleming offered him the role of Dr. Julius No in 1962. Dr. No. Lee immediately agreed, but when Fleming finally got a chance to talk to the producers about it, they had already decided on casting. Joseph Wiseman. Yet, as Lee would later claim, “The character of Dr. No was written with me in mind, at least that’s what Ian told me.”
Fortunately, this was not the last opportunity for Christopher Lee to be part of a Bind movie. More than a decade later, in 1974 he played in The Man with the Golden Gun as the main villain, Francisco Scaramanga. But for this one, Lee wasn’t the first choice. The role of Scaramanga was initially offered to Jack Palancewho refused it. While the film itself may not be considered one of the franchise’s best, Lee’s portrayal of Scaramanga is one of its redeeming qualities. Lee himself admitted to the Times that he thought Fleming “knew the wells of his imagination were starting to run a little dry” when he wrote the original novel, and that he developed the film version “a bit like Bond himself, a counter-Bond if you will, instead of the murderous, unappetizing thug of the novel.”
Unfortunately, as Lee noted, Ian Fleming didn’t get to see his cousin play any of his characters on the big screen. He died in 1964 from complications of heart disease; The Man with the Golden Gun the novel itself was published posthumously the following year. Lee, however, loved playing Scaramanga in the film.saying it was “a wonderful role” and that he “had a lot of fun doing it” with the director Guy Hamilton. The fact remains that in the end, the James Bond the franchise was better for having Christopher Lee play Francisco Scaramanga and not Bond himself, and, having been as close to Ian Fleming as he was, Lee certainly knew what he was doing.
James Bond is a composite of many influences
While it’s certainly fun to theorize, Ian Fleming has never made an objective statement about who James Bond was based on. Christopher Lee may have been an influence, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the entire character was created around him. It is often said that Fleming gave Bond many of his own tastes and character traits.for example, and even Sean ConneryThe character’s portrayal of the character influenced the author. The name itself comes from a British ornithologist living in Jamaica, because, at the time, Fleming wanted the character to be “boring”. So the author had no problem making character building and storytelling decisions as he went along, making it that much more difficult to pinpoint the exact influences.
Fleming once said that Bond “was a composite of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war”, so there are many real-life inspirations behind the character and apparently none of them were Christopher Lee – at least there’s no confirmation on that. Among the most suitable candidates is the author’s own brother, Peter Fleming, who would have been the typical Bond type and who also worked as a spy during the war. Serbian triple agent Dusko Popov was also influential, having met Fleming during the war in circumstances that inspired Casino Royale. Other likely influences include British secret agents Conrad O’Brien-Ffrench, Patrick Dalzel-Job, Michael Mason and Wilfred “Biffy” Dunderdale, as The Times noted in 2008.
As for who Fleming originally wanted to play Bond in his films, Christopher Lee himself once admitted that it wasn’t him, as he said in 2005, revealing that the author wanted James Mason for the role. “He had all the good qualities,” Lee said, although David Niven is also frequently mentioned. So unfortunately, As nice as it would have been to see Lee play Bond, it really doesn’t seem like it was meant for him. Given their closeness, it seems like Lee would know if there was a bit of himself in the character, and there are many other, more likely influences. This doesn’t take away from Lee’s accomplishment as an artist and individual, and it doesn’t seem like there will be anyone as notable as him in the industry anytime soon.
Dr. No is available for streaming on Prime Video in the United States
- Release date
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October 7, 1962
- Runtime
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110 minutes
- Director
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Terence Young
- Writers
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Ian Fleming, Berkely Mather, Johanna Harwood, Richard Maibaum
- Producers
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Harry Saltzman
