James Bond (character)

Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVR is a fictional character created by novelist Ian Fleming, and the protagonist of the James Bond series of novels and films. James Bond is an agent of the international arm of the British Secret Service headquartered in London, originally in a tall, grey building overlooking Regent's Park. In 1995 for both the novels and the films, the headquarters was moved to the SIS building at Vauxhall Cross and officially acknowledged as MI6.

As an agent of the Secret Service, Bond holds code number "007," except for in You Only Live Twice, where he temporarily becomes "7777". The "double-0" prefix indicates his discretionary licence to kill in the performance of his duties.^[1] In the films, he is famous for introducing himself as "Bond, James Bond" whenever the opportunity arises and for ordering his vodka martinis "shaken, not stirred"; his usual and characteristical clothing is a tuxedo, usually also wearing a Rolex watch or, in later films, an Omega, and he is also characterized by his Walther PPK pistol, which has in later movies been replaced by the more recent Walther P99.

He has been portrayed on film by Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig, the last interpretation being the only one with an official fictional biography of the character. However, Bond was first portrayed by Barry Nelson in a 1954 American television movie based on the novel Casino Royale, and next by Bob Holness in a 1956 South African radio series based on the novel Moonraker. David Niven was Bond in a spoof film also called Casino Royale in 1967, which bore almost no relation to the genuine Bond novel of the same name. Several other actors, including Peter Sellers, also played James Bond in the spoof.

Biography of James Bond

Family and early years

See also: Young Bond

With the exception of the Young Bond series of novels by Charlie Higson launched in 2005, Bond for the most part is an ageless character in both films and literature. He is roughly in his late thirties. Many Ian Fleming biographers agree that he never really intended to write as many James Bond adventures as he did and to keep writing the novels he had to "tinker with Bond's early life" and change dates to ensure Bond was the appropriate age for the service, particularly due to a statement in Moonraker that 007 faced mandatory retirement from the 00 Section at age 45. In the same novel Bond notes that he has only eight years to go, and is, therefore, 37 years old. This approximate age carries on in continuation novels written by Kingsley Amis, John Gardner, and Raymond Benson.

The film actors who have portrayed Bond have varied greatly in age: George Lazenby was only 30 when On Her Majesty's Secret Service was released, and was presumably 29 during filming, while Roger Moore was 57 in A View to a Kill.

Due to Fleming's changes of dates and times in which events occurred, Bond's specific birth year is unknown. Most researchers or biographers have concluded that Bond was born in 1920, 1921 or 1924. (see more)

It is also debated where James Bond was born. According to John Pearson and his book James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007, Bond was born near Essen, Germany; however, Charlie Higson, in his novel SilverFin claims Bond was born in Switzerland. Regardless, Bond is unquestionably British.

James Bond is the son of a Scottish father, Andrew Bond of Glencoe, and a Swiss mother, Monique Delacroix of the Canton de Vaud. Bond spent many of his early years abroad and became proficient in German and French due to his father's work as a foreign representative of the Vickers armaments firm. When Bond was 11, both of his parents died in a mountain climbing accident in the Aiguilles Rouges near Chamonix.

While Bond's family did not have a motto initially, he was invited to adopt one during "Operation Corona" in the novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The motto, Orbis non sufficit is Latin for "The world is not enough." The coat of arms and motto belong to Sir Thomas Bond, who was never proven to be of any relation to James Bond. He never requested research to confirm his potential genealogical relationship to Sir Thomas Bond and his family. Bond, in fact, showed no true interest or enthusiasm about the matter, as can be demonstrated by his abrupt response to Griffin Or after being told about the motto:

After the death of his parents, he subsequently went to live with his aunt, Miss Charmian Bond, who completed his early education. He later briefly attended Eton College starting at the age of "12 or thereabouts" (13 in Young Bond), but left after two halves when some "alleged" troubles with one of his maids came to light. In the short story "From a View to a Kill", however, Bond recounts losing his virginity on his first visit to Paris at the age of 16.

Bond was removed from Eton at his aunt's request and sent to continue his education at Fettes College in Edinburgh, Scotland, his father's old school. Per John Pearson's Authorised Biography and an allusion by Fleming in From Russia with Love, Bond also briefly attended the University of Geneva. With the exception of Fettes, Bond's attendance at these schools parallels Fleming's own life. The film version of You Only Live Twice asserts he is a graduate with a degree in Oriental languages from Cambridge University. He also attends (presumably at some point) Oxford to study Danish in Tomorrow Never Dies, although in the film he's not there to study at all. Bond can speak a variety of different languages, most notably German, French, Russian and Japanese. The languages Bond claims to know are contradicted many times between the film series, Fleming's novel series, and even later films and continuation novels.

In 1941, Bond lied about his age in order to enter the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during World War II, from which he emerged with the rank of Commander. Bond maintains this rank while in the employ of the British Secret Service and through further continuation novels and in the films. Gardner promoted Bond to Captain in Win, Lose or Die. Since Bensons Bond was rebooted, Bond became a Commander again. Bond also became a member of the RNVSR (Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve) which was an association of officers with considerable wartime experience (Moonraker, chapter 4: The 'Shiner').

Working for the British Secret Service

It is never stated when James Bond became a 00 agent. According to Fleming, after joining the RNVR, Bond is mentioned as travelling to America, Hong Kong, and Jamaica. It is believed that it is during this time that Bond perhaps joined another organisation such as the SOE, the 00 Section of the British Secret Service, or perhaps as a commando in Fleming's own "Red Indians" 30th Assault Unit (30 AU). One supporting reason is that Fleming describes Bond in the Ardennes firing a bazooka in 1944. 30AU were the only British unit attached in small groups to US units all over Europe. In Bond's obituary from You Only Live Twice, his commanding officer, M, alludes to Bond's rank as being cover:

"To serve the confidential nature of his duties, he was accorded the rank of lieutenant in the Special Branch of the R.N.V.R., and it is a measure of the satisfaction his services gave to his superiors that he ended the war with the rank of Commander." — You Only Live Twice, chapter 21: "Obit"

Bond earns his stripes in the 00 Section by completing two tasks, which Fleming outlines in Casino Royale. The first is the assassination of a Japanese cipher expert on the 36th floor of the RCA Building at Rockefeller Centre in New York City. The second was the assassination of a Norwegian who became a double agent and betrayed two British agents. Bond travels to Stockholm where he kills the man in his sleep with a knife.

According to Bond, obtaining a 00 number is not hard so long as you're prepared to kill, which John Pearson suggests Bond first did as a teenager. Throughout Fleming's novels, further continuation novels, and even the films, Bond's attitude toward his job is similar; he dislikes taking life — resorting (typically in the films) to flippant jokes and off-hand remarks as after-the-fact relief, often misinterpreted as cold-bloodedness.

"It was part of his profession to kill people. He had never liked doing it and when he had to kill he did it as well as he knew how and forgot about it. As a secret agent who held the rare Double-O prefix – the licence to kill in the Secret Service – it was his duty to be as cool about death as a surgeon. If it happened, it happened. Regret was unprofessional — worse, it was a death-watch beetle in the soul." — Goldfinger, chapter 1: "Reflections in a Double Bourbon"

In Goldfinger Bond is haunted by memories of a small-time Mexican gunman he had killed with his bare hands days earlier. The cinematic Bond did not begin to show unease about killing until Brosnan's tenure; it is suggested in GoldenEye that he is troubled by the brutality of his job, while in The World Is Not Enough, he admits that cold-blooded killing is a filthy business. Nonetheless, Bond does kill when needed, and on film commits acts that might be considered murder in other circumstances ( killing the unarmed Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough) or political assassination (killing Mr. Big, who is the leader of a small fictional nation in Live and Let Die). The literary James Bond was reserved in his licensed killing, sometimes disobeying his orders to kill if the mission could be accomplished by other means. Such is the case in "The Living Daylights" where Bond makes a last second decision to disobey his orders and not kill an assassin. Instead Bond intentionally shoots the assassin's gun and still manages to accomplish the mission. He later feels so strongly about his decision that he actually expresses the hope that M will fire him for it. There are Fleming works in which Bond does not kill anyone. Bond also feels an intense hatred towards those who kill helpless non-combatants (such as Oddjob, Max Zorin and Franz Sanchez), in particular if the victim is a woman. He has been know to forsake even his vows to his country to avenge the deaths of innocent victims, as he did for Felix Leiter and his murdered wife in the film Licence to Kill.

In both the literary and cinematic adaptations of the character, Bond has a cavalier attitude toward his own death; he accepts that he will most likely die if captured, and expects MI-6 to disavow his existence in such a situation. He withstands brutal torture in more than one adventure (most notably Casino Royale, The World is Not Enough, and Die Another Day) without divulging the information his persecutors seek.

The cinematic James Bond (introduced in 1962) already had a history with the Secret Service. In Dr. No, when reluctantly re-equipped with a 7.65 mm Walther PPK pistol replacing his Beretta automatic pistol, agent 007 protests, telling M that he had used the weapon for 10 years, suggesting he has been a secret agent for at least that long. In the novels preceding Dr. No, Bond used a .25 Beretta automatic with a light chamois leather holster, however, in From Russia with Love, the gun snagged in Bond's jacket when drawn and because of this incident M and Major Boothroyd forced Bond to switch to the Walther PPK and a Berns-martin triple-draw holster made of stiff saddle leather. Bond continues to use this handgun up until John Gardner's Licence Renewed where he uses a number of different weapons until settling on the ASP 9mm in later books. According to Gardner in the novelisation for Licence to Kill, the Walther PPK is not Bond's favourite weapon. With Raymond Benson, Bond began using the PPK again until being updated in both the film and novelisation Tomorrow Never Dies with the Walther P99. In James Bond: The Secret World of 007, it is revealed that Bond has a practical knowledge of judo and other martial arts.

Description and personal life

In the novels (notably From Russia with Love), Bond's physical description has generally been consistent: slim build; a three-inch, vertical scar on his right cheek (absent from the film version); blue-grey eyes; a "cruel" mouth; short, black hair, a comma of which falls on his forehead (greying at the temples in Gardner's novels); and (after Casino Royale) the faint scar of the Russian cyrillic letter "Ш" (SH) (for Shpion: "Spy") on the back of one of his hands (carved by a SMERSH agent). In From Russia with Love he is also described as 183 centimeters (6 feet) in height and 76 kilograms (167 lbs.) in weight.

In all media, Bond is portrayed as highly intelligent, and in the films is something of a "know-it-all." In Goldfinger, he calculates in his head how many trucks it takes to transport all the gold in Fort Knox, and how long the gold would be radioactive after Auric Goldfinger's bomb had exploded. Bond's "genius" became a running joke during Moore's era. It was virtually eliminated during Dalton's tenure as 007.

When not on assignment or at headquarters Bond spends his time at his flat off the Kings Road in Chelsea. His flat, as well as himself, is looked after by an elderly Scottish housekeeper named May, who is very loyal and often motherly to him. According to Higson's Young Bond series, May previously worked for Bond's aunt, Charmian. Bond hardly ever brings women back to his home, happening only once between the novels Diamonds Are Forever and From Russia with Love when he briefly lived with Tiffany Case. According to Pearson's book and hinted at in From Russia with Love, Tiffany often got into arguments with May and eventually left. At his home, Bond has two telephones. One for personal use and a second red phone that is a direct line between his home and headquarters; the latter is said to always be ringing at inopportune moments.

In both the literary and cinematic versions of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, James Bond marries, but his bride, Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo, is killed on their wedding day by his archenemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld; the loss resonates in both versions of the character for many years thereafter. In the novels, Bond gets revenge in the following novel, You Only Live Twice when, by chance, he comes across Blofeld in Japan, while the cinematic Bond takes on Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever with an ambiguous result. Later, in the pre-title sequence of For Your Eyes Only, Bond despatches a bald, wheelchair-bound man who bears a startling resemblance to Blofeld, shortly after viewing his wife's grave (the character was not named for legal reasons connected with EON Productions' ongoing dispute with Kevin McClory over the film rights to the novel Thunderball).

Bond had one child by Kissy Suzuki in You Only Live Twice, although he never learns of the boy's existence in Fleming's novels. In Pearson's book, the son is named James Suzuki. Bond is obviously aware of his son's existence by the time of Raymond Benson's short story "Blast From the Past" in which his son asks him to come to New York City as a matter of urgency before being killed by Irma Bunt. The story's canonical status is often disputed since it appears to exist outside the timeline of all continuation novels, including Benson's own.

Habits and preferences

Bond is a creature of sensual appetites, a consummate gourmand, womanizer, and drinker and is a heavy cigarette smoker.

Bond seems to have very Epicurean tastes in meals, often giving meticulous instructions on the preparation of his food and drink as well as the ambiance of the room. His favourite meal of the day is breakfast and his favourite meal is brown hard-boiled eggs which are prepared for him by his Scottish housekeeper May Maxwell. A recipe for this meal, dubbed "Scrambled eggs 'James Bond'," can be located in the short story "007 in New York."

He also has an amazing knowledge of wines and spirits. Bond is famous for ordering his vodka martinis "shaken, not stirred." In the novel Moonraker, he drinks a shot of vodka straight, served with a pinch of black pepper; a habit he picked up working in the Baltic region. This was not for the flavour, he explains, but because it caused the impurities in cheap vodka to sink to the bottom. He also drinks and enjoys gin martinis, champagne, and bourbon. According to [www.atomicmartinis.com] Bond consumes 317 drinks of which 101 are whisky, 35 sakes, 30 glasses of champagne and a mere 19 vodka martinis.

In Ian Fleming's novels Bond is a heavy smoker, at one point reaching 70 cigarettes a day. On average, Bond smokes 60 a day, although in certain novels Bond does attempt to cut back so that he can accomplish certain feats such as swimming underwater. He is also forced to cut back after being sent to a health farm per his superior's order in Thunderball. Bond specifically smokes a blend of Balkan and Turkish tobacco with a higher than average tar content from Morlands of Grosvenor Street called "Morland Specials." The cigarette itself has three gold bands on the filter signifying Bond's (and Fleming's) commander rank in the secret service. Additionally Bond carries his cigarettes in a trademarked monogrammed gunmetal cigarette case. In continuation novels by John Gardner, Bond cuts back by smoking low-tar cigarettes from Morlands and later H. Simmons of Burlington Arcade. Later works by Raymond Benson has Bond continuing to use this brand. Cinematically, Bond has been off and on usually going with changes in society. During the films starring Connery, Lazenby and Dalton, Bond was a smoker, while during Moore's and Brosnan's tenure he doesn't smoke cigarettes, although he does occasionally smoke cigars. Indeed, Brosnan's second portrayal of Bond, in Tomorrow Never Dies, remarks upon a Russian who is smoking by saying "Filthy habit". The last time Bond smoked a cigarette on film was in 1989. In Daniel Craig's tenure, he is never seen smoking at all.

Bond has mostly meaningless affairs or one night stands with virtually every woman he encounters, and discards them the minute they become an inconvenience. His suave, chauvinistic charm even seduces women who initially find him repellent, such as Holly Goodhead in Moonraker or Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies. His "ladies man" persona belies a darker side, however; in both novels and film, he is extremely sexually aggressive. While the women he sleeps with do willingly give in to him, he does not take the initial 'no' for an answer. In more recent incarnations, his attitudes toward women have softened somewhat; he respects the new, female M, and a few female characters, such as Elektra King and Paris Carver, have gotten under his skin.

Despite Bond's proclivity for expensive living, in Goldfinger, which was written in 1959, his income is stated at $4200 USD per year, which comes out to $28,719.18 in January 2007 money.^[2]

Birth year debate

According to John Pearson's James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007, Bond was born on November 11, 1920; no Fleming novel supports this date, in fact, the novel You Only Live Twice makes a couple of references to Bond's birth year being 1924. In the novel, M writes an obituary for James Bond after believing him to be dead. M writes that Bond left school when he was 17 years old and joined the Ministry of Defence in 1941. If Bond was 17 in 1941, then he was born in 1924. Prior to this, Tiger Tanaka, the head of the Japanese Secret Service, states Bond was born in the year of the rat, which supports 1924.

A more complex date of birth, according to John Griswold and his authorised book Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations and Chronologies is November 11, 1921 (November 11, being Pearson's date and Armistice Day). Griswold notes that Bond's joining of the Ministry of Defence was originally written in Fleming's manuscript as 1939 and later changed to 1941. Briefly, Griswold contends that Bond joined the Admiralty in 1939 (the same year Fleming joined) and 1941 is a year marker that places his recruitment into an organisation that was later attached to the Ministry of Defence by Fleming. Griswold believes that a lot of details in Bond's timeline make better sense with the original 1939 date. For instance, if one computes Bond's age for when he was admitted into the Admiralty to when his parents died, then Bond would have been 11 in 1933 from January 1 through to November 10 if he was born in 1921. 1933 is the year mentioned in Casino Royale for when Bond "bought" his first Bentley. Since all of the years claimed for when Bond was born would have made him too young to purchase this Bentley, a more likely scenario is that he "inherited" it from his late father. Griswold presented this idea to Ian Fleming Publications in February 2003. The company recognised this issue for its Young Bond series of novels featuring Bond as a teenager in the 1930s and along with its author, Charlie Higson, defined Bond being born in the year 1920. In Higson's series, the Bentley in question was purchased used in December 1933 in Double or Die by Bond with money he had received for helping someone win a lot of money at a roulette table. Previously Bond had inherited a Bamford & Martin Sidevalve Short Chassis Tourer around Easter 1933 from his Uncle Max.

Modern Bond biography

The 2006 film Casino Royale is about the origins of James Bond before Dr. No. and the websitegives a lengthy biography of the Bond that parallels the backstory of Fleming's literary character, but it is updated to reflect Bond's new birth date of April 13, 1968; April 13 being the day in which Casino Royale was published in 1953 and 1968 being the year in which Daniel Craig was born. This version of the character is born in West Berlin. His parents, Andrew and Monique Bond, died in a climbing accident, so he was raised in Kent, England, by his aunt Charmain.

Like the original character, Bond is kicked out of Eton College and attends his father's alma mater, Fettes College. Bond attends the University of Geneva while at Fettes through an exchange program. After Fettes, Bond joins the Royal Navy and attends Britannia Royal Navy College at the age of 17.

The modern biography clarifies Bond's military service by stating he joins the Special Boat Service while in the Royal Navy, where he obtains the rank of Commander, and then is placed in the 030 Special Forces Unit (a reference to Fleming's 30th Assault Unit during World War II, a unit he nicknamed his 'Red Indians' see Casino Royale). Bond serves covertly in Iraq, Somalia, Iran, Libya and actively in Bosnia. He is then recruited by the RNR Defence Intelligence Group. Bond attends specialized courses at Cambridge and Oxford universities during this period, earning a degree in Oriental Languages from Cambridge. Bond is noted to be fluent in French, German, and Italian, and writing passable Greek, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese at the time he joins MI6. He serves in the Royal Navy from age 17 to 31, joins MI6 at age 32, and is promoted to 00 agent at age 38 in 2006. Interestingly, he was described as searching for WMDs in and around Baghdad shortly before the invasion of Iraq, where his final report claimed that he and his team found nothing. He is later aggravated when he finds out his report has been brushed under the carpet by his superiors in London and Washington.

Alternative biographies and theories

An interesting, if wholly non-canonical, conjecture about the Bond lineage can be found in Alan Moore's comic book series, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, set in Victorian England. In it, the portly, sinister, and secretive MI6 agent placed in charge of the League is named Campion Bond. His superior, the overall director of the top-secret team, is code-named M, an obvious reference to the James Bond series. Later in "League," it is revealed that this "M" is none other than Professor James Moriarty, the arch nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. The second miniseries would continue the Holmes link, as MI6 would be taken over by Mycroft Holmes as the new "M." Although Moore makes no overt connection between Bond and Campion, the saturation of literary reference in the comics, along with the code Double-O Seven being engraved in morse code on Campion's walking stick, has led fans to propose that Campion is meant to be an ancestor of the modern secret agent. Another character in the comic notes of Campion that, "Family's got a reputation. A bad 'un." Auric Goldfinger is briefly mentioned in the universe's background, implying a link between the James Bond universe and that of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

In his fictional biographies, author Philip José Farmer suggests that Bond belongs in the Wold Newton family tree along with Tarzan, Doc Savage, and many other fictional heroes. Followers of Farmer's speculations have greatly elaborated on Bond's family.

Controversially, Die Another Day director Lee Tamahori believed that the name "James Bond" is a codename (like 007) which is given to the best and most accomplished secret agents. The theory is meant to explain the changes in actors (e.g., Roger Moore vs. Timothy Dalton) and Bond's apparent agelessness. The idea was created so that Tamahori could get Connery to make a cameo appearance in the film, and thus explain how it was possible that Connery and Brosnan as Bond could both be on film at the same time.^[3]

Tamahori explained the theory: "My idea was basically that there have been several Bonds. It's just a prefix and a code name. Even James Bond is not the guy's name. That's the way I've always been able to view these things from when Connery left and Lazenby and Moore took over, right up to Brosnan. How could this guy be so young still? Of course to me, it is just a prefix and a code name. That means that Connery either died or retired, Moore died or retired and so on. Following that, that allows you to have possibly two James Bonds in a movie. What happened to the others? Were they retired from active service or were they killed? That's where I came from."

The theory, as well as the intent to have Connery cameo in Die Another Day, was rejected by producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson (although a televised news report during production reported erroneously that Connery had filmed a cameo as Bond's father). One and probably the only evidence to support this theory is Lazenby's final line in the pre-title sequence of On Her Majesty's Secret Service where the Bond girl runs away after Bond is ambushed on a beach: "This never happened to the other fella." The theory is denounced by most fans due to continuity in subsequent films when Bond's wife, Tracy (from On Her Majesty's Secret Service) is mentioned — most notably in The Spy Who Loved Me, where Moore's Bond reacts emotionally when the death of his wife is mentioned. In the later For Your Eyes Only Bond is seen attending Tracy's grave, and Felix Leiter refers to Bond's marriage in Licence To Kill. The idea that the James Bond name – in addition to the 007 number – has been given to subsequent agents was also featured in the 1967 film of Casino Royale, where the original James Bond is an elderly gentleman who won a VC at the Siege of Mafeking, who berates M for having given his number and name to a brash young agent whose description appears to match Sean Connery's Bond. Later in the film, six further MI6 agents are assigned the name "James Bond 007", including Vesper Lynd, baccarat expert Evelyn Tremble, and a seal.

References

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