re: The Pfeiffer/Lisa book. Here's the full quote:
There was a time when Sean Connery gave up the role. I guess I, alongside quite a few other actors, was approached about the possibility of playing the part. That was for On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I was very flattered, but I think anybody would have been off their head to have taken over from Connery. I was also too young, Bond should be a man in his mid-thirties, at least - a mature adult who has been around. I was not approached for Live and Let Die, but there was a time in the late 1970s, when Roger may not have done another one, for whatever reason. They were looking around then, and I went to see Mr. Broccoli in Los Angeles. At that time, they didn't have a script finished and also, the way the Bond movies had gone - although they were fun and entertaining - weren't my idea of Bond movies. They had become a completely different entity. I know Roger, and think he does a fantastic job, but they were different kinds of movies. Roger is one of the only people in the world who can be fun in the midst of all that gadgetry. But in truth my favorite Bond movies were always Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger.
I can't tell if Pfeiffer & Lisa personally interviewed Dalton or quoted a newspaper interview they'd read. Journalist/author Tony Crawley has a portion of that quote up on his website but it ends differently. Dalton allegedly says, "But in truth my favorite Bond movies were always…the first three." So who has the accurate quote?
Furthermore the awkwardness of that interjection, "That was for OHMSS." makes me think the interviewer asked Dalton if he could remember what film it was. What if Dalton replies "It was the one Connery didn't do but it wasn't the one Roger did."? How would you interpret that? The way Dalton supposedly says, "That was for OHMSS", makes me think it was a later addition, or the interviewer asked a clarifying question in between Dalton's quoted sentences. Interviewers paraphrase quotes. I've transcribed and edited interviews so I know what happens. How many times have newspapers printed retractions because they misquoted somebody in an interview? How often do people claim they were misquoted?
I've already said in this thread that Dalton apparently said this twenty or so years after the fact. People's memories aren't reliable going back that far. Dalton has certainly shown that in the other interview you cite. Our own Zorin Industries had some telling comments on this subject. I wish I could find his post. He'd worked on a film several years ago and a fan questioned him about it. The fan knew every detail and expected Zorin Industries to remember everything too and the truth is, Zorin Industries couldn't remember. It was just a job for him. It didn't hold the same fascination for him that it did for the fanboy interrogating him. Tell me, Royal Dalton, how sharp is your memory about stuff that happened twenty years ago?
I already mentioned the AV Club interview where Dalton can't even remember how many Bond films Connery did. I don't believe Dalton or Bond actor can immediately identify other actors' Bond films. I don't believe a single Bond actor can properly recite the correct order each film got released. We can. We're fanboys. They aren't. I don't even think the actors can recite in reasonable order the non-Bond films they themselves did without lots of pauses and groans, hemming and hawing. If you don't believe me, go back and re-read Dalton's AV Club interview.
Elsewhere Dalton says he doesn't remember what film he was "up for." In one newspaper interview he couldn't remember the film. He only could say it wasn't the one Roger was up for. I'll try and find the article. I hope it's on the MI6 site 'coz otherwise I'm screwed. Any of you tried using Google News will know what I mean. Google has done almost everything they can to wreck that once wonderful service.
Dalton has several times said the producers didn't contact him until he'd done "Mary, Queen of Scots". He says it on TLD making of documentary. Here are his quotes:
Timothy Dalton: I was about 24, 25 then, had a good career as a young man in films and had done The Lion in Winter, Cromwell, Mary Queen of Scots, Wuthering Heights and Mr Broccoli very kindly asked me if I would be interested."
Timothy Dalton: "I think Bond should be between about 35 and 40 and as a 25, 26 year old you know, it would not have been right."
Am I right in assuming you now don't believe Dalton was born in 1944 and are leaning to 1946? 'Coz 24-25 is 1970-1971. Dalton also gets the order of those films wrong. "Wuthering Heights" came before "Mary, Queen of Scots".
No matter how you parse that first quote, the producers approached him no earlier than 1971. Dalton specifically says this when he mentions his burgeoning career in films. Hint, hint.
Dalton consistently maintains the producers approached him when he was 24 or 25. He's never wavered from that. I've read interviews going back to 1986 where he specifically states how old he was at the time. That's a lot easier to remember than year, or heaven forbid, the Bond film up for grabs. Dalton was born in 1946. When asked in interviews he has always given an age consistent with a 1946 year-of-birth. "The Lion in Winter" press materials say Dalton is 22. In one of the birthday threads somebody mentions an on-set TLD interview where Dalton says he's 40. I think blame for the 1944 year of birth goes to film critic Leslie Halliwell who came up with this year in his "Who's Who" guides. This was in the pre-internet age so a lot of reporters turned to Halliwell's guides. Halliwell was hardly infallible. His guide claimed Guy Hamilton died in 1985. Why did Halliwell get TD's y-o-b wrong? Maybe it had something to do with actor/singer Roger Daltrey who was born in 1944? Daltrey follows Dalton.
But if you still believe that the producers approached TD for OHMSS, then please explain why they contacted an unknown actor with no film credits? George Lazenby had no film credits, you say? George Lazenby actively sought the part. Dalton didn't. On the other hand the producers would contact an actor who had several "leading man" film credits. If anybody still truly thinks the producers contacted TD for OHMSS (let alone saw any Bond potential in "The Lion in Winter"), then in the considered words of our wise and distinguished member Charles Helfenstein, please put the crack pipe down.
Some people claim the producers saw TD in "The Lion in Winter", and that's why they contacted him for OHMSS. Er, that film didn't get released until October 1968 in the U.S. - after EON had signed George Lazenby. The UK release is even worse - December 1968!
Two Bond historians dispute the "Dalton up for OHMSS" story. Our own Charles Helfenstein, for one. I've already linked to his pointed comments in several other threads. Note he refers to a Good Morning America interview where Dalton either names "Diamonds are Forever" or the year 1971. Stephen Jay Rubin - author of several Bond film reference books - himself also cites DAF. Elsewhere Charles Helfenstein notes that Harry Saltzman took charge finding the new Bond for OHMSS. Broccoli took charge on DAF. Dalton's memories all revolve around Broccoli; no mention of Saltzman.
I've already mentioned Dalton's spotty memory. Hell, it happens to the best of us. But Dalton has claimed or is alleged to have claimed the following:
a. He doesn't remember the film but it wasn't the one Roger did.
b. OHMSS.
c. Around the time of OHMSS.
d. DAF.
e. Around the time of DAF.
f. When he had a good career in films.
g. After "Mary, Queen of Scots" (1971).
h. 1971.
i. When he was 24 or 25.
Peter Hunt claimed that TD was never considered or contacted for OHMSS. Peter Hunt was intimately involved in the Bond casting and so were the producers. John Glen claims TD was considered *around* the time of OHMSS. This opens up the possibility that the producers saw Dalton in "The Lion in Winter" and so contacted him even though OHMSS was in the can but yet to be released.
So we're left with conflicting statements. Ultimately, what does common sense suggest? An unknown actor doing provincial theater who has no film credits or a leading man with a burgeoning film career? If you still think the producers approach an unknown provincial theater actor with no film credits then please share your proof that the producers contacted every actor in the nation. 'Coz that's what they'd have to do in early '68 to learn that TD even existed!
Here's a theory. Dalton genuinely doesn't know what film it was. It was around fifteen years before TLD and around 20 years before that quote in the Pfeiffer/Lisa book. So TD narrows it down. Or maybe Pfeiffer/Lisa do it for him. Or maybe EON productions does it for him. Let's see... Connery had left the series. It wasn't the one Roger did. It's after YOLT but before LALD. That leaves OHMSS and DAF. TD thinks they wouldn't have approached him if they had gotten Connery back for DAF - if you've got Connery you don't need or want anybody else. So by process of elimination this proves it must have been OHMSS. The problem is Connery wasn't scheduled to do DAF. John Gavin was. Connery was a last-minute deal courtesy of David Picker. Broccoli and Saltzman had given up on Connery coming back. So DAF is now back in play. Other actors claim they auditioned for DAF. More and more likely, the producers contacted TD for DAF or around the time of DAF.
I know the TLD DVD documentary pushes the claim that EON considered Dalton for OHMSS. This won't be the first time the filmmakers have made a fact out of a lie or invoked faulty recollection. Broccoli and Saltzman always claimed that Roger Moore was Ian Fleming's first choice for the role in "Doctor No". Fleming had seen Moore in "The Saint" and was very impressed... which as we now know can't be true because "The Saint" didn't premiere until after "Doctor No" opened in Britain. John Gardner has always claimed IFP hired him in 1981. Er, no. Try 1979. Broccoli claimed in a 1985 Starlog interview that over the years he has consistently rejected the idea of hiring an American to play Bond because Bond must be British. (*cough* John Gavin *cough) And there was that infamous Entertainment Tonight interview where Broccoli claimed in 1986 or 1987 that they never considered Brosnan for the role. Dalton was their first and only choice. Seem to recall Broccoli appeared both perplexed and angry. John Glen claims on the "The Living Daylights" DVD that Alan Hume didn't shoot the 1987 Bond film because he got delayed making "Return of the Jedi" (1983!). Lots of Bond scholars always get Saltzman's birthtown wrong. It's Sherbrooke Quebec Canada and not St. John's New Brunswick Canada. Ian Fleming Publications - the official Fleming copyright estate - claims that Kingsley Amis's authorship of "Colonel Sun" was a well kept secret for many years.
http://www.ianflemin...ks/colonel-sun/ They seem to imply that Amis's involvement only came out in 1991! So nobody bothered to look at whose name was on the 1968 American first edition hardcover. Does anybody here really believe the book "was a great success on publication" let alone "the intriguing mystery of the author’s identify was well kept."? No? Don't blame you.
