“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.”
—Ian Fleming on picking the name James Bond
In my book Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles I point out many instances of where some of the top screenwriters cribbed from others for storylines, characters, and themes. James Bond creator Ian Fleming was no different. Except where Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver) says the secret is to steal a little here, and a little there so no one catches you, Fleming at least lifted the name James Bond in broad daylight—from a published writer no less.
James Bond (1900-1989) was an ornithologist from Philadelphia , Pennsylvania who just happened to be an expert on birds in the Caribbean. Fleming wrote his first Bond novel in Jamaica and was familiar with Bond’s writings.
Keep in mind that Fleming was in his 40s and working as a journalist when he began to write his first Bond novel. I’m not sure what his original aspirations were, but I doubted that he thought 68 years ago when Casino Royal was first published that his writings would become one of the most popular and produced characters in film history.
The second real life American inspiration on the fictitious British spy was Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981). Carmichael was a singer, songwriter, and actor who was immensely popular in the 1930s when Fleming began working in naval intelligence at the start of World War II. Carmichael was born in Bloomington, Indiana and actually graduated with a law degree from Indiana University, before his career in music took off.
His song Startdust (or Star Dust) came to him while he was a student at Indiana. With additional lyrics added later by Mitchell Parish, the song became an American standard recorded by many top artists; Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Willie Nelson, John Coltrane, Winton Marsalis, and Frank Sinatra. More recently the song was used in A Star is Born (2018).
In the video below, Carmichael is seated at the piano with another song playing (Georgia on My Mind) that he co-wrote with Stuart Gorell. Does he seem more like or Sean Connery, Roger Moore, or Daniel Craig? This is how Fleming described Bond in his first novel Casino Royale; “Bond reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless.”
P.S. Carnichael won an Oscar for his song (with Johnny Mercer ) In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening featured in the 1951 film Here Comes the Groom.
Scott W. Smith is the author of Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles
Reblogged this on I Found it at the Movies and commented:
Add this to your Bond movie trivia! 🙂