George Lazenby

George Samuel Lazenby Sr. (born September 5, 1939) is an Australian actor. He was born in Queanbeyan (or Goulburn), New South Wales, Australia, and served in the Australian Army Special forces and as a military unarmed combat instructor. He moved to London in 1964, working as a car salesman and as a model, then as an actor in advertising. By 1968, he was the highest paid model in the world (it is said that in 1967, he made £40,000 directly from modelling, and £60,000 from commercials and product endorsements—equivalent to over a million pounds in 2004). His first serious acting role was as James Bond in the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). It was later rumoured that he had been "difficult to work with" in this project. According to Lazenby however, the difficulties were caused by director Peter R. Hunt refusing to talk directly to him—and this in turn was caused by Lazenby (unaware of studio politics or Hunt's sensibilities) simply being too brusque in passing on a request for Hunt's friends to clear a set before filming. Although it performed relatively poorly on release{{Fn|1}}, in part thanks to a poor publicity campaign, the movie is now considered among the best of the series by many, but not all, fans of the Bond movie series; it is one of the best regarded by fans of Ian Fleming's novels. After the movie, Lazenby's agent talked him into refusing a seven-movie contract on the grounds that the Bond character was out of touch with the times. Unsurprisingly, Lazenby describes this as the biggest mistake of his life.

External links

• {{imdb name|id=0493872|name=George Lazenby}}
• Lazenby page from JamesBond.com

In inflation adjusted terms, Secret Service is very close to the median performance of a Bond film, with a worldwide gross of about $413.7 million in today's money (based on movie ticket price inflation). (Nor is it the poorest even in non-adjusted terms, as both Dr. No 1962 and From Russia With Love 1963, grossed less worldwide, and The Man With The Golden Gun 1974 grossed less in the United States.) However, there was a perception of poor performance because it followed a string of three far more successful James Bond movies, which would later turn out to have been the economic high point of the entire series.

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In inflation adjusted - Median - Dr. No - 1962 - From Russia With Love - 1963 - The Man With The Golden Gun - 1974

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To this day, Lazenby's Bond film is reported as being a "bust" because of this. This despite the fact that it essentially doubled the gross of the unofficial Bond film Casino Royale (1967 film), in non-adjusted for inflation terms, and in actuality, in adjusted for inflation terms, On Her Majesty's Secret Service actually outgrossed the 1983 Sean Connery unofficial Bond film Never Say Never Again, the Roger Moore Bond films The Man With The Golden Gun 1974, Octopussy 1983, A View to a Kill 1985, and both of the Timothy Dalton Bond films, The Living Daylights 1987 and Licence To Kill 1989. As well as the original Casino Royale (1967 film). In fact, Lazenby's Bond film was more profitable for the film studios in terms of real cash netted in adjusted terms than all 6 of the Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan era James Bond films were. Yet, Brosnan's Bond films, which brought the film studios less cash in real earned net profits than Lazenby's Bond film, are regarded as huge hits, while Lazenby's film is regarded as a huge failure. This is mostly due to shoddy journalism and reporting by the press. Because Secret Service made about 22% less than the Bond film before it, You Only Live Twice 1967, and about 25% less than the Bond film that followed it, Diamonds Are Forever 1971, both starring Sean Connery (who was by far the most financially lucrative of all the James Bond actors), the media has simply taken that to show that Secret Service "bombed." When in truth, a few minutes worth of investigative journalism would have shown them that the film grossed more than 12 times what it cost to shoot, and about 11 times what it cost to shoot, market and distribute.

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Casino Royale (1967 film) - 1983 - Sean Connery - Never Say Never Again - Roger Moore - The Man With The Golden Gun - 1974 - Octopussy - A View to a Kill - 1985 - Timothy Dalton - The Living Daylights - 1987 - Licence To Kill - 1989 - Pierce Brosnan - James Bond - You Only Live Twice - 1967 - Diamonds Are Forever - 1971

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Even though Lazenby's Bond film had a much poorer revenue deal for the film studios than Connery's Bond films, because Lazenby was basically an unknown actor at the time (meaning the studios got a smaller portion of the gross than they did with the Sean Connery films), the Bond film studios still got a share of the gross that was over 4 times the total cost of the Lazenby 007 film. You have to go back all the way to the first Roger Moore Bond film, 1973's Live and Let Die to find an entry in the 007 movie series that was actually that financially lucrative. But generally, the press won't take the time to look the numbers up, so instead they simply keep reporting that On Her Majesty's Secret Service was a flop, and thus George Lazenby a financial failure as James Bond 007, despite the truth that both were actually extremely lucrative.

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1973 - Live and Let Die

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The top 2 grossing films of 1969 worldwide were:

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1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid $102.3 million

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(Domestic gross alone, no data is readily available for the worldwide gross, but the film is listed as having grossed more money worldwide than Goldfinger 1964, which grossed $124.9 million worldwide, and less money than Thunderball 1965, which grossed $141.2 million worldwide, putting Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid among the top 10 grossing films of the 1960s decade).

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Goldfinger - 1964 - Thunderball - 1965

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2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service $87.4 million

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($22.8 million domestic gross, $87.4 million worldwide gross).

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