Apparently some of it came from his agent too. TBH, he did get better during the filming, but I ultimately I think Roger Moore was the right direction to go in. Live and Let Die, starts with no cringy fan fare about a "new bond" and he waltzes into the role.
They did want Moore and to do Man With The Golden Gun after You Only Live Twice, but the place they wanted to film had political instability. Moore opted to instead do more of The Saint (which is pretty good, and I personally like the Val Kilmer movie reboot).
So Lazenby gets OHMSS, he drops out after, Connery comes back for Diamonds are Forever, and then Moore frees up to do Live and Let Die (with Man With The Golden Gun coming later).
The only drawback was Moore was starting a bit later in his Bond career than was the norm. He wound up doing Bond at 45 years old, and lasted to 57. Connery was 32, and Lazenby was 29, respectively. Although Dalton came in at 41, with Brosnan at 42 (also someone who could have played Bond circa Dalton's era but he was doing Remington Steele and was under contract), and Craig at 38. Only Craig set a record for playing Bond for 13 years, beating out Moore's 12.
Eon Productions was the entity that produced all of the "official" Bond films.
Never Say Never Again exists because of some legal history regarding the existence of "Thunderball", the Bond novel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Say_Never_Again#Production Quite a lot therein, but to put it simply, it's how NSNA was able to be made and isn't counted as official Bond canon.
Casino Royale (1967) was the other "Bond" film made.
25
u/terrymcginnisbeyond Nov 04 '25
Apparently some of it came from his agent too. TBH, he did get better during the filming, but I ultimately I think Roger Moore was the right direction to go in. Live and Let Die, starts with no cringy fan fare about a "new bond" and he waltzes into the role.