George Lazenby

George Lazenby (born September 5, 1939) is an Australian actor. He was born in Queanbeyan City (or Goulburn), New South Wales, Australia, and served in the Australian Army Special forces and as a military unarmed combat instructor. He moved to London in 1964, working as a car salesman and as a model, then as an actor in advertising. By 1968, he was the highest paid model in the world (it is said that in 1967, he made £40,000 directly from modelling, and £60,000 from commercials and product endorsements—equivalent to over a million pounds in 2004). His first serious acting role was as James Bond in the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). It was later rumoured that he had been "difficult to work with" in this project. According to Lazenby however, the difficulties were caused by director Peter R. Hunt refusing to talk directly to him—and this in turn was caused by Lazenby (unaware of studio politics or Hunt's sensibilities) simply being too brusque in passing on a request for Hunt's friends to clear a set before filming. Although it performed relatively poorly on release¹, in part thanks to a poor publicity campaign, the movie is now considered among the best of the series by many, but not all, fans of the Bond movie series; it is one of the best regarded by fans of Ian Fleming's novels. After the movie, Lazenby's agent talked him into refusing a seven movie contract on the grounds that the Bond character was out of touch with the times. Unsurprisingly, Lazenby describes this as the biggest mistake of his life.

In the 1970s he worked in Hong Kong with Bruce Lee, and had a lunch appointment with Lee and Raymond Chow to discuss a major movie project when Lee suddenly died. Despite starring in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) and The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), two films that combined grossed over $100 million worldwide in the 1970's, the standard at that time for an actor to be established as a bona-fide box office hit draw, Lazenby's acting career never really took off. He then focused more on business and real estate investments and ended up owning mansions in, Hawaii, Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, Australia, and a 600 acre (2.4 km²) ranch estate in Valyermo, California, which is a small town located about 17 miles Southeast of Palmdale, in Southern California.

He also owns a port-side penthouse apartment in Hong Kong, and previously owned a beachside home in Pacific Palisades, California. His Pacific Palisades home was located right on the beach, included 1 acre (4,000 m²) of land, 1/2 an acre (2,000 m²) of prime Southern California beach-front property, a large swimming pool, and a complete media room. It was located just down the street from one of Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant's homes.

In 2002 he married his second wife, the former tennis player Pam Shriver. The couple had their first baby on 12 July 2004. Today Lazenby enjoys sailing, motorcycle racing, car racing, reading, watching movies and playing golf and tennis. As a former commando, expert skier, expert martial artist with multiple black belts, accomplished horseman, motorcycle racer, car racer, and having the ability to act many still consider him the quintessential James Bond.

Trivia

• Lazenby holds the unique distinction of being the only man to ever be both of the top two western culture male sex status cultural icons; he was James Bond for a brief time and the European Marlboro Man from before he was Bond to 1970.

• Lazenby was the first non-British actor to portay James Bond in the official Bond film series. The second was Pierce Brosnan.

Filmography

• Winter Break (2003)
• Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files (2002) (TV Series) (voice)
• The James Bond That Time Forgot (2002) (TV Special)
• James Bond: A BAFTA Tribute (2002) (TV Special)
• Premiere Bond: Die Another Day (2002) (TV Special)
• Best Ever Bond (2002) (TV Special)
• Spider's Web (2001)
• Cubby Broccoli: The Man Behind Bond (2000) (archive footage)
• John Barry: Licence To Thrill (2000) (TV Special)
• Four Dogs Playing Poker (2000)
• Bruce Lee In Game of Death (2000) (archive fighting footage)
• Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000) (archive fighting footage)
• The James Bond Story (1999) (TV Special)
• The Pretender (1999-2000) (TV Series) - recurring guest role as the hero Jarod's father Major Charles
• Batman Beyond: The Movie (1999) (TV Movie) (voice)
• Batman Beyond (1999) (TV Series) - recurring role as King (voice)
• Gut Feeling (1999)
• Eve of Destruction (1998)
• The Path of The Dragon (1998)
• Nobody Does It Better: The Music of James Bond (1998) (TV Special)
• The Secrets of 007: The James Bond Files (1997) (TV Special)
• Fox Hunt (1996)
• In Search of James Bond with Jonathan Ross (1995) (TV Special)
• Fatally Yours (1995)
• Twin Sitters (1994)
• Death By Misadventure (1993)
• Fox Hunt (1993) (Video Game)
• Emmanuelle Forever (1993)
• Emmanuelle in Venice (1993)
• Emmanuelle's Love (1993)
• Yu Yu Hakusho: Eizo Hakusho (1993) (voice)
• Gettysburg (1993)
• 30 Years of James Bond (1992) (TV Special)
• Emmanuelle's Magic (1992)
• Emmanuelle's Perfume (1992)
• Emmanuelle's Revenge (1992)
• Emmanuelle's Secret (1992)
• Eyes of the Beholder (1992)
• Poltergeist Report: Yuu Yuu Hakusho (1992) (TV Series) (voice)
• Superboy (1988) (TV Series) - recurring guest role as Jor-El
• Happy Anniversary 007: 25 Years of James Bond (1987) (TV Special)
• The Grand Knockout Tournament (1987) (TV Special)
• Hell Hunters (1986)
• Never Too Young to Die (1986)
• James Bond 007: Coming Attractions (1984) (TV Special)
• Rituals (1984) (TV Series) (the starring role)
• The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1983) (TV Movie) - as the Bond-like character "JB"
• General Hospital (1982) (TV Series)
• Last Harem (1981)
• The Nude Bomb (1980) - cameo appearance as James Bond
• Saint Jack (1979)
• Death Dimension (1978)
• Evening In Byzantium (1978) (TV Miniseries)
• Game of Death (1978) (archive fighting footage)
• Bruce Lee, The Legend (1977)
• The Newman Shame (1977)
• Cover Girls (1977) (TV Movie)
• The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
• International Assassin (1976)
• The Man From Hong Kong (Alternate title: The Dragon Flies) (1975)
• Is There Anybody There? (1975) (TV Movie)
• A Man Called Stoner (1974)
• The Last Days of Bruce Lee (1973)
• Life and Legend of Bruce Lee (1973) (archive footage)
• The Child (1972)
• Universal Soldier (1971)
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
• Espionage in Tangiers (1966)

External links

• Template:Imdb name
• Lazenby page from JamesBond.com (http://jamesbond.com/mmpr/index.php?cat=bond&id=laz)

Note 1: There is a persistent belief that this movie had the poorest box office takings of any James Bond movie, or even that it was an actual flop. This is not true; it was actually one of the most successful films released that year, and in inflation adjusted terms it is very close to the median performance of a Bond film. (Nor is it the poorest even in non-adjusted terms.) However there was a perception of poor performance because it followed a string of three far more successful James Bond movies, which would later turn out to have been the economic high point of the entire series.de:George Lazenby fr:George Lazenby nl:George Lazenby sv:George Lazenby