The Actors Who Could Have Been James Bond

Book excerpt: The enduring success of the James Bond franchise has made the casting of a new Bond actor a very big deal in the film and entertainment industry. Tabloids and entertainment clickbait sites love nothing more than constantly speculating (wrongly of course) on who the next Bond actor might be. Taking on the part of James Bond is like playing the lead in Hamlet, Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, or Batman. Others have played the part before you and others will play the part after you. Speculation about the next incumbent is therefore inevitable, unavoidable, and endless. It is a constant background hum even when someone else actually has the part. More people have walked on the moon than played James Bond. Despite the longevity of the franchise the Bond actors themselves remain a small and exclusive club. There are however dozens of actors who might potentially have played James Bond through the decades if only fate hadn't intervened. In the book which follows we will leave no stone unturned in an attempt to find out how many potential Bond actors there have been since 1962. There is a fascinating alternative cinema universe where the Bond actors are completely different from the ones we ended up with in our own familiar movie dimension. In this book we will explore what that alternative James Bond universe might plausibly have looked like.