The Bond universe is one that fascinates me, though I’ve never made the leap of tearing through it and patching all the gaps in my viewing of the world of Britain’s greatest spy. Still, the weird theories and bits of trivia that come from any film-related production that spans so many decades and different creatives influences always interest me.
Most recently, Skyfall included M’s real name, stirring up the Bond continuity theorists, while adding a 25th film meant it was time to tally up some Bond statistics. Today I happened across this cool album* from imgur user joinyouinthesun that breaks down the recurring actors in the series, as well as producer Michael G. Wilson’s Hitchcock-like cameos in the majority of Bond films. This is surely available and well-known info if you’re a Bond nut, but it’s laid out nicely, and is definitely new for the not-quite-so-hardcore such as myself.
For example, in Casino Royale, did you know Lady Wu was played by Ms. Tsai Chin, who also played an assassin in You Only Live Twice? That’s not even a deep cut!
There is of course Joe Don Baker’s re-appearance as CIA’s Jack Wade less than a decade after antagonizing Bond as General Brad Whitaker.
There are many more of these, some qualifying as cameos for the knowing, and others merely recasting because a particular actor is just that awesome, I suppose. It’s even lead to confusion for some viewers that have watched the film out of order as, for example, Charles Gray played both an Australian agent in You Only Live Twice, and the infamous Blofeld himself in Diamonds Are Forever.
Finally there’s a rundown of all (many of?) the cameos from the Bond Universe’s own Hitchcock/Stan Lee, producer Michael G. Wilson. There are also videos out there that collect all of these shots.
For Your Eyes Only
Goldeneye
Moonraker
Quantom Of Solace
We should be hearing news about new Bond soon, since Sam Mendes was finally wooed into returning and it has joined the packed slate of 2015. Until then keep an eye out for familiar faces.
*The nature of the internet means this could have been cribbed wholesale from another source, so if someone notices that it is actually a reproduction of a Buzzfeed article or something, do let me know.