Bond actors

[Mullen, Shaun]

The first James Bond was neither Ian Fleming himself nor George Lasenby.
The first James Bond was, in fact, James Bond.

Bond, who died here in Philadelphia in 1989 at age 89, was the leading
authority on birds in the West Indies.  Fleming, an avid bird watcher, was
living in Jamaica after WW2 when he decided to write a thriller.  While
casting about for the name of his fictional secret agent, he noticed the
name James Bond on the cover of the book "Birds of the West Indies."

"It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very
masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born,"
Fleming wrote years later to Bond's wife.  "In return I can only offer you
or James Bond unlimited use of the name Ian Fleming for any purposes you may
think fit.  Perhaps one day your husband will discover a particularly
horrible species of bird which he would like to christen in an insulting
fashion by calling it Ian Fleming."

Shaun Mullen
Philadelphia, PA