The Search For Bond – A Review by Brian James Smith

By: Brian Smith

Published:
2024-12-10

The Search For Bond, Robert Sellers, book, review

Chapter 6 of The Search For Bond brought back memories of the post-A View to a Kill (1985) period when I was in my mid-teens. When I purchased the latest edition of the British monthly magazine Film Review the first page I turned to was the ‘Close-Up’ column. ‘Close-Up’, the successor to Peter Haigh’s ‘Pictures and People’, would regularly reveal the latest intel on who the new James Bond could be. Many names were mentioned, some familiar, some not so, including Anthony Hamilton (who impressed as Jon-Erik Hexum’s replacement in Cover Up), Mark Greenstreet and Pierce Brosnan. They even reported that an Australian called Finley Light apparently had it in the bag.

Now these stories – and more - are told in The Search For Bond by From Sweden with Love reader Robert Sellers. Sub-titled How The 007 Role Was Won And Lost, Sellers reveals the plethora of actors who were considered or screen-tested for Bond, beginning with casting Dr. No in 1961 and every change, or potential change in lead actor, since.

The idea for the book came on the back of Sellers’ 2007 book The Battle For Bond (which is being republished in a new paperback edition, also from The History Press, next month). Sellers explains in his introduction that publishers were originally indifferent to a book on this subject, and so it languished in the ‘bottom drawer’. Since then, Sellers has written eighteen more books, including definitive biographies on Oliver Reed and Peter O’Toole, shaping Vic Armstrong’s memoir The True Adventures Of The World’s Greatest Stuntman and, more recently, the story of the Bond producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in When Harry Met Cubby.

With Daniel Craig’s departure from the 007 role, now seems the perfect time for Sellers’ book to make its debut. It is also an indication of what may be going on behind the scenes at this very moment.

Part of the book previously appeared in a limited edition 007 Magazine several years ago. Here, collected in one volume, and updated, The Search For Bond reaches the wider audience it deserves. The research is impressive, with much of the groundwork done by Sellers himself, including nearly fifty interviews. There are also eight pages of photographs. The Search For Bond is an original idea, well executed and is a fascinating read to boot.

Review by Brian Smith. Copyright © 2024 From Sweden with Love. All rights reserved.

Editor's Note:
Order The Search for Bond: How the 007 Role Was Won and Lost from Amazon UK or Amazon.com.

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The Search For Bond – A Review by Brian James Smith

With Daniel Craig’s departure from the 007 role, now seems the perfect time for Sellers’ book to make its debut. It is also an indication of what may be going on behind the scenes at this very moment.

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