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George Lazenby

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George Lazenby - James Bond Wiki

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Background:

George 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, following Sean Connery, who had become a cultural icon in the role. Lazenby had a difficult task in filling these shoes, and nearly everything about his portrayal of Bond has been controversial.

He was a model before being Bond. He aproached the producer at a hairdresser.The film's producers, perhaps mistrusting Lazenby's ability to carry the picture, took the unusual step of overdubbing Lazenby's voice with that of George Baker in major scenes in which Bond impersonated Baker's character. The technique had never been used in a Bond film for a leading actor whose first language was English. It was rumoured that Lazenby had been "difficult to work with". Lazenby subsequently admitted that he had neither the maturity nor the experience to completely understand the studio system. According to an interview with Lazenby, the difficulties were due to director Peter R. Hunt refusing to talk directly to Lazenby after Lazenby was too brusque in passing on a request that Hunt's friends clear a set before filming.

Certainly, Lazenby's James Bond is a man less amused by life than was Connery's, less accessible, more a man who lives from ruse to ruse, more stoic and resigned. Until he falls in love, he is a hedonist without pleasure. This treatment was the deliberate approach of the film's director Peter Hunt, who has stated in an interview that "I was very insistent that we stay with the story of the book". Hunt reshot scenes where he was unhappy with Lazenby's portrayal of emotion. Critical response to On Her Majesty's Secret Service remains sharply divided as well, affecting estimates of George Lazenby's potential as James Bond. It follows the plot of the novel more closely than did the other film adaptations of the eponymous source novels, including serious dramatic subject matter pivotal to the development of Bond's character: Bond's contemplated resignation from MI6; his comically botched impersonation of a sexually ascetic genealogist at a mountaintop allegies clinic for beautiful young women; and his brief, tragic marriage to the daughter of a Corsican crime syndicate leader. American movie reviewer Leonard Maltin has suggested that had Sean Connery held the leading role, On Her Majesty's Secret Service would have epitomised the series.

Although the film was not as successful as previous Bond films at the box office, some aficionados consider this the best film of the James Bond series, with many critics feeling George Lazenby "nailed" the character of James Bond as described in the novels. Commercially, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is widely believed to have paled in comparison tothe previous Bond film You Only Live Twice and to the following, Diamonds Are Forever (both featured Sean Connery as James Bond); 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% the box office gross with 74% of the budget, and was the second highest grossing film of 1969. (It also been suggested that it was partly arresting a slide in what was at the time a declining franchise; receipts for You Only Live Twice already reflected a substantial decline from the previous hit Thunderball, yet, in comparison, the receipts for On Her Majesty's Secret Service declined at a lesser rate than did those of You Only Live Twice). When adjusted for inflation, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the median performer of the entire James Bond franchise.

Fun Fact:
  • In 1968, Lazenby was the highest-paid male model in the world!

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Cedric(006) George Lazenby 12 Apr 27 2008, 8:54 AM EDT by Cedric(006)
Cedric(006)
Thread started: Mar 29 2008, 2:44 PM EDT  Watch
If George Lazenby would have done more movies, would have he been better than Roger Moore? Would he have been a top 2 bond?
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JustinAtheropinion Some false data in this report 2 Jan 2 2008, 10:11 PM EST by JustinAtheropinion
JustinAtheropinion
Thread started: Oct 16 2007, 2:36 PM EDT  Watch
The dubbing information is inaccurate--Ursula Andress, Gert Frobe, Claudine Auger, Shirley Eaton, Tetsuro Tamba, Gabrielle Ferzetti, and the gal who played Sylvia Trench were all dubbed. Frobe, Celi, Bianchi and Hama were dubbed because they had difficulties with English and couldn't be understood by Harry Saltzman.
Re-casting voices was a pretty common procedure in the early days of Bond.

Also, I'd dispute the "Highest Paid Male Model" in 1968 info. Maybe because he played Bond that year, but not just for his modelling work. Lazenby was fairly unknown at the time.
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Keyword tags: george lazenby ohmss
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Anonymous Good Film - Actor better than Pierce and Timothy 1 Oct 16 2007, 2:27 PM EDT by JustinAtheropinion
Thread started: Aug 8 2007, 8:26 PM EDT  Watch
This film is really very good. He is certainly better than Pierce or Timothy. He is not Sean Connery. But then who is. Try watching this film. You will enjoy it
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ConneryISBond Highly Under-Rated 0 Jul 8 2007, 8:05 PM EDT by ConneryISBond
ConneryISBond
Thread started: Jul 8 2007, 8:05 PM EDT  Watch
When I first saw this film when I was young, I never really appreciated it (because I grew up in the Brosnan era) but now that I come to think of it, George Lazenby could have been one of the best Bonds if he would have accepted a couple more Bond films. He definitely had potential and he actually could fight (unlike Moore, even though he is one of my favorites). OHMSS is actually one of my favorites, or if that, the best Bond film in my opinion. I also don't think Connery could have did that last emotional scene.
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Anonymous Don't "declassify" OHMSS! 1 May 8 2007, 7:21 PM EDT by alexberg
Thread started: May 8 2007, 4:47 PM EDT  Watch
For overall plot and screen treatment, I personally rate OHMSS No. 3 behind Thunderball and now Casino Royale--close to the plot of the books, gadgets kept to a minimum, believable bad guys who don't want to blow up the whole world--just make a few billion on the side. I agree with Maltin that OHMSS might have been the best of the series had Connery played it, but Lazenby was OK in the role--better than Moore (too "smirky") or Dalton (too angry!) ever were. At least comparable with Brosnan. I agree that no one's going to touch Connery anytime soon, although Craig has potential!
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