Inspirations for James Bond
A number of real life inspirations have been suggested for
James Bond, the sophisticated
fictional character and
British spy, created by
Ian Fleming. Although the Bond stories were often fantasy driven, they did incorporate real places, some incidents and occasionally organisations such as
SMERSH.
Many Ian Fleming biographers agree that James Bond is largely based on Fleming himself. The author was known for his glamorous and licentious lifestyle. Fleming has also been said to have been inspired by his contemporaries in British Intelligence during
World War II. During the war Fleming was the personal assistant to the Director of
Naval Intelligence starting as a Lieutenant then rising to the rank of Commander, the same rank as James Bond throughout Fleming's series.
Other incidents in Fleming's books that aren't possibly derived from the author's own life are completely fictional, perhaps owing to various spy novel conventions of the period.
Bond, James Bond
Every year since Fleming's first Bond novel
Casino Royale in
1953 until his death in
1964, Fleming would take a vacation to an estate he owned in
Jamaica known as
Goldeneye where he would write a James Bond novel. While in Jamaica Fleming was a keen bird watcher and owned a copy of
Birds of the West Indies written by an
American ornithologist by the name of
James Bond. He later explained that the man's name was "brief, unromantic,
Anglo-Saxon, and yet very
masculine - just what I needed." In the film
Die Another Day, Bond (
Pierce Brosnan) picks up the very same book in Cuba and poses as an ornithologist as an homage to ornithologist, James Bond.
While Fleming has never claimed there was any other source for the name of Bond besides the ornithologist, there was another real life James Bond who actually attended
Fettes College in
Edinburgh,
Scotland. Fettes is the second school that the fictional James Bond is credited with attending after leaving
Eton College due to an incident with a maid. This incident actually parallels Fleming's life who also left Eton after an incident with a girl. The Fettes alumnus, James Bond, was a frogman with the
Special Boat Service, much as the fictional character Bond also has a naval background. The school actually has his
Who's Who entry copied and framed in one of its main corridors.
Also notable is the mid–
1920s story "
The Rajah's Emerald", by
Agatha Christie that is centered on a proper British character named James Bond.
Many real life personalities who were involved in espionage have been cited as models for the character by some news reports. Most notably was
William Stephenson who was a
Canadian spymaster, best known by his
code name, Intrepid. Stephenson was the senior representative of British Intelligence for the entire western hemisphere during
World War II. Regarding him, Ian Fleming wrote in
The Times,
October 21,
1962:
"James Bond is a highly romanticized version of a true spy. The real thing is... William Stephenson"
Although other names have been mentioned by the media, none have ever been confirmed by Fleming,
Ian Fleming Publications or any of Ian Fleming's biographers such as Fleming's assistant and friend,
John Pearson.
* Sir
Fitzroy Maclean, who was reputed to be a British secret agent in WWII
Yugoslavia and friend (and biographer) of
Tito is often cited as an inspiration. MacLean went to
Eton College and like Bond had an Anglo-Scottish background. He was well known for a number of his books such as
Eastern Approaches which detailed his adventures. Throughout his life he neither confirmed or denied the rumour that he was the model for James Bond. Biography -
Past Forgetting: A Memoir of Heroes, Adventure, Love and Life With Fitzroy Maclean by Veronica Maclean.
*
Sidney Reilly, a notorious adventurer and
secret agent, originally from
Kherson,
Russia, who had a brief association with
British military intelligence following
World War I, and whose exploits were glorified by a
1980s mini-series,
Reilly: Ace of Spies. Reilly's friend,
Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart, was a close acquaintance of Sir Ian Fleming for many years and recounted for Fleming many of Reilly's espionage adventures.
*According to the
National Enquirer, Ian Fleming patterned James Bond after
Dushko Popov, a
Serbian double agent nicknamed Tricycle.
* According to the
BBC's obituary, (14 October, 2003), the late Commander
Patrick Dalzel-Job was said to have been another inspiration. Dalzel-Job "ran special operations in Norway in World War II... [and] later in the war he joined the future writer, Ian Fleming, as part of a reconnaissance team (Commando 30 Assault Unit) in France, Belgium and Germany - often far in advance of Allied lines." However, Dalzel-Job himself always denied being the model for Bond.
*
Merlin Minshall, who worked for Fleming as member of the Special Branch of British Naval Intelligence during the Second World War. He wrote about his extraordinary life in a book entitled
Guilt-Edged.
* Colonel
Duane Hudson was claimed by the
London Sunday Times as being a model for James Bond; however, this is the only source [
1].
The 007 number assigned to James Bond may have been influenced by any number of sources. In the films and novels, the
00 prefix indicates Bond's discretionary '
licence to kill', in executing his duties.
*
Rudyard Kipling wrote a short story entitled
".007: The Story of an American Locomotive", in which anthropomorphized train locomotives talk about their work and problems; the story has nothing to do with espionage, but Kipling's work would have been very popular during Fleming's youth and he could well have been familiar with the title.
* Another version of the origins of the number 007 is that it was the number of the coach service from
Dover to
London, in
Kent,
England, passing by
Higham Park, where Ian Fleming spent much time, and where he was inspired to write his children's novel,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
* It is also said that Bond borrowed his 007 title from Dr
John Dee. The 16th century English secret agent used the code for his messages to Queen Elizabeth I. The two zeros meant "for your eyes only".
* It has been alleged that there was a Soviet assassination unit known as "double zero" or "double oh".
Although the cinematic James Bond is obviously based on the literary form, they are different, and many feel, especially that of the crew of the first few films, that
Terence Young was the major inspiration for bringing the character to life on the big screen. Young was the director of
Dr. No,
From Russia with Love, and
Thunderball.
*
Bond Inspiration Dies*
Sir Fitzroy, the original James Bond, is dead*
Scots adventurer was never a spy, reveals widow*
The Real James Bond (on Fleming himself)*
Patrick Dalzel-Job*
A Yugoslavian spy inspired Fleming to create JB?*
Who Created James Bond, Robert Cotton
