“I don’t think anyone has ever succeeded”: Christopher Lee names the best actor to play James Bond
Few actors have ever enjoyed a life as fascinating as Christopher Lee, whose existence was so extraordinary that it’s surely only a matter of time before he becomes the subject of a biopic.
Even before he’d turned to acting, Lee – who could speak at least eight different languages at a conversational level – was a member of the Special Operations Executive during World War II, with his linguistic abilities making him a valuable asset when the organisation was tracking down and apprehending Nazi war criminals.
Onscreen, he became one of horror’s most indelible figures and the face of Hammer after playing Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and The Mummy during the production company’s golden years, not to mention his contributions to titanic franchises like The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.
Descended from royalty, Lee could trace his family tree all the way back to King Charlamagne, utilised his skills as a fencer and swordsman to shoot more swordfights than any other actor, he decided that his 80s was the ideal time to serve as the frontman of a heavy metal band, and he may well have been one of the primary sources of inspiration behind James Bond.
Lee was related to Ian Fleming through marriage, and they regularly played golf together, with his days in international espionage and cross-continental subterfuge reportedly having a huge bearing when the author began putting the pieces together for a character that would swiftly become the most famous secret agent in pop culture.
Of course, Lee got his chance to dip his toes into the waters of 007 when he memorably played the villainous Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun, but his closeness to Fleming and familiarity with the source material left him convinced that no actor had ever truly done justice to what Bond’s creator had always wanted him to be.
“I know who Ian thought was the best person to play Bond; James Mason, who would have been marvellous,” he told Total Film. “He had all the right qualities.” Mason was lined up to star as 007 in an adaptation of From Russia with Love in the late 1950s before the project fell apart and was under consideration for Dr No before Sean Connery got the nod.
Despite multiple actors inhabiting the tux over the decades, Lee didn’t believe any of them had captured the essence of Bond. “I don’t think anyone has ever succeeded in putting Ian Fleming’s James Bond up on the screen,” he mused. “The closest, in my opinion, is Pierce Brosnan.”
Brosnan is a lot of people’s favourite, and while he was eventually let down by substandard screenwriting, he was the perfect Bond at the perfect time. Rebooting the role for a new generation after the franchise’s longest-ever sabbatical from screens, he deftly combined the eyebrow-raising suaveness of Roger Moore with the world-weary charisma of Connery.
In Lee’s mind, that was as close to 007 as cinema had ever gotten, and plenty of folks out there’d agree.
