George Lazenby talks about his time as 007 and comments on Craig

As 007 fever reaches an all-time high with "Quantum of Solace" breaking box-office records around the world, Michael
Aushenker, staff writer at the Palisadian-Post caught up with "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" star George Lazenby.

Agent 007 fans will forever argue over which James Bond rules. Some defend the original, Sean Connery. Another camp prefers the campier Roger Moore. Pierce Brosnan may be the best-looking Bond; Timothy Daltry, the most underrated. Others root for the latest licensed-to-kill lothario, 'blond Bond' Daniel Craig, whose second blockbuster, 'Quantum of Solace,''grossed $70.4 million on November 14''the biggest Bond opening ever.

Of all the films, this writer prefers the Alpine-themed thriller in which Bond gets married and tussles Telly Savalas' Blofeld. Love it or hate it, Peter Hunt's 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' is the least formulaic Bond escapade, and the 1969 film's star was Lazenby. George Lazenby.

Last week, as 'Quantum' topped the box office, the Palisadian-Post talked about Bond and beyond with Lazenby at the Australian actor's Brentwood residence.

The former male model played the British super-spy only once, with the unenviable task of following Connery after a five-movie run. But before discussing Bond, Lazenby, lethally good-looking at 69, evokes another pair of icons.

'Jimi Hendrix was supposed to do the music for my movie [1971's 'Universal Soldier']. Then he died,' explains Lazenby, relaxing in his airy living room. 'Bruce Lee was supposed to do a movie with me and then he died.

'I hardly knew either of them,' he continues, although he got to know Hendrix (who was dating a woman staying at Lazenby's London abode) just prior to the guitar virtuoso's death. Hendrix lived in England because 'some gangsters were after him in New York. He kept a pair of scissors in his belt for protection.'

Lazenby, due to star opposite Lee, didn't. The martial-arts legend complained of a headache at their July 1973 lunch meeting to discuss 'Game of Death.' The next day, Lee's press agent called with the tragic news.

If these celebrities make odd bedfellows, recall that early-'70s London was that hedonistic hippie-haven 'Austin Powers' lampooned. Which explains why Lazenby was cavalier about his Bond assignment.

'It was Connery's gig,' says Lazenby, who, at 29, became the youngest 007 actor, was of the generation who felt that 'Bond was pass'. I was wearing stove pipe pants, everyone was wearing bell bottoms. I had short hair, the hippies wore long hair. It wasn't fashionable to kill people. Women were coming on to men.'

Contrary to Internet data, Lazenby was not discovered in a commercial. He was rooming with fellow Aussie male model, Ken Gaherity, who knew Maggie Abbott, a CMA (today ICM) agent.

'The Beatles and the Stones were getting too famous to get out of the house without being mobbed,' Abbott tells the Post from her Palm Springs home. 'They couldn't go to the pictures, so they asked, 'Can you do some private screenings?''

Bond producers Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli and Harry Saltzman invited Abbott to one such screening. Abbott invited Gaherity, who instead sent Lazenby with her.

Two weeks later, the producers phoned Abbott in despair.

'They were looking for a James Bond and they were having a lot of difficulty and frustration,' Abbott says. 'They pleaded, 'Oh, Maggie, come on! You've got to know someone! He doesn't have to be famous, just someone who has the look, the confidence.''

Abbott urged Lazenby, in Paris, to return to London to screen test for a feature she could not discuss by phone. That, of course, was 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service.'

Lazenby showed up for an audition looking Bond-like in sharp threads, a Rolex, and short hair. But if you think Lazenby was self-conscious about filling Connery's tux, guess again.

'An actor would go into an audition for the role thinking of Connery, but I wasn't an actor,' Lazenby admits. 'I was so arrogant, I had nothing to lose.'

'Cubby and Harry were watching George cross the road out of the first floor of their building,' Abbott says, 'They were impressed. He hadn't even come to the office yet.'

Lazenby by-passed a receptionist to race upstairs and impress casting director Dyson Lovell. Inside Saltzman's office, Lazenby acted defiant and indifferent, listed bogus foreign-feature credits, even demanded remuneration for his screen test (and received it).

Lazenby's aloofness won him the part, after which the model scrambled to find an acting coach. That same day, Lazenby landed manager Ronan O'Rahilly, tickled Lazenby had duped Bond's producers. 'Majesty's' director Hunt, Lazenby adds, enjoyed 'a belly-laugh' when informed Lazenby had never acted. But that was okay'Hunt had never directed ('Majesty's' became Hunt's only Bond flick).

When 'Majesty's' producers realized 'he's a clothes peg,' Lazenby recalls, they balked. Hunt fought to keep him.

Lazenby disputes rumors that Brigitte Bardot was up for the Tracy Bond part, ultimately played by Diana Rigg. Catherine Deneuve verbally agreed to do 'Majesty's,' but pulled out upon hearing a novice had been cast. Unsurprisingly, Lazenby would have preferred Deneuve, as 'Majesty's' shoot was fraught with tension, although the October 30 Paris Match claimed that, of all the Bonds, Lois Maxwell (amatory receptionist Moneypenny in 14 Bond films) became enamored with Lazenby.

Rahilly convinced Lazenby to turn down a seven-film Bond contract''despite Saltzman offering Lazenby $1 million plus stock (Clint Eastwood earned $500,000 per picture)''because he thought Lazenby could make the money in two movies. Na've to the business, Lazenby listened to Rahilly, later regretting it. On mixed reviews, 'Majesty's' fell short of Connery's grosses.

After 'Majesty's,' Lazenby socialized with David Niven (who played Bond in the 1967 'Casino Royale'), Grace Kelly, and Peter Sellers, with whom he improvised a 'gumboots and umbrellas' London-fundraiser dance routine. Lazenby and Sellers were 'temporarily friends' until Sellers accused Lazenby, who had worked with his wife, of sleeping with her.

Lazenby enjoyed cameos in such Bond-inspired ventures as 'The Nude Bomb' (1980's 'Get Smart' feature). 'Emmanuelle' sequels followed. Semi-retired, Lazenby, to paraphrase a 'Majesty's' line, now has all the time in the world'

So what does Bond No. 2 think of 007's new direction?

'I was quite impressed with Dan Craig's acting,' says Lazenby. 'He didn't look like a Bond. I saw him in the movie and he convinced me.'

But he finds the violence excessive. 'Maybe I'm too old, but the guy is a cold-hearted murderer. I think I gave him some heart.'

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