Kan (Khan) Bonfils (1972-2015) British-born actor Khan Bonfils died suddenly on January 5th, 2015 at the age of 42. He was known for his work in 10 feature films, including ‘Skyfall’ (2012), ‘Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace’ (1999) and ‘Batman Begins’ (2005). Bonfils died during a rehearsal for an upcoming theatre production of ‘Dante’s Inferno’. [Full Story]
June Randall (1927-2015) June Randall, who was continuity girl and script supervisor on several James Bond films, passed away on the morning of January 19th, 2015. She worked on ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977), ‘A View To A Kill’ (1985), ‘The Living Daylights’ (1987) and ‘Licence To Kill’ (1989), before moving up to the role of script supervisor for ‘GoldenEye’ (1995). In all, she worked on over 100 productions since her first job as assistant continuity on ‘Dear Murderer’ in 1947. Her last credit was for ‘Back to the Secret Garden’ in 2001. In 2007, June received a Lifetime Achievement award for her body of work as a Script Supervisor in films. [Full Story]
Louis Jourdan (1921-2015) Louis Jourdan died at his home in Beverly Hills on Saturday 14th February, 2015. He was 93. The accomplished made a varied and worthwhile range of films but regularly returned to the UK to work on BBC productions including 1977’s ‘Dracula’ and ‘Columbo’. In 1981, he discovered his son, Louis Henry, had committed suicide by drug overdose in his house in Beverly Hills. His friend and Bond producer, Albert R. Broccoli, cast him as Kamal Khan in the 1983 James Bond film ‘Octopusssy’. He had previously passed on the opportunity to play Hugo Drax in ‘Moonraker’ four years earlier. Jourdan performed in his last film in 1992, ‘Year of the Comet’, the romantic thriller directed by Peter Yates. In 2010 the actor was awarded the Legion d’Honneur in Los Angeles. [Full Story]
“Very sad to hear Louis Jourdan has died. Many happy memories of filming Octopussy together.” – Sir Roger Moore
Robert Rietty (1923-2015) The voice actor extraordinaire behind some of 007’s most memorable friends and foes passed away on April 3rd, 2015. Most memorably, Rietty dubbed Adolfo Celi throughout his time on Bond’s fourth adventure “Thunderball”. He also supplied the voice for Bond’s Japanese contact Tiger Tanaka. In honour of his long run with Bond, Rietty was given a small role on screen in “Thunderball” producer Kevin McClory’s remake, “Never Say Never Again”. He retired from acting in 2009, but no before voicing for the spin-off from cult British TV series, “Doctor Who: Death Comes to Time”. Aged 89 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Florida for services to the arts. [Full Story]
Christopher Wood (1935-2015) The English author and screenwriter of two James Bond films died in his apartment in France on May 9th, 2015 at the age of 79. Director Lewis Gilbert tapped Christopher Wood to pen the 1977 James Bond adventure ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ after several writers had pitched unsuccessful outlines. Wood has written ‘Seven Nights in Japan’ for Gilbert a couple of years earlier. As the film had little to do with the Ian Fleming novel, Wood also penned the novelization of the film (‘James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me’). Gilbert and Wood would team up again two years later for the following film ‘Moonraker,’ where once again Wood provided a novelization (‘James Bond and Moonraker’). Wood published his memoirs, ‘James Bond, The Spy I Loved’, in 2006. It was his last published work. [Full Story]
Sir Christopher Lee (1922-2015) Christopher Lee, Hammer Horror legend, cousin to Ian Fleming, and the Man With The Golden Gun died on Sunday 7th June 2015 at the age of 93. It was in 1957 that Lee met the legendary Hammer Horror actor Peter Cushing and costarred with the horror giant in “The Curse of Frankenstein”, wherein Lee played the infamous monster of Mary Shelley’s creation. In 1958, ten years after meeting Sir Roger Moore, Lee starred opposite the Bond actor in an episode of his TV series “Ivanhoe”, in which Moore plays Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, a noble challenger to the cruel reign of Prince John. Perhaps more notably for regular cinema-goers, ’58 marked Lee’s first appearance as the vampire Count Dracula in the film “Dracula”, which was retitled “Horror of Dracula” for the US market. 1973 saw the release of another iconic Lee role as Lord Summerisle in “The Wicker Man” alongside Edward Woodward and Britt Ekland. Christopher Lee later remembered Summerisle as one of his favourite roles. The following year he turned to his distant cousin’s oeuvre when he joined the production of Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman’s 007 adventure “The Man With The Golden Gun”. Shying away from the bloodthirsty roles of past, Lee transformed his cousin’s American gangster character, ‘Pistols’ Scaramanga, into a refined gentleman with a taste for good food and wine and a quiet and menacing attitude to his showdown with James Bond. [Full Story]
“It’s terrible when you lose an old friend, and Christopher Lee was one of my oldest. We first met in 1948.” – Sir Roger Moore
Patrick Macnee (1922-2015) Star of the ‘Avengers’ and ‘A View To A Kill’, the quintessential English gentleman Patrick Macnee died on June 25th, 2015, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, at the age of 93. The TV show ‘The Avengers’ started as a vehicle for Ian Hendry, but when he departed after the first series, Patrick Macnee became the show’s lead as John Steed. It went on to run for seven series from 1961 to 1969. His sidekick would be a woman of action. He twice lost his co-star to the James Bond franchise. First Honor Blackman would take her ‘Avengers’ fame to land the role of Pussy Galore in ‘Goldfinger’ (1964), and her replacement Diana Rigg would do the same for the part of Countess Tracy di Vicenzo in ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ (1969). He would co-star with his friend Roger Moore on a number productions, including the 1976 TV movie ‘Sherlock Holmes in New York’ and ‘The Sea Wolves’ in 1980. It was not until Moore’s final outing in the role of 007 that Bond and Steed would meet on the silver screen. Echoing his father’s career, Macnee would play the role of horse trainer and MI6 aide Sir Godfrey Tibbett, who assists Bond with his investigation of Max Zorin in ‘A View To A Kill’ (1985). Moore took delight in Macnee’s character being subservient to Bond, often ad libbing put down lines. [Full Story]
“So very sad to hear Pat MacNee has left us. We were mates from the 1950s and I have so many happy memories of working with him. A true gent.” – Sir Roger Moore
Gabriele Ferzetti (1925-2015) Co-star of ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ Gabriele Ferzetti has passed away on 2nd December 2015 aged 90. Before making the transition to English language films, Ferzetti became known for his role in Michelangelo Antonioni’s “L’Avventura” (1960), in which Ferzetti co-stars as playboy Sandro who must search for his lover after her disappearance. or his role in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969) as Bond’s future father-in-law and crime boss Marc-Ange Draco, Ferzetti was dubbed by David De Keyser. After his brush with Bond, Ferzetti appeared mostly in Italian cinema – or worked closely with Italian directors for the English market. [Full Story]
