Entirely gratuitous photo of George Lazenby sunning himself on the set of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969, dir. Peter Hunt)
Q: “Why did you give up the role of James Bond? I’ve heard three stories. I’ve heard that your relationship to Peter Hunt lead to you being let go from the franchise, that Sean Connery regretted not doing Majesty’s Secret Service after seeing it and wanted the part back, and that you took poor advice from your agent. What is the most accurate reason?”
Lazenby: “The third is correct. I wanted to do the next one because they offered me a million dollars under the table which is probably ten million today. So I looked at my manager and said “What’s wrong with that deal?” and he said “No. You’ll die doing Bond because it’s over. It’s finished.”
It’s hard for people to understand that, because we are back in a Bond-type culture. At that time we were into hippie culture. You’d have to put yourself into long hair and bell bottoms and peace and love-consciousness to be able to understand what rung through to me. Otherwise, right now, it looks foolish. Back then it looked foolish, but money was not the “in” thing at that time. Love and peace was in. Guys running around with suits and guns couldn’t get laid. Honest to God. They thought you were a waiter or a cop or something. Nobody was wearing a suit. Not even Wall Street. They even took their ties off. Unless you can put yourself in that time zone you’ll understand that it wasn’t because I was that stupid, it was that I was walking in Sean Connery’s shoes and wanted to walk in my own.” (via)
