James Bond, the most famous spy in the world, but if you think Sean Connery or Daniel Craig are the most famous versions of the suave secret agent, you'd be amiss.
It's Lazenby. George Lazenby. Of Queanbeyan.
And the local wild boy who went on to become the martini-drinking, Aston-Martin driving, poker-playing, womanising, MI6 operative – just the once, mind you - is about to be honoured for his filmic contributions. On September 21, 2019, George will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 16th CineFest International Film Festival in Hungary.
I've had the opportunity to be in contact with George over the last few years (he's always very solicitous about responding), and have gained some insight into the man who played the myth.
"I always remember Queanbeyan very fondly," he says from his home of 40 years in the LA hills (though he still visits Australia regularly to see family and attend events).
December 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the sixth film in the juggernaut that is the 007 franchise - and George's singular appearance: On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
From such an unexpected start, there's been plenty more over a career spanning half a century. This includes thrillers such as the classic, Who Saw Her Die (1972, with music by Ennio Morricone), to playing Superman's father in the TV series, and The Man From Hong Kong in between (if you don't know it, you will the awesome theme song, Sky High). Ultimately, it's all as unconventional as the chap himself.
This was perhaps best captured in 2017 with a well-received comedic documentary, Becoming Bond, that told his sensational “totally true” tale.
It also sets forth the reasons why George became almost more feted for refusing not just a shot at the next film, but six more after that.
George's path to knocking down producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli's door – or at least knocking down an actual stuntman, as the story goes - to secure the role, then finding himself able to reject it, is almost as unbelievable as situations in which Bond finds himself.
“I was under the influence of my manager. I didn’t know the business and I thought this fella launched all the English pop groups, the Stones, the Beatles etc., I should listen to him,” he says of his bewildering choice to give 007 up.
“Sounds dumb now but I was offered any film that United Artists owned to do in between Bond movies and a million dollars if I would come back and do another. We thought that James Bond was becoming passé.”
Before he reached that juncture of his life, young George was bit of a lad round the Queanbeyan 'hood (and fine, I'll admit he was born in Goulburn), known for car racing, romance-chasing and a bit of trouble-making.
“Queanbeyan was where I grew up, but I found it a bit restricting," he admits.
"I wanted more freedom than a close-knit society can provide – but then it had the warmth from the people as we all knew each other’s business.”
Certainly the Lazenby family were well-known throughout Queanbeyan. Dad, George Snr, was a railway man and President of the Queanbeyan Golf Club. Many locals still remember Mrs Lazenby working at JB Young's, the town's major department store.
After leaving Queanbeyan High School, George was called up for National Service, trained as a mechanic and eventually became a car salesman.
Love would lead him from the family home in Morton Street to London. With little more than that chiselled Aussie jaw, almost as improbably, he was soon to become the highest paid male model in the world at that time.
“Modelling was my biggest hurdle to get over when I went for JB [James Bond]; it was only that the director insisted on testing me that I moved past the casting as they didn’t want the stigma of a male model being Bond.”
Overcome it he did and, with no acting experience, beat hundreds of other hopefuls to land the role. To date, he remains the youngest, tallest and only Australian to inhabit that Savile Row tux (and arriving in just such attire to the audition in order to impress the director).
Like many other fellow Queanbeyanites, Lazenby was always an enthusiastic athlete and performed many of his own stunts.
“We used to race cars that we pulled the bodies off for downhill dragging in the pine forests a few miles out of Queanbeyan when I was 15,” he recalls.
“I won an amateur gold for down-hill skiing in Austria after I left Australia, won the over-40 World Championship at Mammoth California for moto-cross when I was 46 and then over-50s Master Class when I was 57.”
Flying in the face of the rather harsh critics of the day (one even suggested that rather than Diana Rigg's character, “They should have killed him and kept her”), OHMSS was one of the most popular films of 1969. It has also subsequently become a darling of the fans.
For the “tougher and more authentic edge” he brought to the role, George earned a Golden Globe nomination, while Sir Roger Moore declared Lazenby to have been “one of the better Bonds.”
And there's also that moment that's became a signature all his own: in the opening scene when, unprompted and unscripted, George/James breaks the “fourth wall”. Turning directly to the camera he cheekily comments, “this never happened to the other fellow”, a reference to his predecessor, Connery.
In 2012, OHMSS was voted as #1 among fans in a poll run by by 007 Magazine “to determine the greatest ever Bond film”.
There's also been numerous pop culture references. In 2009, singer Sondra Leche released Like Lazenby; and when Marge Simpson is told she can select a 007 voice for her newly computerised home, she asks enthusiastically, “George Lazenby?” [Treehouse of Horror XII].
While high-end car dealers, tailors, watch-makers and gamers are looking to release OHMSS-themed collectibles for the anniversary, in 2003 this 12" action figure was produced (and yes, this is an actual version that as a true fan, I managed to procure!).
Back home in Australia, he's the poster boy for Melbourne Gin.
So then, with all of that, has George Lazenby, predicted the least likely 007 to succeed, become the epitome of the icon that is Bond?
“All I know is that I did the best I could at the time. I have no regrets. I have had an interesting life,” he says.
Or, in the words of Bond villain #4, Goldfinger: “Shocking. Positively shocking.”
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