Sunday, December 14, 2008

'Scuse me while I ROFL

I love the celebrity Q&A in Parade Magazine every Sunday. Today one of the entries had me nearly breathless with laughing.

Someone asked what George Lazenby, the one-time-only James Bond (1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service) was doing these days. George is now 69, and hasn't worked in 6 or 7 years. But he still blames the decline in his career on his former agent, who told him, all those 40 years ago, that the James Bond franchise had run out of steam. Right.

A quick check of his filmography on IMDb, which started with his James Bond movie, shows that his career has been, um, checkered since he broke his James Bond contract just before the release of the film. There are a lot of Asian chop-socky and Central European foreign-language movie roles, one-time TV appearances, and quite a number of Emmanuelle TV spots. Emmanuelle? Are those on the Playboy Channel? (Snickering here.)

Now, this is strictly my opinion (shared, I understand, by thousands, and with better comments in this blogger's post I found by Googling ;D) that George was the absolute, completely WORST James Bond ever. The Tin Woodman was more animated and charming. I was so excited when I learned that my favorite Diana Rigg, the awesome and gorgeous Mrs. Peel from The Avengers, was going to be in the movie. But then she had to work with Lazenby; I wonder how disappointed she was.




The best James Bond? Of COURSE it was and always will be Sean Connery.








The new one, Daniel Craig? Ah, he reminds me a lot of the brush-cut Robert Shaw, who was one of The Big Bads in From Russia With Love. Which means he's down by 2 out of 3 at the start.




OK, soon I will return you to your regularly scheduled knitting news.....

6 comments:

Suzann said...

I love the Daniel Craig, Bond. I also loved Timothy Dalton's bond. So smoldering.

Cindy G said...

Well of course Sean Connery was the best, and he's only improved with age.

All I've seen of the current guy is the clips in the ads on TV, but I swear he makes me think of Vladimir Putin, which is not a turn on, for me, at least.

smariek said...

Yep, Sean Connery ranks up there with me too.

Love Diana Rigg. I remember getting up early (5am or so) to catch Avengers reruns on the telly (back before we had a VCR or Tivo ... can't believe we survived all these years without Tivo!)

It's nice to see the older actors still doing something. Like David McCallum, who is currently on NCIS. How many people recognize him from The Man from UNCLE?

Joan said...

Wasn't he godawful? Sean C will always be THE Bond. James Bond.

Sarah Laurenson said...

I don't know. Roger Moore was more my style, but he's the one I grew up with. Mom loves Sean best.

Daniel Craig's ok. He seems more true to the books. Deeper emotional reactions. Even though he is a bit stone faced, you can tell he's having doubts about continuing in the profession in Casino Royale. Maybe that's a tribute to the screenplay.

Timothy Dalton? Laughable to me. I just couldn't believe in him - hot or not. He didn't exude that manliness I think the role calls for.

Never saw Lazenby.

I think my ultimate fave Bond though is David Niven. Best Bond movie ever - the first Casino Royale, I believe.

mzjohansen said...

No one beats Sean Connery. No one !