James Bond Author Raymond Benson

By: Anders Frejdh

Published:
2013-09-06

The James Bond author, musician (hugely talented at piano) and film expert Raymond Benson celebrates his birthday on September 6, the same day as FSWL celebrates 9 years online and birthday of Naomie Harris, the new Moneypenny.

Raymond's tenure as the 4th official James Bond author began in early 1996 and ended at the beginning of 2003. At that time Raymond felt that after six original novels - Zero Minus Ten (1997), The Facts Of Death (1998), High Time To Kill (1999), Doubleshot (2000), Never Dream Of Dying (2001) and The Man With The Red Tattoo (2002). Three film novelizations; Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002) and three short stories; Blast from the past (1997), Midsummer night's doom (1999) and Live at five (1999), he needed to do some things of his own.

With this page, From Sweden with Love want to celebrate Raymond Benson and his work.

"Our sincere best wishes for your birthday Raymond, you rock!"

About James Bond continuation author Raymond Benson

The author of 25+ published books, Raymond Benson was commissioned by the James Bond literary copyright holders between 1996-2002 to take over writing the 007 novels. In total he penned and published worldwide six original 007 novels, three film novelizations, and three short stories. An anthology of his 007 work, James Bond: The Union Trilogy, was published in the fall of 2008, and a second anthology, James Bond: Choice of Weapons (2010). His book THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION, an encyclopedic work on the 007 phenomenon, was first published in 1984 and was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America for Best Biographical/Critical Work.

Using the pseudonym “David Michaels,” Raymond is also the author of the NY Times best-selling books TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL and its sequel TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL: OPERATION BARRACUDA. Raymond’s original suspense novels include EVIL HOURS, FACE BLIND, Sweetie's Diamonds (2007) (which won the Readers’ Choice Award for Best Thriller of 2006 at the Love is Murder Conference for Authors, Readers and Publishers), TORMENT, and ARTIFACT OF EVIL. A Hard Day's Death a “rock ‘n’ roll thrillers,” was published in 2008, and its sequel, Dark Side of the Morgue, published in March 2009 and nominated for a Shamus Award for Best Paperback Original P.I. Novel. Also published in 2008 was the novelization of the popular videogame, Metal Gear Solid; its sequel, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, was published in the fall of 2009. With John Milius, Raymond penned Homefront: The Voice of Freedom (2011), and his latest original novel is The Black Stiletto, published in 2011. THE BLACK STILETTO: BLACK & WHITE will appear in 2012.

In the late 1980s and first half of the 90s, Raymond worked as a computer game designer for various companies. For his work in this field he is the recipient of the Newsweek Editors' Choice Award, the Parents Choice Award for Excellence, and two Digital Hollywood Awards. Raymond also spent over a decade in New York City, directing numerous stage productions off-off-Broadway and composing music for many other shows.

Raymond has taught courses in film genres and history at New York’s New School for Social Research, Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and currently presents Film Studies lectures with Daily Herald movie critic Dann Gire.

Raymond has been honored in Naoshima, Japan, with the erection of a permanent museum dedicated to one of his novels, and he is also an Ambassador for Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture.

Raymond is an active member of International Thriller Writers Inc., Mystery Writers of America, the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, a full member of ASCAP, and served on the Board of Directors of The Ian Fleming Foundation for sixteen years. He is based in the Chicago area.

Photo above:
Raymond Benson in New York far a James Bond symposium at Hofstra University in 2007. © Gary Firuta. Alla rights reserved.

Visit Raymond Benson's official website for more information about the talented man:

www.raymondbenson.com

Tags:

#birthdays

#raymond_benson

Tag Cloud

James Bond Author Raymond Benson

About James Bond continuation author Raymond Benson

Tag Cloud