Daniel Craig is the incumbent Bond in the long-running Eon series, and played the part for a fourth time in the latest film,, released in October 2015. See also: A agent, James Bond was a composite based on a number of the author had known during his service in the during, to whom he added his own style and a number of his own tastes.
Fleming appropriated his character's name from the. Bond's code number 007 comes from one of British naval intelligence's key achievements of: the breaking of the German diplomatic code. One of the German documents cracked and read by the British was the, which was coded 0075, and which was one of the factors that led the US entering the war. Subsequently, if material was graded 00 it meant it was highly classified. Fleming later told a journalist: 'When I was at the Admiralty. All the top-secret signals had the double-0 prefix.
And I decided to borrow it for Bond.' Although James Bond is in his mid-to-late thirties, he does not age in Fleming's stories. Fleming biographer noted that, 'within the first few pages [of ] Ian had introduced most of Bond's idiosyncrasies and trademarks', which included his looks, his Bentley and his smoking and drinking habits: Bond's penchant for alcohol runs throughout the series of books and he smokes up to 70 cigarettes a day. Fleming decided to underplay Bond's character, observing: 'Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure.' On another occasion, he reinforced his point: 'When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument.' Sean Connery: 1962–1967, 1971 and 1983 [ ] was the first actor to portray Bond on film in (1962).
An amateur bodybuilder, he had come to the attention of the Bond film producers after several appearances in British films from the late 1950s. At a muscular 6'2', Connery was initially met with disapproval from Fleming, who believed him to be an overgrown stuntman who lacked the finesse and elegance to play James Bond; he envisaged a suave actor, such as playing the role. Producer —known to all as Cubby—disagreed with Fleming's view, later commenting that 'I wanted a ballsy guy. Put a bit of veneer over that tough Scottish hide and you've got Fleming's Bond instead of all the mincing poofs we had applying for the job'. Eon's choice of Connery was also based on his looks and sex appeal, an appeal that would later be echoed by who said, after appearing with Connery in, 'He was exceedingly handsome, virile and sexy and that really was the tenor of what the script was always trying to display'. After Connery was chosen, director took the actor to his tailor and hairdresser, and introduced him to the high life, restaurants, casinos and women of London.