Bond Ambitions – Page 4 – What Would Bond Do?

How To Be Like Bond….James Bond

I came across an article written by Richard Shelmerdine that narrowed down a few key points that show why Bond is Bond. Learning how to be like James Bond could fill volumes of books full of personality traits so I can appreciate an article that gets to the point.

“#1 Mindset

Bonds mind is completely focused on the task at hand. This is why he appears to be so confident outwardly because he has got his game together on the inside. He has control of his emotions and actually acts out on the thing that we all say we do which is “Do not care what anyone else thinks”.

#2 Physique

Bond is physically prepared for anything that life throws at him. Anyone could get into a fight with you when you go out tonight. He spends time toning his physique also to get respect from others. By respecting your body, others will have more respect for you. Not just because you look physically dangerous but also because you respect yourself. A good body is great, but the clothes are what show. Being the best dressed man in the room is essential. Dress perfectly in clean cut suits and clothes. He is a master of occasions and dresses perfectly to fit the occasion. If you are going to play tennis you wear short, etc.

#3 Confidence

James Bond is so darn confident that he believes that he can do anything. This is a great mindset to have, confidence bordering on arrogance. But do not confuse this with thinking others are less worthy than you. And Finally…

#4 Can Charm The Pants Off Any Woman

Bond is as suave as they come. His perfectly sharpened humour, manners and ruggedness make women drool at the sheer sight of him. Learn how to develop his personality traits and you will too have the same results and learn how to be like James Bond.”

The only thing I would add to Shelmerdine’s article is Bond’s ability to get to the point in any conversation. When we are confident that we know a particular subject we tend to ramble on trying to prove our extensive knowledge of it but if you’ll notice, James Bond only gives one sentence answers. The answer will be short and sweet but insightful. This gives Bond the aura that even though he’s knowledgeable, his time is valuable. Nothing turns on a woman more than a man who can get to the point and sometimes answer all her questions with one simple word….. “Yes”.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

The Italian media called Sean Connery’s version of James Bond, Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It so inspired the composer, John Barry that he and co-writer Leslie Bricusse decided to write a theme song for Thunderball as a description of the character of James Bond called Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Unfortunately for Barry United Artists production team liked the fact that the previous James Bond theme songs like From Russia With Love and Goldfinger were the same as the movie titles and with less than 3 weeks before it’s theatrical release John was instructed to write a new theme song using the movie’s title Thunderball.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was originally recorded by Shirley Bassey, but was later rerecorded by Dionne Warwick. Both versions were not released until the 1990s on CD.

Tom Jones, who sang the new theme song, fainted in the recording booth after singing the song’s final, high note. Jones said of the final note, “I closed my eyes and I held the note for so long when I opened my eyes the room was spinning.”

John Barry, the composer of many James Bond films including the unauthorized film version of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again, died on January 31st 2011.

Side note: Country musician Johnny Cash also submitted a song to EON productions titled “Thunderball” but it wasn’t used. The lyrics of Cash’s “Thunderball” describe the story of the film.

Daniela Bianchi “From Russia With Love”

[Moneypenny, M and other officials are listening to Bond’s taped interview of Tatiana Romanov.]

Tatiana Romanova: The mechanism is… Oh, James, James… Will you make love to me all the time in England?

James Bond: Day and night. Go on about the mechanism.

Italian actress, whose best known part was Tatiana Romanova in the 1963 James Bond movie From Russia with Love.

Born in Rome, she was the 1st runner-up in the 1960 Miss Universe contest, where she was also voted Miss Photogenic by the press. Her film career began in 1958. In From Russia with Love her voice was dubbed by Barbara Jefford.

She made a number of French and Italian movies after From Russia with Love, the last being Scacco Internazionale in 1968. One of her later films was Operation Kid Brother (also known as OK Connery and Operation Double 007), which was a James Bond spoof filmed in English (though Bianchi was again dubbed) and starring Sean Connery’s brother, Neil Connery. In 1970, she retired from acting to marry a Genoan shipping magnate and have a son.

Carey Lowell “License To Kill”

James Bond: [Pam kisses Bond] Why don’t you wait until you’re asked?
Pam Bouvier: Why don’t you ask me?

Carey Lowell plays Pam Bouvier, A former army pilot, Bouvier works as a CIA informer, posing as a courier for drug lord Franz Sanchez. Bond tracks her down to a bar in Bimini, just in time to help her escape from Dario. She agrees to help Bond track down Sanchez, playing Bond’s executive secretary, Miss Kennedy. At the same time, she meets Colonel Heller to set up a deal granting him immunity if Sanchez is arrested.

With the assistance of Q, Bouvier follows Bond and Sanchez to a secret warehouse, where she shoots Dario and helps destroy Sanchez’s drug convoy.

Carey Lowell’s notable acting roles include Assistant District Attorney Jamie Ross on the television drama Law & Order, a character she reprised on its spinoff, Law & Order: Trial by Jury.

Lowell married actor Richard Gere on November 9, 2002, after dating for several years. The couple have a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, who was born in February 2000.

Barbara Bach “The Spy Who Love Me”

In 1971, Bach co-starred with two other Bond girls, Claudine Auger and Barbara Bouchet in the mystery La Tarantola Dal Ventre Nero and had small roles in other Italian films.

In 1977, her role as the Russian spy Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me gained her recognition as an international sex symbol. Although her character Anya is seen as the first Bond girl who is an equal to Bond, since she is also an experienced spy, Bach still walked away from the film saying that Bond is “a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield him against bullets. The following year she appeared in the movie Force 10 from Navarone. She lost a role to actress Shelley Hack when she auditioned for the television series Charlie’s Angels. Bach has 28 films to her credit. She appeared in Playboy several times, from 1977 to 1981, in 1985, and in 2008.

Bach met Ringo Starr on the set of the film Caveman in February 1980, and they were married on April 27, 1981, a few weeks after the film’s release. In recent years Bach has accompanied Starr on his tours and has appeared on some of Ringo’s music videos, playing on some of his songs.

Bach holds a master’s degree (UCLA, 1993) in psychology and was formerly hitched to both Eric Clapton and George Harrison.

Honor Blackman – Goldfinger

Blackman was born in Plaistow, Newham, London. While training to be an actress she actually worked for the Home Office, the British government agency that overseas MI5. Years later, Albert R. Broccoli admitted that Blackman had been cast on the back of her success in the popular British TV spy show The Avengers, despite the fact that the American audience had never even seen the program. Broccoli said, “The Brits would love her because they knew her as Mrs. Gale, the Yanks would like her because she was so good, it was a perfect combination”. Blackman was the first and one of two “Bond girls” older than the actor playing James Bond, and at 39 she was the oldest actress ever to play a Bondgirl.

In a 1965 episode of The Avengers, titled “Too Many Christmas Trees”, John Steed received his Christmas cards, one of which was from Cathy. “A card from Mrs Gale!”, Steed exclaims in delight. Then, reading the inscription, he says in a puzzled voice, “Whatever can she be doing at Fort Knox…?”. It was an inside joke, as Blackman was filming Goldfinger at the time.

Diana Rigg – On Her Majesty Secret Service

Tracy: Why do you persist in rescuing me, Mr. Bond?
James Bond: It’s becoming quite a habit, isn’t it, Contessa Teresa?
Tracy: Teresa was a Saint; I’m known as Tracy.
James Bond: Well, Tracy, next time play it safe and stand on 5.
Tracy: People who want to stay *alive* play it safe.
James Bond: Please, stay alive! At least for tonight.

Rigg spent many years of her childhood in Bikaner, India, where her father was employed as a railroad executive. To date she still speaks fluent Hindi. She got her start when she went straight from high school to the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she made her professional debut at the age of 19. Diana Rigg has made a career out of playing troublesome characters. She is particularly known for her role in the British 1960s television series “The Avengers”, where she played the secret agent Mrs. Emma Peel for 51 episodes between 1965–68.

In one understandably beloved episode, “A Touch of Brimstone”, Rigg was disguised as “The Queen of Sin”, to infiltrate the Hellfire Club, a clandestine group determined to topple governments through practical jokes. She wore an extremely tight Edwardian-style corset, high heeled leather boots, and a three-inch spiked collar. According to legend, that memorable outfit was not provided by the program’s wardrobe department, but instead came from Ms Rigg’s own closet. Rigg tried out for the role of Emma Peel on a whim, without ever having seen the program.
On the big screen she became a Bond girl in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969), playing Tracy Bond, James Bond’s only wife.
Because of her work in multiple charities, Rigg was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1988 and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1994.

Carole Bouquet – For Your Eyes Only

Revenge – That is what Carole’s eyes portray throughout For Your Eyes Only as Melina. After losing her parents to Blofeld, Bond reminds her that to seek revenge, one must first dig two graves.

Carole is a French actress and fashion model, who has appeared in more than 40 films since 1977. Bouquet was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. She is best known internationally for her role as Bond girl Melina Havelock in the 1981 movie For Your Eyes Only, but she also acted in a number of mainstream European films throughout the 1980s and continues to do so in France.
Bouquet was a model for Chanel in the 1990s. She is the widow of producer Jean-Pierre Rassam with whom she had a son, Dimitri Rassam. From 1997 to 2005, she dated actor Gérard Depardieu, with whom she had worked several times. Bouquet was engaged to him from 2003 to 2005.

To Travel Is Not Enough

In 1962’s “Dr. No,” Sean Connery sits brooding on a desolate beach, perhaps steeling himself for a solo attack on a hidden underground lair, when very young and healthy Ursula Andress emerges from the surf in a white bikini. Honey Rider asks: “Are you looking for shells?”

James Bond replies “No, I’m just looking.” Lo, a classic movie moment is born.

It’s quite possible that Ian Fleming based that scene on personal experience. Being an eminently sensible Englishman, Fleming spent his winters in Jamaica writing spy novels. He penned all 17 of his Bond books in Goldeneye, a modest three bedroom home on a seaside bluff in Oracabessa, on the north side of the island.

The property is now owned by Chris Blackwell, the man who brought us Bob Marley and U2, and rents for $3,800 a night in high season. So it’s possible to sleep where Fleming once slept (as well as a string of A-listers including Harrison Ford, Johnny Depp, and Sting), and stroll his private beach. The ex-WWII spy once wrote, “Would these books have ever been written if I had not been living in the gorgeous vacuum of a Jamaica holiday? I doubt it.”

Given that the world is not enough, someone who wants to travel like they’re licensed to kill still has plenty of options: film locations, guided adventures, and even weekend hotel packages. The arrival of a new James Bond film kicks off a flurry off new travel promotions, in addition to the standard car and watch pitches.

Take James Bond Island, located just off the coast of Phuket, Thailand. Thanks to the power of cinema, a tiny atoll used in a few scenes in a 1974’s “The Man With The Golden Gun” continues to pull the crowds. Rene Ekeheien, a yoga instructor who lives on nearby Koh Samui, recently stopped by: “I really like the location, but it’s so touristy you can’t really picture Sean Connery hunting down Dr. No.”

The Bond in question is in fact Roger Moore, and his nemesis is Christopher Lee (as Francisco Scaramanga), but Ekeheien’s point is well taken. James Bond Island is probably more of a pleasant diversion than a final destination.

The Plaza on the River Hotel in London, on the other hand, is offering a weekend package that would bring tears to the eyes of any 007 aficionado: vodka martinis, a custom tuxedo fitting, a chauffeured outing to an exclusive casino, and the keys to an Aston Martin. By all accounts the promotion, which runs through December, has been a hit.

Count Matt Day, a media attorney in London, as a satisfied customer: “The service was impeccable and we were treated like royalty. If Bond lives like this, then I’m applying for a job at MI6.” Mr. Day noted that the only downside of the weekend was losing too much money at the casino.

You don’t need to make any drastic career changes, however, to engage in some semi-perilous spycraft. In Ticino, Switzerland, you can recreate Pierce Brosnan’s bungee jump in the opening scene of “GoldenEye.” And we found a spy school in Tucson, Arizona that will teach you “evasive driving skills,” as well as how to tackle a hostage situation (paintball guns are involved).

And after a long day of battling nefarious geniuses intent on destroying the planet, a secret agent deserves some rest and relaxation. Just outside of London you can tee off on the same course where Bond played a round with “Goldfinger.” And in the Bahamas, you can lounge by the pool where our hero enjoyed the local scenery in “Thunderball.”

Original Post: Forbes Traveler