20 years of Bond and MGM, the roaring lion through the decades (video)

Between "Licence To Kill" and "GoldenEye" the balance of power in Hollywood changed. United Artists, who had produced the Bond films since 1962, lost their ever-steady presence in the early moments of Bond adventures, and in its place came MGM's roaring lion.

The UA corporate ownership story is tediously complicated but the impact on the Bond franchise profound. As it is now 20 years since the handover, Bond fans under thirty will remember little else. But for the older of us, MGM's roaring lion is emphatically associated with GoldenEye.

Movie buffs have assembled this reel of footage charting the lion's earliest appearance as the logo for Goldwyn Pictures through to the present.



More than seven lions were used in the various retoolings of the intro, just some of them include: Slats (1917–1928), Jackie (1928–1956) and most recently Leo (1957–2015).

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