Diamonds Are Forever - Who Could Have Played James Bond?

Before George Lazenby quit the Bond franchise after one film, Richard Maibaum wrote a treatment for Diamonds are Forever in which Bond seeks revenge on Blofeld for the murder of his wife in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Irma Bunt and Marc Ange Draco returned in the treatment. Cubby Broccoli was said to have disliked the story though and when Lazenby vacated the role of 007 the notion of doing a direct sequel to On Her Majesty's Secret Service lost a lot of its currency anyway.

The Bond producers and United Artists now faced their ultimate headache. They had to find a new James Bond actor - again. It must have felt like the dust had only just settled on the endless interviews, readings, and auditions for OHMSS but now they had to do it all over again! One name who again couldn't be considered was Roger Moore. Moore began shooting the television show The Persuaders with Tony Curtis in 1970 and was unavailable. Another actor who wasn't considered for Diamonds Are Forever was Timothy Dalton. Dalton still felt far too young to even think about playing Bond. Besides, at this time Dalton had turned his back on films and gone back to the theatre for a time. He'd dropped off the radar somewhat.

It appears that none of the finalists for the part of Bond in OHMSS were considered for Diamonds Are Forever. Some new candidates were therefore required. But where to start? What sort of Bond should they be looking for? Another Connery/Lazenby type or someone different for the new decade? This was not an easy question to answer. Peter Anthony, the model who won the Daily Express competition to discover a James Bond for Dr No, was apparently brought back to do a test for Diamonds Are Forever. Anthony was more mature now and still looked the part but his acting wasn't much better than it had been in 1961 so he was rejected for the second time.

Some other previous candidates were also considered for Diamonds Are Forever. Harry Saltzman was still quite interested in Michael Billington. Around this time Saltzman hired Gerry Anderson to write a script treatment for an adaptation of Ian Fleming's Moonraker and there was some speculation about Billington playing Bond in this film (which obviously didn't go ahead in the end). Billington does not seem to have become a serious candidate for Diamonds Are Forever. It could be that his youth and television commitments precluded him from becoming a stronger candidate. Next time around though Billington would come within a whisker of the part.

David Warbeck was again briefly considered. Warbeck was having a pretty good run at the time. He was set for appearances in Twins of Evil and A Fistful of Dynamite and had appeared in two episodes of UFO. Warbeck wasn't the most outlandishly handsome Bond candidate but he was rather dashing and had something about him. Another person who EON hadn't forgotten was Patrick Mower. Michael Gambon claimed that Cubby Broccoli wanted to cast Mower as Bond in Diamonds Are Forever but this was blocked by United Artists because they didn't want another inexperienced unknown like Lazenby.

While you can understand that the studio were eager to hire someone with stature and fame it seems a little harsh on Mower as by 1970 he was a very experienced actor - certainly in comparison to Lazenby. Whether he had the acting chops was debatable though. In 1971, Mower appeared in the dreadful horror film Incense for the Damned. Patrick Mower (who plays an Oxford don in the film who falls under the spell of a louche vampire cult led by a gyrating Imogen Hassell) spends much of Incense for the Damned in a vacant druggy haze and then when he finally does get to speak at the end and is given a big dramatic speech he is absolutely terrible. If they had the Razzies in 1971 I think old Patrick might have been in contention.

As for Michael Gambon, he was (to his great surprise), asked if he wanted to test to play Bond in Diamonds Are Forever by Cubby Broccoli. Gambon was thirty years-old at the time and more of a stage than screen actor (in fact, he had only made one film). "I was given a smoked-salmon sandwich and a glass of champagne," said Gambon, "and Cubby said: ‘We’re looking for a new James Bond.’ And I started laughing. ‘James Bond, me? I'm not the right shape.’ He said: ‘Well, we have ice bags for Sean’s chest and  your jowls, doesn’t take more than two days and the recovery period’s a week. Teeth, well we can do that in an afternoon. And Sean wears a piece. I’ll get a toupee for you’” Despite this, Gambon was sensible enough not to pursue the matter. He was a great actor but it's hard to see him as Bond. Michael Gambon was more evidence that Cubby Broccoli had a weakness for asking virtually everyone he met to test for James Bond!

The late Adam West said that he met Cubby Broccoli around this time and was asked if he'd be interested in playing James Bond in the next film. Cubby's wife Dana Broccoli confirmed that Adam West was indeed approached regarding Bond around the time that Diamonds Are Forever was being planned. West was forty-two years-old and had just finished his memorable stint as Batman in the enjoyably tongue-in-cheek television show. The idea of Adam West as James Bond sounds laughable on the face of it (and it was always rather unlikely) but maybe it wasn't as ridiculous as it sounds. It's not as if Adam West wasn't a handsome chap good at portraying playboys. West was very suave (you might even venture he was sort of like the American version of Roger Moore) and knew his way around a quip. It doesn't take an impossible leap of imagination to picture Adam West in a campy tongue-in-cheek sort of Bond film and that's exactly the sort of film that Diamonds Are Forever turned out to be! Nonetheless, Adam West declined the invitation to be considered for Bond. He felt that James Bond should be played by a British actor. West would not be the last American Bond candidate to make this observation.

A British actor seriously considered for Diamonds Are Forever was Michael McStay. McStay was 37 and looked a bit like Clark Kent in a Superman comic. McStay had been in a couple of films but most of his CV consisted of television work. Among the shows he'd appeared in were The Avengers, Z-Cars, and Dixon of Dock Green. There was a lot of media speculation in 1970 that McStay might be the next Bond. "There was an article in the paper saying one of these six actors is James Bond and I was one of them," said McStay. "I'd been through a fair selection process, the only thing I hadn't done was a film test. Then I got a phone call call from a reporter in the Far East who said he'd got a cable saying Michael McStay is the next Bond. My agent heard nothing about it, couldn't confirm it, the press arrived at my house in force." Michael McStay was obviously not chosen in the end although it appears that the producers were interested in him. McStay continued to be a prolific television actor in the decades to come. He has been in everything from Doctor Who to Coronation Street to The Bill.

An unlikely but interesting candidate for Diamonds Are Forever was Roger Green. It was an article in 007 Magazine many years that shed light on Green's audition. Green was a former rugby player from New Zealand who became a meat importer. He ended up drifting into acting after meeting the writer Robert Bolt at a party. Green credited a theatrical agent named Johnny Harrison for getting him a meeting with Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. Green was something of a real life James Bond as his job took him to dangerous places and he was fond of booze and the playboy lifestyle. He was tall and dark-haired and had a decent enough look for Bond. Green did a screen test for the director Guy Hamilton (who was returning to the franchise for the first time since Goldfinger) in which he played a scene with Imogen Hassall. In the test Hassall played Tiffany Case while Bob Simmons played Peter Franks. It was the classic Bond audition scenario. Green had to show he could be suave with the ladies and then have a punch up!

Roger Green said that Guy Hamilton was very complimentary about his screen test and predicted he was in with a good shout of getting the part. Whether or not Hamilton was just being polite is hard to say. Roger Green's screen test is one of the few that is now public and can be viewed online. While he can obviously handle himself in a scrap and sort of looks the part you wouldn't say that Green displayed much in the way of acting ability, charm, or charisma. Roger Green said that as someone who wasn't really an actor he was realistic enough to realise that his chances were slim but nonetheless he got his hopes up because he was still in contention even when many other candidates had been rejected. In the end green's hopes were dashed by the return of Sean Connery. Green believes that United Artists would never had sanctioned hiring him anyway. In later years Green took advantage of his Bond connections to write a memoir which he titled Shaken & Stirred.

The American actor Robert Wagner said that Cubby Broccoli spoke to him about playing Bond in Diamonds Are Forever. Wagner was in his late thirties at the time and was still a reasonably big star (although he would do a lot more television work in the seventies). Wagner said that no official offer was made but Broccoli invited him to be considered for the part and said he could be a very good candidate. Wagner though, like Adam West, felt that he was too American to play James Bond and wouldn't be a good fit for the part at all. Wagner told Cubby Broccoli that he should go and hire his friend Roger Moore (which was obviously something Cubby was unable to do at this time).

In a twist of fate, many years later Roger Wagner married Jill St John - who played the female lead in Diamonds Are Forever. Jill St John and Lana Wood both play Bond girls in Diamonds Are Forever and there was a strange connection between these women some years later. Wagner used to be married to Lana's sister Natalie Wood. Natalie Wood drowned in 1981 while on a yacht with Robert Wagner and Lana always suspected foul play in her sister's death. There is another bizarre Bond connection to this story because the third person on the yacht that tragic night was Christopher Walken. 

Among the more unlikely candidates to play Bond in Diamonds Are Forever was Malcom Roberts. Roberts was a twenty-six year-old singer who had three hit singles in the late 1960s. Roberts was looked at by the producers but does not appear to have been seriously considered. Roberts had actually began his career as an actor and once appeared in Coronation Street. Roberts had blonde hair and a very large comic book chin. He looked a bit like a much larger and heavier version of Adam Faith. Roberts later attempted to represent the United Kingdom in the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest but didn't get picked. It has been alleged that Robert Powell was a candidate to play Bond in Diamonds Are Forever although Powell said that he never received a formal approach. Powell was in his late twenties at the time and had appeared in a number of TV shows and a few films (most notably The Italian Job). Robert Powell was a very competent actor but you probably can't really imagine him as James Bond.



(Simon Oates in The Terrornauts - Simon is obviously the chap on the right with the black tie)

Perhaps the strongest new candidate EON managed to find was 38 year-old Simon Oates. Oates had appeared in all manner of TV shows (everything from Armchair Theatre to The Avengers) and a few films too. Oates was the lead actor in the daft 1967 Amicus sci-fi film the Terrornauts and while The Terrornauts is a pretty terrible film (though you might describe it as a guilty pleasure) Oates is actually very good in it and has a likeable and relaxed screen presence. He looked good too and was tall and urbane. In fact, in 1971, Oates even played John Steed in an Avengers stage show. He was a very suave chap. Oates had just begun a stint in the ecological sci-fi series Doomwatch in 1970 but was still permitted to test for Diamonds Are Forever. By all accounts, Oates came pretty close to bagging the part of 007.

"I nearly got the James Bond role in 1971 and missed out on it, unluckily, because Sean came back and decided to do one more!" said Oates in one of his last interviews. "I did the audition and got a round of applause from everybody in the studio. They were all very pleased and things looked very positive. Cubby Broccoli was talking terms with my agent - and then one day, he telephoned me. 'Sorry, Simon. Sean's coming back,' he said. I understood. Connery was Bond and if he wanted to do it again, they really couldn't turn him down in favour of Simon Oates, could they? When the next one (Live and Let Die) came up, I was working, so I lost Bond - I couldn't do it. Mind you, the way my life's gone, playing Bond would have changed the course of it and I wouldn't be where I am now. In the end, I'm grateful that I didn't do it. I've had a smashing career and I'm very happy."

Simon Oates was not though the actor who came closest to the part of James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever. That accolade went to the American actor John Gavin. Gavin has the unusual distinction of being the only actor who signed to play James Bond but never actually made a Bond film. For a brief moment in time, John Gavin was officially signed on the dotted line to play James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever. Gavin was forty years-old and certainly looked the part. He was handsome, dark-haired, and muscular. Gavin made his film debut in 1956 and was probably best known for playing Sam Loomis in Hitchcock's Psycho. Gavin had also played Julius Caesar in Kubrick's Spartacus and appeared in Thoroughly Modern Millie with Julie Andrews.

What probably landed Gavin the Bond role was the 1968 film OSS 117 – Double Agent. OSS 117 – Double Agent was what you might describe as a Spaghetti spy film and one of the many European James Bond mimics or parodies that festooned the 1960s. OSS 117 is Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, a fictional secret agent created by French writer Jean Bruce. A number of actors have played this character in tongue-in-cheek and Bondish parodies. The producers clearly watched Gavin in this spy spoof and thought he would make a passable Bond. The signing of Gavin was a surprise mainly because he was American. Gavin was also no Laurence Olivier and his signing seemed somewhat of an act of desperation - as if EON were struggling to find an actor so just picked the most James Bondish looking person they could find and didn't worry about whether he could act or not. "Time was getting awfully short", said Cubby Broccoli. "We had to have someone in the bullpen."

United Artists were not enthused at all by the selection of John Gavin. They saw Gavin as an actor who was on the slide as his recent projects had included a failed television western film pitched as a pilot for a proposed show and a supporting role in the megabomb comedy Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You. The studio, still bruised by the Lazenby affair, wanted someone more famous than John Gavin to play Bond. United Artists decided that the only thing to do was to get Sean Connery back - at any cost. This required the studio to pay a then unheard of fee amounting to $1.25 million (which Connery donated to charity), finance two film projects of Connery's choice, and also pay the actor compensation for any overrun in the weekly shooting schedule.

It was a sensational deal at the time and illustrated that as far as United Artists were concerned the Bond franchise was simply not viable without Sean Connery. The unlucky John Gavin was compensated financially by the studio for the termination of his contract and drifted into television roles before moving into politics. In 1981 he became the United States Ambassador to Mexico. "It was a business agreement—with our consent of course," said Cubby Broccoli of removing Gavin as Bond to make way for Connery. "So we accepted that fact that Sean is Bond—but not that John is not. I think John Gavin will be eligible for the James Bond role when it comes up again."


* The article above is an extract from the book The Actors Who Could Have Been James Bond


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Actors-Could-Have-Been-James/dp/B09M5552YB



- Jake

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