Main Allies
The title and code letter for James Bond's boss and fictional head of the British Secret Intelligence Service MI6. The title "M" is believed to derive from the first real life head of MI6, Mansfield Smith-Cumming, who used his initial "C" to indicate he had seen a paper and so became referred to as "C", a practice which carried on with his successors.
Bernard Lee (January 10, 1908 – January 16, 1981) is a British actor who was best known for his role as M in the James Bond movie.
In the movies, M is Bond's boss who sends him out in assignments. He also starred in the 1976 TV show Beauty and the Best with George C. Scott. A year later he starred in the TV show A Christmas Carol as the Ghost of Christmas Present.
In 1981, Lee passed away after a battle with cancer.
Bernard Lee starred in eleven James Bond films:
Robert Brown (July 23, 1921 – November 11, 2003)
was a British actor most known for his portrayal of M in the James Bond movies.
Brown was born and died in Swanage, England. Before appearing in the Bond films, he had a long career as a bit-part actor in films and television. Two of his most notable parts were as the gallery-master in Ben-Hur (1959) and as factory worker Bert Hanker in the BBC's 1960s soap opera, The Newcomers.
Technically Brown first started in the James Bond franchise in the film The Spy Who Loved Me as Admiral Hargreaves. After Lee's death in 1981, the producers decided to leave the character M out of For Your Eyes Only out of respect for the actor. In 1983, however, they cast Brown to portray M. It is unknown as to whether he was the same character as Lee's M or a different M.
Altogether Robert Brown starred in five James Bond films:
Dame Judi Dench (born December 9, 1934) is a renowned British stage, film and television actress. Born in York.
In 1971, she married British actor Michael Williams, who died of cancer in 2001. They starred together in a British sitcom, A Fine Romance. In 1988 she was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE). She has also occasionally directed plays.
Her many television appearances include the series As Time Goes By and the aforementioned A Fine Romance.
In 1995 she took over the role of M in the James Bond franchise and has starred in the films:
She has also been a voice actor in two James Bond video games, Everything or Nothing in 2003 and
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent in 2004.
Miss Moneypenny is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. She is secretary to M and although she has a small part in the films it was always highlighted by the underscored sexual tension between her and Bond. It is believed that her character in part is based on Vera Atkins, the assistant to Maurice Buckmaster, who is the head of the French Section of the Special Operations Executive. The character has never been given a first name in any Bond novel or movie, though Bond occasionally refers to her by the nickname, "Penny."
As a rule, Moneypenny generally never directly participates in Bond's missions, although there have been
a few exceptions in both film and literature (in film most notably Diamonds Are Forever).
Lois Maxwell (born February 14, 1927) is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise.
Maxwell has also appeared in many other television series and movies both in Britain and Canada, and was the star of Adventures in Rainbow Country in the late 1960s. She also provided the voice of Atlanta for the science fiction children's series Stingray in 1963. In the 1970s, she wrote a popular newspaper column for the Toronto Sun.
Starring in fourteen James Bond movies, many fans credit her as the definitive Miss Moneypenny:
Caroline Bliss (born 1961) is a British actress best known for her appearance as M's secretary, Miss Moneypenny, in the James Bond films. At the age of 26 she replaced the long standing Lois Maxwell in the film The Living Daylights.
Caroline Bliss only featured in two James Bond movies, and her second role was little more than a cameo:
Samantha Bond (born November 27, 1962) is a British actress best known for her role as the current Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise. Moneypenny is the secretary to James Bond's boss, M. Samantha Bond has appeared in many television series, notably 1997's adaptation of Emma. She is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and starred opposite to Dame Judi Dench, the current M, in David Hare's award-winning play Amy's View at the Royal National Theatre.
In 2004, she starred opposite Peter Davison in the ITV drama-comedy Distant Shores.
Currently Samantha Bond has been in four James Bond movies. In November 2004, media reports indicated that she would not be returning to the role for the upcoming Casino Royale.
Q is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and movies. Q (standing for Quartermaster), like M, is a job title rather than a name. He is the head of Q-Branch, the fictional research and development division of the British Secret Service. The Q character actually appears only fleetingly in Ian Fleming's novels, but comes into his own in the successful Bond movie series. The character Q has appeared in each of the 007
films except for Live and Let Die.
Desmond Llewelyn (September 12, 1914 – December 19, 1999) was a British actor who is famous for playing the fictional character of Q in the James Bond series of films. Q is the quartermaster of the MI6 gadget lab known as Q-Branch.
Desmond Wilkinson Llewelyn was born in Newport, South Wales in 1914, the son of a coal mining engineer. He originally wanted to be a minister. In high school, he worked as a stagehand in the school's productions and then picked up sporadic small parts.
Since 1963's From Russia With Love, Llewelyn appeared as Q in every Bond film, except Live and Let Die (1973), through to The World Is Not Enough (1999). Llewelyn appeared in other films such as the 1981 PBS production of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde and also a small appearance in the famous musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He acted on stage and appeared in an English television series called Follyfoot.
Contrary to his gadget-expert character in the Bond films, Llewelyn always maintained that he was totally lost in the world of technology.
Llewelyn was killed in a road accident on December 19, 1999 after returning home from a book-signing promoting his autobiography in East Sussex. He collided head-on with a car and died shortly after. He was eighty-five.
Desmond featured in the following Bond films:
John Marwood Cleese (born October 27, 1939 in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England) is a British comedian and actor best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for playing Basil Fawlty in the sitcom Fawlty Towers.
In the 2002 film Die Another Day, John Cleese, who played the character of R, the assistant to Q in The World Is Not Enough, was promoted to the head of Q-Branch, thus taking on the title of Q.
He featured in these two Bond films:
Felix Leiter is a fictional character invented by Ian Fleming in the James Bond books, who also appears in the Bond movies. Leiter works for the CIA, and assists Bond in his various adventures, although in
Licence to Kill Leiter had transferred to the DEA.
John Joseph Patrick Ryan (December 30, 1920 – January 21, 1998) best known by his stage name Jack Lord, is noted for his performances as an actor on television and film, most notably for his starring role as Steve McGarrett on Hawaii Five-O.
Lord also appeared as Felix Leiter in the James Bond film, Dr No, and was an accomplished artist: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum of Modern Art each own a painting by him. He also appeared in several
Broadway productions, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Cec Linder (sometimes called Cecil Linder; born March 10, 1921 in Galica, Poland; died April 10, 1992 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) was a Canadian film and television actor of Polish birth. His family moved to Canada when Linder was very young, and he became a naturalised Canadian citizen. In the 1950s and 1960s he worked extensively in the United Kingdom, often playing American characters in various films and television programmes.
In film, he is probably best remembered for his role as James Bond's CIA counterpart Felix Leiter in Goldfinger (1964). Another well-known film in which he appeared was Lolita (1962, as Doctor Keegee).
Linder enjoyed an extensive and successful television career on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, probably his most prominent role was as the archeologist Roney in the original BBC version of Quartermass and the Pit (1958-59). In the United States, he was a regular in the soap opera The Secret Room on the CBS network from 1960 to 1964, playing Peter Ames. In 1974 he replaced William Prince as the character of Ben Travis in another CBS soap opera, The Edge of Night, and in the 1980s appeared in several of the Perry Mason revival TV movies, as District Attorney Jack Welles. During his career he also had guest roles in episodes of a variety of other popular British, American and Canadian television programmes, including: Doomwatch, The Littlest Hobo, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ironside, The Saint and The New Avengers.
Linder's last work was as the character of Syd Grady in two episodes of the television series Sweating
Bullets in 1991. He died the following year at home in Canada, aged seventy-one, of a heart attack.
Actor Albert David Hedison, Jr, billed as either Al Hedison or David Hedison, was born May 20, 1927 in Providence, Rhode Island.
Hedison starred in the 1958 movie The Fly.
Among his numerous other TV and movie credits, he appeared in the television version of Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and played Spencer Harrison on the American soap opera Another World from 1991 to 1996. He is also notable as the only actor to have played James Bond's CIA comrade Felix Leiter in two movies (Live and Let Die and Licence to Kill).
Recurring Allies
J.W. Pepper is a fictional Louisiana sheriff, portrayed by Cliffton James in two James Bond films: Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun. He is a comic relief character, most memorable for his
somewhat bigoted attitudes and his tendency to speak loudly about whatever is on his mind.
Walter Gotell (March 15, 1924 – May 5, 1997) was a German actor famous for his role as General Gogol in the Bond films.
Born in Bonn, Germany he started in films as early as 1942 usually playing German henchmen. During the 1950s he moved into making TV guest appearances on such shows as The Saint. Beginning in the 1970s he played the recurring role of General Gogol in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. The character returned in Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill and The Living Daylights. However, the Gogol character was not his first role in a Bond film; in 1963, he played
the henchman Morzeny in From Russia With Love.
Jack Wade is a fictional character in Piece Brosnan's first two James Bond films. Wade is 007's contact, taking over the role of Felix Leiter in the 1989 film Licence to Kill.
Joe Don Baker plays Wade very close to the Ugly American stereotype, acting as a memorable and effective foil to the ultra-suave Bond. This should not imply that Wade is any less effective than his predecessor, Felix Leiter. So far Wade has been just as helpful—and just as willing to bend the rules—as Bond's original contact was.
The character of Wade is similar to that of CIA Agent Darius Jedburgh, played by Baker in the 1985 BBC Television serial Edge of Darkness. This serial was directed by Martin Campbell, who also cast Baker as Wade in GoldenEye.
In GoldenEye, Bond meets Wade by using a stereotypical pass-phrase, "In London April's a spring month," but Wade makes a wisecrack instead of what he's supposed to say. One of the funnier quirks of Wade's character was the nickname he would give to Bond, including "Jimmy" and "Jimbo". He also has a tattoo of a rose from his first marriage that says "Muffy".
Baker had previously played a villain, "General" Brad Whitaker, in the first Timothy Dalton Bond film, The Living Daylights. This casting dovetails that of Charles Gray, who played Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever, having previously played Bond's contact, Henderson, in You Only Live Twice. Another similar occurrence was actor Robert Brown being cast in the role of M in Octopussy, when
Brown had previously played Admiral Hargreaves in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Joe Don Baker (born February 12, 1936 in Groesbeck, Texas) is an American film actor best known for
his three appearances in the James Bond franchise. Baker got his start in acting as an uncredited character in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, but his real beginnings came when he scored the role of Steve McQueen's younger brother in the film Junior Bonner. He would later star as the main character in the 1973 film Walking Tall, a film that was remade in 2004 starring The Rock.
Joe Don Baker appeared in a couple of films that was eventually lampooned on the Mystery Science Theater 3000 television series. This included the films Mitchell and Final Justice. Baker was reportedly incensed by his portrayal as an ignorant redneck in these episodes, allegedly at one point threatening to assault the writers of the show.
While actor Carroll O'Connor was undergoing heart bypass surgery, Baker took his place on the television series In the Heat of the Night. Baker appeared as Captain Tom Duggan, a retired
police captain who filled in while O'Connor's character was away at a police convention.
Robbie Coltrane (born March 30, 1950) is a Scottish actor.
He was born in Rutherglen, Glasgow and educated at Glenalmond school in Perthshire, Glasgow School of Art, and the Moray House College of Education in Edinburgh. He moved into acting in his early twenties, working in theatre and stand-up comedy.
His comic skills brought him roles in the television series The Comic Strip Presents (1982) and he was one of the stars of Laugh? I Nearly Paid Me Licence Fee (1984). He soon moved into films, obtaining small roles in a number of movies such as Death Watch (1980), Scrubbers (1983), Absolute Beginners (1986) and Mona Lisa (1986). On television he also appeared in Tutti Frutti (1987), as Samuel Johnson in Blackadder (1987) and in a number of stand-up and sketch comedy shows.
He co-starred with Eric Idle in Nuns on the Runs (1990), and played the Pope in The Pope Must Die (1991). He also played a would-be private detective obsessed with Humphrey Bogart in the TV play The Bogie Man. His roles went from strength to strength in the 1990s with the TV series Cracker (1993-1996) and a BAFTA award as the stepping stone to parts in bigger films such as the James Bond films GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999), as well as giant Rubeus Hagrid in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).
Coltrane lives near Glasgow, is married and has two children, and collects vintage cars.
Jeremy Bulloch (born February 16, 1945 in Market Harborough, Leicestershire) is a British actor. He has appeared in numerous British TV and film productions and guest appeared on television series such as Doctor Who. In a career spanning almost four decades, he is perhaps most famous for his minor role as Boba Fett in the Star Wars films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Also in the James Bond movie franchise he played a HMS Ranger Crewman in The Spy Who Loved Me, Smithers in For Your Eyes Only and again Smithers
in Octopussy.
