GEORGE LAZENBY

This never happened to the other fella.

1969

The grandfather of Bond controversy regarding... pretty much every aspect of his tenure as the character. On set behavior, lack of acting experience, disappointing fans with such a mediocre replacement for the legendary Connery, his decision to leave the franchise after just one film and thus never realizing his (possible) potential, you name it. To this day, he remains a hotly contested figure in the Bond fandom, to the point it's even been argued that his film was (messily) written out of canon.

Now, I'm obviously a biased and unreliable narrator here, being Australian myself. The fact that a primarily British character managed to be played by an Australian one time will always be a slight fist pump moment for me. But it still baffles me how a man with no acting experience outside of a chocolate bar commercial, whose primary trade was modelling, caught Cubby Broccoli's eye as a possible successor to Connery. But maybe that's why he was a producer and I am not. He obviously auditioned well enough to earn the part, not to mention being offered a contract for seven more films. What movie studio would make such a risky commitment to a polarizing figure like that nowadays?

It does please me that Lazenby is receiving a bit more credit nowadays, even if much of it may be for nostalgia's sake. I've never disliked a Bond movie nor Bond actor myself, and found his film On Her Majesty's Secret Service perfectly watchable - even if that elevator sequence dragged a little. It didn't help Lazenby's case that for much of the film his voice is dubbed to represent him using a fake identity, during which he also had to alter his mannerisms even while within character as Bond. This sort of nuanced "acting as someone acting" rabbit hole likely called for a more experienced performer. Someone like, say... Connery.

I think it's a shame he mistakenly decided to ditch the franchise, either by his own predictions of Bond lacking lasting appeal or on the advice of his agent. Maybe a few more films could have molded him into a true actor and more beloved Bond. But as it stands, we'll never know.