Michael talks quite extensively about his association
with the Bond role on his website & he's also
mentioned in many of the books available about the
Bond movies too.
In May 2001, I went to a sci-fi convention in
Leicester that was attended by Mike & Ed. Both were
excellent interviewees but of particular interest to
me, was when Mike spoke about his Bond experiences. He
auditioned for Live And Let Die & at one point,
Brocoli & Saltzman took a look at The Onedin Line that
he was appearing in at the time. The outcome of this
was that they cast Onedin Line actress Jane Seymour in
LALD!
Mike also played the part of Bond in the screentests
for Bond Girls on The Spy Who Loved Me ... he declined
the opportunity to appear on TSWLM DVD as he was
expected to appear for nothing and, in his own words,
he has to put "bread on the table" - quite right! I
think he can be seen in silhouette in the Bond Girl
screentests on TSWLM DVD by the way.
Mike was a good friend of Cubby Brocoli & also went
out with his daughter - I don't know if this was
current Bond producer Barbara Brocoli though. Bond
director Lewis Gilbert had Mike lined up to play Bond
in For Your Eyes Only as it looked like Roger Moore
wasn't going to do it. However, Gilbert asked for too
much money so didn't get to direct FYEO & Moore ended
up doing it ... but Moore hadn't signed a contract so
Mike was on the set of FYEO in case things with Rog
didn't work out, in which case Mike would've stepped
in.
Mike also said his name was mentioned around about the
time of The Living Daylights but by then he felt he's
been burnt by the Bond experience a bit.
Neil
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