The actor who thought they were too good to play James Bond: “It was beneath me”
It’s common knowledge that Sean Connery wasn’t Ian Fleming’s or even Cubby Broccoli’s preferred candidate to introduce James Bond to the masses in Dr No, but what’s maybe less well-known is how many actors turned their noses up at the chance to gift-wrap audiences an instant icon.
Most 007 aficionados are aware that Cary Grant was the ultimate goal. While the ‘Golden Age’ star was open to the idea and had a personal connection to the property after serving as the best man at Broccoli’s 1959 wedding to Dana Natol, he only wanted to sign on for one film.
The producers were already eying a multi-film arc for the secret agent, so the talks were over before they had a chance to begin. After being sent back to the drawing board by his first choice, Broccoli embarked on the hunt to find a performer who embodied all of the intangibles that defined Fleming’s literary creation.
Richard Burton wanted too much money, Richard Johnson was already under contract to MGM, James Mason was only willing to stretch as far as a two-picture commitment, and Patrick McGoohan was dissuaded by his moral objections to Bond’s promiscuous, hedonistic lifestyle as a devoutly religious man.
After facing repeated rejections, Broccoli set his sights on Rod Taylor. The Australian actor was known without being too famous to disappear into the part of 007, and appearances in films like Long John Silver, Hell on Frisco Bay, Step Down to Terror, and The Time Machine gave him plenty of experience in escapist movies that featured special effects.
Taylor was hardly a Grant-like presence who studios were falling over themselves to cast in high-profile roles, but he nonetheless believed the part of a debonair secret agent who makes a habit of foiling plots to overthrow the established order and take over the world didn’t align with his artistic goals. In fact, he thought himself too good for Bond.
“Producer Cubby Broccoli wanted me to screen test for James Bond when he was preparing Dr No in 1961,” he confessed to Starlog. “I refused because I thought it was beneath me.” Taylor had so little belief in 007 that he refused to even audition, and it was something he came to regret when he watched Connery transform the character into an overnight success and pop culture monolith.
“I didn’t think Bond would be successful in the movies,” he explained. “That was one of the greatest mistakes of my career. Every time a new Bond picture became a smash hit, I tore out my hair. Cubby and I have laughed about it ever since.”
Taylor would go on to carve out a successful career for the next five decades, with his final role before his death in January 2015 at the age of 80 coming when he played Winston Churchill in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. Bond was the one that got away, though, and he wished he’d never said no.
