British Secret Intelligence Service agent James Bond was the creation of writer Ian Fleming in the 1953 novel Casino Royale. Fleming, an avid birdwatcher, named his character after an American ornithologist, and once said in an interview, "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find." Fleming added, "Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure---an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a Government Department." The first actor to play Bond was Barry Nelson, in an Americanized television version of Casino Royale in 1954. The great Peter Lorre, as Le Chiffre, has the distinction of being the first actor to portray a Bond Villian. The first movie adaptation appeared in 1962 with Sean Connery in the role, and the Bond character has maintained a mythological status in worldwide pop culture. The 2006 film Casino Royale tells the story of the beginning of Bond's career, and critics and fans agree that Daniel Craig is probably the first actor to represent Fleming's original character: cold, brutal, and ironic.
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Pan Books reprinting of Dr. No, with graphics from the 1962 EON production starring Sean Connery as 007, and Ursula Andress as Honey Rider.
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