In my mind I used to dream-cast each of the books as I read them, but as I read them in the years they were published, most of the actors I envisioned are either dead now or too long in the tooth for the roles. As I never updated the casting, the visions remain intact, however dated.
First of all, I saw Roger Moore as James Bond right from LR up to and including The Man From Barbarossa.
When it comes to leading ladies, however, I seldom if ever chose a current face. Chalk this up either to sexism on my part, or to Gardner's ability to describe his female character so well that I saw only what he described, even if he only said that Lavender Peacock was "reminiscent of Lauren Bacall as a young woman." (More on that habit later)
For villains I almost always see either Kevin Spacey or John Malkovich, and although I know they couldn't have played them all, just once each would be enough.
Licence RenewedAnton Murik: Eddie Albert
Caber: Richard Kiel (only younger)
For Special ServicesMarcus Bismaquer: Joe Don Baker
Walter Luxor: Marc Lawrence
Mike Mazzard: Kevin Kline
IcebreakerKonrad Von Gloda: Kurt Jurgens
Brad Turpitz: Joe Don Baker
Kolya Mosolov: Kevin Spacey
Role of HonourHoly/Finnes: Kevin Spacey or David Copperfield
Cindy Chalmers: Gloria Hendry or Teres Graves
Tamil Rahani: Peter Miles (from
The Sanbaggers Episode 5: "Always Glad to Help")
BlackFriar or
Death to Spies (formerly
No Deals, Mr. Bond)
Chernov: Kevin Spacey
Jungle Baisley: Dolf Lundgren
ScorpiusScorpius/Valentine: Kevin Spacey or John Malkovich
Win, Lose or DieBassam Baradj/Besavitsky: Kevin Spacey or John Malkovich (see?)
Ali Al Adwan: Kabir Bedi
BrokenclawLee Fu-Chu: Sonny Landham
Ed Rushia: Eugene Roche
The Man From BarbarossaGeneral Yuskovich: Eugene Lipinsky (if he's the Russian who armed the bomb in
Octopussy)
Never Send FlowersDavid Dragonpol: Timothy Dalton (AKA "The man with the glass head") or David Copperfield
For
Nobody Lives For Ever,
Death is Forever,
SeaFire and
COLD I never saw anybody in particular, and I'm not sure Mr. Gardner did either (although in DIF he had a character say about the author of the book he was reading, "have you ever noticed how he never describes anybody? He just says that the character looks like somebody famous, like "he could have been Rex Harrison's double", or "He had the rugged good looks of Sean Connery." Mr. Gardner may have been acknowledging a criticism made of his own work).
As for cinematic changes, I wouldn't change a thing, except to tighten up the pace in RoH and NDMB (and add more humour to the former). For the most part Mr. Gardner wrote very film-friendly treatments, and I too would like to see them realized.
Edited by AMC Hornet, 08 November 2011 - 06:53 PM.