To celebrate the release of the 24th official James Bond film, Spectre, here are 100 things you might not know about the world’s longest-running movie franchise…

 

26. The death of Bond’s wife Tracy (Diana Rigg) was originally intended to take place at the start of Diamonds Are Forever.

27. A planned plot for Diamonds Are Forever featured Gert Fröbe returning as Goldfinger‘s revenge-seeking twin brother.

28. While filming Diamonds Are Forever‘s fight scene in the elevator, actor Joe Robinson accidentally pulled off Sean Connery’s hairpiece.

29. Sammy Davis Jr. filmed a cameo scene for Diamonds Are Forever at the casino playing roulette, but the scene later cut from the final movie.

30. Despite most of Diamonds Are Forever being set in Las Vegas, nobody in the movie ever actually says the words “Las Vegas” or “Vegas”.

31. The scene in Diamonds Are Forever where Tiffany Case discovers Plenty O’Toole dead in the swimming pool was filmed at the house of Kirk Douglas.

32. Until Jeffrey Wright’s appearences in Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace, David Hedison was the only actor to play Felix Leiter more than once, in Live And Let Die and Licence To Kill.

33. Live And Let Die is the first Bond film to feature the word “shit”, spoken by the woman whose flying lesson is hijacked by Bond.

34. Live And Let Die is the first Bond film to not feature Q (aka Major Boothroyd).

35. Live And Let Die is the first Bond film in which 007 has a liaison with an African American woman – Rosie Carver, played by Gloria Hendry.

36. Diana Ross was considered for the role of Solitaire in Live And Let Die.

37. In Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, The Man With The Golden Gun‘s Mary Goodnight is Bond’s secretary and a regular character like Miss Moneypenny.

38. The Man With The Golden Gun‘s corkscrew car jump over a canal was performed in just one take and was captured by 8 cameras simultaneously. It was the first stunt ever to be calculated by computer modelling.

39. The Man With The Golden Gun was originally planned to be shot in Iran.

40. The Spy Who Loved Me is only Bond movie in which M’s first name – Miles – is said.

41. $1 million of The Spy Who Loved Me‘s $13.5 million budget was spent by production designer Ken Adam on building the largest sound stage in the world for the interior shots of Stromberg’s supertanker. The tank had a capacity of 1.2 million gallons.

42. Richard Kiel, who played Jaws, could only keep the metal teeth in his mouth for about half a minute at a time.

43. The novelisation of Moonraker reveals that the character of Jaws is Polish and his real name is Zbigniew Krycsiwiki.

44. The chain that Jaws bites through at the Pyramids in The Spy Who Loved Me was made of licorice, according to Richard Kiel.

45. Jaws only ever has one line of dialogue in his two Bond appearances, when he says “Well, here’s to us” at the end of Moonraker.

46. Moonraker had the largest number of actors in weightlessness (on wires) ever filmed.

47. Kate Bush was considered to sing the Moonraker theme tune, but turned it down.

48. It was originally planned for Barbara Bach to briefly return in Moonraker, as Anya from The Spy Who Loved Me, as the woman seen in bed with General Gogol.

49. Roger Moore is believed to have conducted around 390 interviews for the promotion of Moonraker.

50. Maurice Binder’s title sequence for Moonraker cost more than the entire budget of Doctor No.

 

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