Moviefone Editorial

Tag: sean-connery

  • 15 Things You Never Knew About ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ on its 30th Anniversary

    15 Things You Never Knew About ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ on its 30th Anniversary

    Lucasfilm

    It’s been 30 years since “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” hit theaters. Or as some fans refer to it, “The only good Indiana Jones sequel.” Wherever this blockbuster hit falls on your Indy rankings,  celebrate this big anniversary by learning more about the making of “The Last Crusade.”

    1. When Steven Spielberg and George Lucas first began discussing ideas for a third Indiana Jones movie, Lucas suggested using a haunted mansion as a major set piece. However, Spielberg rejected the idea, having recently completed work on 1982’s “Poltergeist.”

    2. Chris Columbus wrote a very different sequel screenplay in 1985 called “Indiana Jones and the Monkey King,” which revolved around Chinese folk hero Sun Wukong and the fabled Garden of Immortal Peaches.

    20th Century Fox

    3. Spielberg was once slated to direct both “Big” and “Rain Man” but had to drop out of both projects due to his work on “The Last Crusade.”

    4. River Phoenix was Harrison Ford’s personal choice to play the young Indy, as Ford had previously worked with Phoenix on 1986’s “The Mosquito Coast.”

    Lucasfilm

    5. Similarly, Spielberg always envisioned Sean Connery playing Henry Jones, Sr. Spielberg has long held a desire to direct a James Bond movie, and casting Connery as the elder Jones was a way of reflecting the Bond franchise’s influence on Indiana Jones.

    6. In another Bond tribute, the gun used to shoot Henry Sr. in the temple is a Walther PPK, Bond’s trademark weapon.

    EON

    7. Connery didn’t play Henry Sr. in the prologue sequence. The character was instead played by Alex Hyde-White, with Connery later dubbing over his lines.

    8. Spielberg also wanted legendary British actor Laurence Olivier to play the Grail Knight, but Olivier had become too ill by the time of filming and passed away not long after “The Last Crusade” hit theaters.

    Lucasfilm

    9. While the treasure hunter who gives Indy his trademark fedora is only listed as “Fedora” in the credits, the original screenplay reveals him to be Abner Ravenwood, father of Karen Allen’s character Marion Ravenwood.

    10. The Nazi uniforms used in the book-burning sequence are actually authentic WWII relics. Designer Joanna Johnston discovered a cache of old uniforms while scouting in Eastern Europe.

    Lucasfilm

    11. The thousands of rats used in catacombs scene are a mix of live creatures and animatronic props. The production team had to specially breed the live rats in order to ensure none of them would be carrying communicable diseases.

    12. In the scene where Donovan’s wife appears and reminds him he’s neglecting his guests, a character can be heard in the background playing “The Imperial March” from “The Empire Strikes Back” on the piano.

    13. Donovan’s iconic death sequence is the very first all-digital composite sequence in film.

    Lucasfilm

    14. The horses used in the final scenes outside the temple were loaned by none other than King Hussein of Jordan.

    15. While Spielberg admitted he made “The Last Crusade” for less than glamorous reasons (including the need to complete a three-picture deal with Lucas), he’s also named the sequel as his favorite movie in the series.

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  • Every James Bond Movie, Ranked From ‘Dr. No’ to ‘Spectre’

    Every James Bond Movie, Ranked From ‘Dr. No’ to ‘Spectre’

  • The Best James Bond Actors, Ranked

    The Best James Bond Actors, Ranked

  • 16 Things You Never Knew About ‘Dr. No,’ James Bond’s First Movie

    England’s two biggest cultural exports of the 1960s, the Beatles and the James Bond films, both went public on the same day 55 years ago this week. October 5, 1962, marked the release of the Fab Four’s first single, “Love Me Do,” and the debut of “Dr. No,” the first big-screen Bond adventure.

    More than half a century later, the Bond franchise is still going strong, with a 25th installment due in 2019. Sean Connery, who became an international star because of “Dr. No,” remains for many the definitive 007 and an icon of screen masculinity, even though he retired from movies more than a decade ago and holstered Bond’s Walther PPK for a good two decades before that. (The Beatles did pretty well, too, despite a diss from Connery’s Bond in 1964’s “Goldfinger.”)

    On “Dr. No”‘s 50th anniversary, Moviefone uncovered how that film helped set the template for movie spy thrillers in general for decades to come. Still, there are more secrets from Bond’s first mission for us to declassify.
    1. Novelist Ian Fleming borrowed James Bond’s name from the ornithologist who wrote “Birds of the West Indies.” To the author, it seemed plain and dull enough to be the perfect name for an undercover agent, even though the big-screen Bond may be the least inconspicuous spy ever. As for 007, it was supposedly the number of a London bus route Fleming sometimes rode.

    2. We may think of James Bond as quintessentially British, but during development of “Dr. No,” Fleming wrote the filmmakers a memo, insisting: “To my mind, the greatest danger in this series is too much Englishness. There should, I think, be no monocles, moustaches, bowler hats or bobbies or other ‘Limey’ gimmicks. There should be no blatant English slang, a minimum of public-school ties and accents, and subsidiary characters should, generally speaking, speak with a Scots or Irish accent.”
    3. An early draft of the screenplay made the villain a monkey. That is, Dr. No would turn out to be a simian idol, a monkey god worshiped by island natives, though he’d have a human avatar who had a capuchin monkey of his own. Producer Albert Broccoli was appalled and told the screenwriters to go back to the novel and come up with a less ridiculous nemesis who was more faithful to what Fleming had written.

    4. Initially, the filmmakers tried to cast the lead role by hosting a nationwide “Find James Bond” contest in England. The stunt had some publicity value, but the filmmakers had no intention of casting the winner, Peter Anthony, a model with no acting experience.
    5. Prisoner” and “Braveheart” actor would spend most of the rest of his career playing spies and homicidal villains.

    6. Other names, including Trevor Howard and Michael Redgrave, would appear on the shortlist, but Broccoli was set on the little-known Connery, feeling that he was the only actor from the U.K. who was macho enough for the part. He sent footage of Connery’s screen test to United Artists executives back in the U.S., and they responded with a telegram that read, “NO. KEEP TRYING.” With the beginning of the shoot approaching, Broccoli finally put his foot down and insisted on Connery.
    7. Lois Maxwell was initially up for the role of Sylvia Trench, who becomes Bond’s friend-with-benefits after he meets her at the baccarat table early in the film. But Maxwell balked at the sexy role, one scene of which would have required her to wear nothing but one of Bond’s shirts. The role went instead to Eunice Gayson, while Maxwell went on to play flirtatious secretary Miss Moneypenny.

    8. Gayson was supposed to play Sylvia for the next five movies as well, but the character was dropped after the second film, 1963’s “From Russia With Love.” Meanwhile, Maxwell went on to play Moneypenny 14 times, in every Bond movie through 1985’s “A View to a Kill.”
    9. In the iconic gun barrel opening (above) — in which Bond shoots at the camera — that’s actually stuntman Bob Simmons playing Bond, not Connery. Not only was Simmons the stunt coordinator on all the Bond films (except “From Russia With Love”) for the franchise’s first quarter-century, but he also doubled for Bond in that opening shot until Connery took the honors in the fourth film, 1965’s “Thunderball.”

    10. John Barry‘s instantly recognizable big-band arrangement of the James Bond theme music, first used for “Dr. No,” has defined the 007 character and spy movie music in general for half a century. There are several accounts as to the theme’s origin, the most entertaining of which is a ghost story involving Richard Harris. Actually, composer Monty Norman based the Bond theme on a song called “Bad Sign Good Sign” that he’d written for a never-produced stage musical adaptation of V.S. Naipaul’s novel “A House for Mr. Biswas.” Given the musical’s Indian characters, Norman had scored the song for sitar, but the sitar part became the now-familiar electric guitar melody when Barry orchestrated the tune for “Dr. No.”
    11. Joseph Wiseman‘s metal-handed title character casts an air of mystery and menace over the entire film, yet Wiseman himself doesn’t show up on screen until the last 25 minutes of “Dr. No.”

    12. In an elaborate throwaway gag, Bond spots Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington in Dr. No’s lair. At the time of the shoot, the well-known painting had recently been stolen from England’s National Gallery. Production designer Ken Adam thought it would be funny to have the purloined portrait pop up in the villain’s possession, so he painted the prop version himself over the course of a weekend. The museum recovered the actual painting in 1965.
    13. Ursula Andress, who was a little-known Swiss starlet before she co-starred in “Dr. No” as Honey Ryder, credited her sudden fame to the custom-made white cotton bikini she wore as she made her unforgettable entrance, emerging from the sea. The swimwear industry also credited that scene with popularizing the bikini (then still a novelty) and sending sales soaring.

    14. The older Connery may have been the sexiest bald man in film history, but even the younger Connery of the early Bond films was already losing his hair. Consensus has it that he was wearing a toupee by the time he made “Goldfinger,” but some sources say he had a toupee even at age 32 in “Dr. No.”
    15. In fact, there were supposedly two toupees for Connery’s amphibious performance in the film, one for wet scenes and one for dry.

    16. Days after the film’s successful debut in England in October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis happened, and the similarities to the plot of “Dr. No” made United Artists skittish about releasing the film in America. Besides, Broccoli recalled years later, “several bookers doubted they could sell a picture with ‘a Limey truck driver playing the lead.”‘ In early 1963, UA finally landed “Dr. No” a test booking in an Oklahoma drive-in theater. “Fortunately, the Oklahoma audiences were ecstatic.”

  • 16 Things You Never Knew About James Bond Classic ‘You Only Live Twice’

    Maybe “memorable” isn’t the right word to describe “You Only Live Twice“; “nutty” is closer.

    Released 50 years ago this week, on June 13, 1967, it’s the James Bond adventure where we first see archenemy Blofeld’s horrible face, where Sean Connery‘s Bond fakes his own death, where the Japanese setting means 007 tangles with ninjas and sumo wrestlers, and where the final battle takes place in the most awesome supervillain lair ever — that hollowed-out volcano.

    It’s a wonder that the movie came together at all, given its rebellious star, a rookie screenwriter, the production’s epic scope, and a horrific on-set accident that maimed a cameraman. Here are the secrets behind “You Only Live Twice,” declassified.
    1. Originally, the fifth Bond film was supposed to be “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” but the scheduled summer shoot meant postponing that wintry story and filming “You Only Live Twice” first.

    2. The shuffled schedule meant, in turn, that most of the plot of Ian Fleming‘s novel had to be tossed away, since the book centered on an embittered Bond seeking revenge on Blofeld for killing his new bride in “Secret Service.
    3. To come up with a new story, the filmmakers turned to Fleming’s pal, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” author Roald Dahl, who’d never written a produced screenplay before. He was given six weeks to write a script and still wasn’t finished when shooting started.

    4. Complicating the shoot further were Connery’s complaints about the gig. After playing 007 four times, he found the movies increasingly cartoonish, and he was worried about being typecast. His public announcement that “You Only Live Twice” would be his last Bond adventure drew extra scrutiny to the shoot, with fans and reporters crowding the sets.
    5. Czech actor Jan Werich was cast as Blofeld, but after several days of shooting, the producers didn’t find him menacing enough; indeed, they likened him to a cuddly Santa Claus. He was replaced with Donald Pleasence, who made the supervillain one of the two defining roles of his career (later, he’d play Dr. Sam Loomis in the “Halloween” movies). It was Pleasence who came up with the idea for Blofeld’s scarred face, after suggesting other deformities like a hump, a limp, and a withered hand. But he came to regret his idea, since the glue in the scar makeup irritated his eye.

    6. It was Dana Broccoli’s idea — wife of producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli — to have a helicopter that could pick up a car with a magnet and then drop it in the water.
    7. Tsai Chin, who’s probably best known for playing Auntie Lindo in 1993’s “The Joy Luck Club,” played one of the Bond girls, Hong Kong spy Ling. Thirty-nine years later, she was one of the poker players opposite Daniel Craig in his debut as 007, 2006’s “Casino Royale.”

    8. British spy Dikko Henderson was played by Charles Gray, who’d later play Blofeld in “Diamonds Are Forever” before finding lasting fame as the Criminologist in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
    9. The swimming double for many of the pearl divers was Sean Connery’s wife, Diane Cilento.

    10. While scouting locations in Japan, producers Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, production designer Ken Adam, and cinematographer Freddie Young skipped their scheduled flight back to England in order to watch a ninja demonstration. The flight they missed crashed shortly after takeoff and killed everyone on board.
    11. The “Little Nellie” autogyro that Bond flies in the film led to another terrible accident. Laden with weapons by the production team, the tiny aircraft had a hard time flying on a stable path. Aviation cinematographer John Jordan was a legendary daredevil accustomed to lashing himself to the landing strut of a helicopter to get his footage, but during the scene where two helicopters attack the autogyro, one of the chopper blades nearly severed Jordan’s foot. Surgeons reattached it, but after he returned to England, he thought the reattachment felt wrong, and he had the foot amputated for good.

    12. Nancy Sinatra landed the assignment of singing the theme song after her dad, Frank, turned it down. She was reportedly very nervous about getting it right; composer John Barry claimed it took her 25 takes to record her vocals. Nonetheless, the song became a minor hit for her in both the U.S. and the U.K.
    13. Ken Adam, who’d designed the supervillain lairs for the previous Bond movies, outdid himself with the volcano. (Originally, the filmmakers had hoped to use a Japanese castle by the sea, only to discover that no such seaside castles exist in Japan.) The volcano was a set built at England’s Pinewood Studios, measuring 120 feet high and 450 feet across, big enough for a helicopter to land inside and to accommodate the 100 stuntmen playing the ninja assault team. It cost about $1 million to construct, a figure equivalent to the entire budget of the first 007 movie, “Dr. No,” just five years earlier.

    14. “You Only Live Twice” was budgeted at $6 million, though its eventual cost may have been as high as $10.3 million. That was a huge sum at the time, but the movie returned $111 million in worldwide grosses.
    15. Connery made good on his promise to quit the franchise after “You Only Live Twice,” though he did return to play 007 twice more over the next 16 years. Team Broccoli went on to make “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” with new star George Lazenby. Jordan returned to shoot the film’s stunts, even removing his prosthetic foot for the bobsled scenes. But he died a year later, in 1969, while shooting aerial combat footage for Mike Nichols’ “Catch-22.” With his prosthetic limb keeping him from getting a stable footing, he fell from a B-25 bomber 2,000 feet into the Pacific Ocean.

    16. “You Only Live Twice” saw something of a revival in the late 1990s. Robbie Williams borrowed the string arrangement for his song “Millennium,” Coldplay covered the tune in concert, and Mike Myers stole liberally from the film — Blofeld’s face, his Nehru jacket, his cat, the space scenes, the sumo wrestling, the piranha pool, the lair — for his “Austin Powers” spy spoofs.

  • George Lazenby on Cheating Death, Dropping James Bond, and Being Blacklisted

    George Lazenby in a promotional still from ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICEGeorge Lazenby was given a license to kill, but he only took a single shot.

    For nearly 50 years, the Australian-born actor has been known for a unique distinction: Among the line of men who’ve portrayed the iconic British super spy James Bond, he’s the only one to only star in a single 007 film.

    As the fascinating Hulu documentary “Becoming Bond,” debuting May 20th, explores, Lazenby, a top male model at the height of London’s swinging Mod era with virtually no acting experience at the time, was the first actor to assume the role following originator Sean Connery‘s departure after five films in row, and his effectiveness in the sixth installment, 1969’s “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” would largely determine if the proto-film franchise would have legs after losing its first leading man.

    And despite odds stacked against him higher than a deadly SPECTRE deathtrap, Lazenby fared quite well in the role, adding a lighter, cheekier note to his portrayal without sacrificing 007’s dangerous qualities, abetted by what Bond aficionados regarded then and now as one of the stronger stories in the film series. He was an insta-superstar, flush with cash, women on his arm, and brimming with even greater Hollywood potential.

    And then he walked away from it all, for what he planned as a decidedly different acting career path — one that never quite happened.

    “Becoming Bond” not only details Lazenby’s unlikely rise to play the biggest screen action idol of the 20th Century and his even unlikelier exit, it looks at the actor’s life in total, a tale as full of intrigue, romance, sex, and action (more Kiss-Kiss than Bang-Bang) as any movie potboiler, built around the still rakish and charming 77-year-old’s absorbing reminiscences and frothy reenactments of his off-screen adventures. Lazenby further declassified his personal dossier during a chat with Moviefone.

    Moviefone: When I watched this documentary, you struck me as a real-life version of The Most Interesting Man in the World. Did you feel like, “I’ve got a great story to tell?” Or were you surprised that there was interest in your life?

    George Lazenby: I was surprised there was as much interest. Every time I meet somebody, they say, “I can’t help it, but you’ve got to tell me, but how did you get James Bond?” And I didn’t know whether that was an insult or not. They might be saying, how the hell did you get it? That guy, he’s a bloody hero, a guy that’ll go around and shoot anybody gets in his way, gets the girl, has a good time. Every man wants to be that guy.

    I found it fascinating how you were pretty casually insistent on making the role your own in many ways, at a time where the filmmakers were really trying to shove you into the Sean Connery mold. Director Peter Hunt was clearly an advocate for you —

    To begin with!

    To begin with. So tell me about that experience, rubbing up against the Connery expectation and trying to put your own stamp on it. Today, you’d be applauded for that.

    Somehow I felt, I knew, I wasn’t an actor. They already had me changing my accent, walking different, because I used to swagger when I walked, and you can’t do that in cinema. They changed my walk, changed my talk, and I thought, “They’re not going to change me. I’m just going to play it the way I would play it if I was him, if I was this good a character, if I was a tough guy, and blah blah blah.”

    It was Sean Connery’s gig. He established James Bond as his personality. So it’s a tough road to hoe. And that was Peter Hunt’s first time directing, by the way, and my first time acting. It was one of those things where I got carried away in my own ego, otherwise I couldn’t have done it. If I had looked at the reality, I would have gone, “Sh*t! What’s happening here?” I just thought that beating out 3,000 guys for the part, there must be something good about me.

    A lot of your successes in life, from your various careers and with women, came from that confidence and that positive attitude you project.

    I was very confident, because I didn’t believe anything anyone told me. I had 18 months in hospital when I was one and a half to three. I had 68 surgeries on my bladder. Then a doctor came over from England and said, “We had the same problem with a kid — he was peeing backwards into his kidneys.” And then they looked at my kidneys and one and a half were rotted. So they took out one and a half of my kidneys. Then the doctor told my mother to take me home to die, because I won’t be able to live as a man on half a kidney.

    And then some mother must have heard my mother, and some kid heard his mother, I’m the guy that’s got to die, I’m the guy that’s got to die. At school I was getting it. And I thought, “Oh sh*t — I’m not going to die.” And my half kidney grew the size of two. I did everything they told me not to do: played contact sports, drank alcohol, did everything they said you mustn’t do.

    So I lost confidence in the demigods, the doctors, because they were totally wrong … I thought, “These guys are full of sh*t. I don’t believe a word they’re saying.” So I’ve never gotten sick again. I don’t get colds. I don’t want to go near those guys, because they’ll just give you pills or something, and they’ll do you in.

    But this is the way that life went, and it’s the same in the movie industry. It’s full of sh*t. It’s only a matter of knowing which way it’s full of sh*t, and getting around it. If I wanted to get back in the movie industry tomorrow, I could do it. It’s just that I’d rather they left me alone — unless somebody came up with some ridiculous offer. Then you’d have to say, “Hmm, yeah, I could use this.”

    What were the things that you enjoyed about playing Bond and shooting the film? Were there aspects of it that were genuinely fun?

    There was nothing that was extremely hard. I hurt myself a few times doing my own stunts. They’d bring in doctors to massage me and get me back together. I didn’t like it. It was hard work.

    I was going out all night, which was a problem. I liked to drink. I’d go out to three [or] four o’clock in the morning, sometimes daybreak. Then the driver would take me to work, and I’d get makeup. But the good thing was, the Mitchell camera, it just took hours to move it around, so I could have a rest in between [laughs] — today they’ve got these little cameras — but then I had to do my stunts.

    They wanted everything perfect. You think you’ve done it perfect, and they say, “No, we’ve got to do it one more time.” The acting, I was one take. I’d say, that wasn’t very good. And Peter Hunt, said “Tell him he’s going to do another angle as well.” He never spoke to me the whole film, the director.

    And you certainly had fun with the Bond girls when the cameras weren’t rolling.

    The ones that wanted to have fun, we had fun. I was available.

    When I got to England, I was 24. The girls got The Pill. I was a rugged Australian male model — you can guess, [I had sex] sometimes five [times] a day. It was outrageous. And that couldn’t happen on the [film shoot], because there were only eight girls there for the whole nine months. So I eventually talked them into getting me a helicopter to go into town at night. And I’d go into town in the helicopter, and they’d wait for me. It was a crazy life I had.

    And then Arnold and David Picker from United Artists offered me any movie I want to do between Bond films [if I would sign a long-term contract to play Bond]. “Just sign the f*cking contract.” [James Bond producer] Harry [Saltzman] offered me a million dollars. And I turned it all down.

    When did that impetus to turn it all down start setting in, and what kind of gave you the chutzpah to make that move — unthinkable in Hollywood at the time?

    A guy called Ronan O’Rahilly. He started Radio Caroline in the English channel — Pirate Radio. He launched all those English pop groups and he got them known … He wanted to manage me. That was a funny story because I went to the guy that worked for him, who lived in the apartment across from my apartment, and he used to teach acting. So when I went up for the Bond thing, they told me, “Come back on Friday.” I thought, I’d better get an acting lesson. I’d never had one. So I went over and knocked on his door, I said, “Look, I’m up for the Bond film. Can you give me an acting lesson?” He said, “What?” Couldn’t believe it.

    So he rang Ronan O’Rahilly, who was his boss. And Ronan turned up with five other guys and they all gave me this acting lesson. Then Ronan said, “I’ll manage you.” He liked the adventure of it, and he was a rebel a rebel like you can’t believe it! A guy that started the Pirate Radio station.

    Ronan, he was the one who advised me not to do another film, because “Easy Rider” was out, all these hippie movies were coming out. He said, “Bond’s over. Let’s make love, not war.” He convinced me. And that’s why I didn’t take those offers. He convinced me that there was a guy called Clint Eastwood doing Westerns in Italy, getting $500,000 for a month. I had to work nine months on the bloody Bond movie, and they were going to pay me a million. I said, “I’d rather be Clint Eastwood.” But it didn’t work out.

    Tell me a little bit about walking away and shaking off such a dizzying experience.

    That wasn’t hard. That wasn’t hard. James Bond was so out of fashion. He was wearing tight pants, a suit, short hair, and people wandering around with sideburns, long hair, flowered shirts, bell bottoms. I mean, I’d go in a restaurant and people would say, “Excuse me, waiter?” It was so different — you’d have to be there.

    It was so different, the way people dressed, and the way people behaved. They made love, not war. And then the ’80s turned it back around again. But up until the ’60s and ’70s, it was amazing. If you wore a suit, even Wall Street took their ties off. If you can imagine that time, it doesn’t make me look as mad. [Laughs]

    Over the years, have you spent much time in the company of the other actors who have played James Bond? Have you been part of that 007 fraternity?

    I’ve met them all. There was the 40th anniversary in Albert Hall. Everyone showed up except Connery. That’s when I met them all more closely.

    Nearly 50 years later, people love that particular movie. You haven’t been forgotten as Bond — we’re still celebrating you. At this point in your life, when you look back at it all, what has the whole experience meant to you?

    It was probably the biggest thing in my life, apart from my kids. When I look back, I think of my kids, and then I think God, what the hell was that all about? It was a big thing. It changed my life. Fame does that to you, but I’m glad that I didn’t pursue it.

    I didn’t pursue it because I was blacklisted right after Bond. [Years later], I had “The Equalizer.” It was my idea — I gave it to Mike Sloan to write. I did the test. David Hemmings, the actor, directed the test. I was wardrobed. I was waiting for the limo to pick me up for the first day of shoot. Didn’t show up. I call Mike, I said, “What happened?” He said, “They got a phone call from upstairs.” That’s all he could tell me. I gave up then. I said, “F*ck it.” Every time I got a job, I wouldn’t get the next phone call to come to work.

    But you reinvented yourself. And as the movie shows us, you excel at that.

    Yeah!

  • Every James Bond Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best

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    He has driven an invisible car, ran across crocodiles, and made love in space. Is there anything James Bond can’t do?

    For over 50 years, the number one cause of death for Euro-trash supervillains who reside in swanky volcano lairs has kept the world safe on the big screen with his unique brand of espionage. From Sean Connery to Daniel Craig, it looks like the only thing 007 can’t do is stop making movies.

    With “Spectre” hitting theaters, we’ve ranked every Bond adventure released by EON — and one “unofficial” entry/remake of “Thunderball.” (The ’80s were a hell of a time.)

  • Ranking the James Bond Actors From Worst to Best

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    In 53 years and 24 movies, only six actors have ever (officially) strapped on the shoulder-holster and uttered the words “Bond. James Bond.”

    And even though the character doesn’t really change, the actors’ performances do — some go (too) serious (cough, Timothy Dalton) and others, well, they arguably don’t go serious enough (double cough, Roger Moore.)

    With “Spectre,” Daniel Craig‘s fourth turn as 007 hitting theaters this week, we’ve ranked the best actors to ever play the number one cause of death for guys named “Blofeld.”

  • 10 Celebs Who Only Got Sassier With Age

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    Like fine wines, some celebrities get even better with age. Yes — we’ll admit that these stars have always been pretty fabulous and funny, but it seems as though they’ve gotten sassier as they’ve gotten older. It goes to show you that age ain’t nothin’ but a number, folks. You can tell it like it is and spew witty words of wisdom and cheeky comebacks after 60… especially if you’re Betty White or Jack Nicholson. Take a look at 10 celebs who got sassier with age right now.

  • James Bond Movies, Ranked From Worst to Best

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    Happy birthday to Daniel Craig, who turns 47 on March 2. He’s appeared in some 60 movies and TV shows over the past quarter-century, but no matter what else he ever does, he’ll still be best known for the three of them in which he played James Bond. Make that four, since his next Agent 007 adventure, “Spectre,” is due in November.

    The celebration of Craig’s birthday and his best-known role seemed a good enough excuse to ponder the Bond series, a franchise of 23 movies to date that have offered remarkably consistent entertainment over the past 53 years. Over all that time, the franchise has seen six stars play 007, along with dozens of Bond girls and megalomaniacal villains, many groundbreaking action sequences, and countless diabolically clever spy gadgets, but it’s also been controlled by just one family of producers, the Broccolis. Give them credit — along with the blueprint laid out by 007 creator Ian Fleming in a dozen novels — for the quality control that has persisted from Sean Connery’s turn as the martini-sipping spy until Craig’s; (By contrast, look at the difference in the two notably non-Broccoli Bond movies.) Here, then, is Moviefone’s ranking of all the James Bond movies to date, from worst to best.
    Best James Bond Movies