Could Peter Sellers actually have pulled off EON James Bond?

ZorinIndustries

I know he's all about comedy, but I'm watching the CR spoof and i can't help but wonder how Sellers would do as the real James Bond...

Thoughts?

Barbel

Don't think so; a younger David Niven, though!

Thunderbird 2

LOL!! Hilarious!!

Burt Kwok could have been a recurring bad guy!!

Sorry Zorin but when I think CR-67, I imagine Austin Powers, UFO's with Thunderbird 2 style thrusters, and
"Drinka Pinta Milka Day" =. BOOM!

Thunderpussy

With "Being There" P Sellers was starting to do More serious roles and I think
he would of become a fine actor, not just comedies. But No I don't think he'd
of been abled to do a "Bond", mabey a villain as he was a master at coming up
with characters.

ZorinIndustries

Thunderbird 2 wrote:

LOL!! Hilarious!!

Burt Kwok could have been a recurring bad guy!!

Sorry Zorin but when I think CR-67, I imagine Austin Powers, UFO's with Thunderbird 2 style thrusters, and
"Drinka Pinta Milka Day" =. BOOM!

Hahahaha that's understandable!! )

ixtore

Thought this was an interesting question. Sellers was a hard boiled type himself. The reason he was so funny was because he embodied a role so completely you saw only the character. His gift for improvisation was seen, or rather heard, on The Goon Show. He was so very talented.
If asked to play it straight, I believe he could have done it. He was physically adept, British (!), and would understand the role thoroughly.
Problem is, the public at the time wouldn't have been able to take him seriously.

ixtore

"Le Chiffre thinks he is faster than me, but I am faster in my Lotus Formula 3 ... tee hee hee!

ZorinIndustries

ixtore wrote:

"Le Chiffre thinks he is faster than me, but I am faster in my Lotus Formula 3 ... tee hee hee!

Hahahaha! I was surprised at how funny this film was!

Blackleiter

No

ixtore

It was certainly a product of it's time ... and even then, it was considered a mess. But it had it's moments, and in the early Bond craze days there was a lot of forgiving going on.

David Schofield

Pretty sure that I read once - in the James Bond Fan Club CR/NSNA Special - that originally there was a plan for Sellers to play it straight and dark, that he'd practised acting Bond seriously and even working out.

Then again, I've also read that they were gonna do it straight with Terence Cooper in the lead after negotions with EON to joint produce with Connery fell through.

So who knows what's true?

Could Sellers have pulled off a credible, "straight" Bond? Well, Rog fooled people for long enough and with that dark hair he looked the part more than, oh what's the current little fella called ....?

Le Samourai

I also have read that Sellers thought he would be playing Bond straight in CR. He hired a personal trainer and totally through himself into preparing for the role.

Could he have pulled it off? I think he could have. Sellers was a phenomenal actor, a fact that gets overlooked because he chose to use his talents in comedies, not dramas (though films such as ‘Lolita’ and ‘Being There’ certainly had elements of drama). Plus, the man definitely had a cruel side he could have tapped in to.

Personally, I find it interesting when comic actors are cast against type in darker roles. A few examples:
• Henry Gibson in ‘The Long Goodbye’
• Steve Martin in ‘The Spanish Prisoner’
• Albert Brooks in ‘Drive’
• Bill Murray in ‘Mad Dog and Glory’

Napoleon Plural

Sellers was Jewish, so was Michael Caine and he gets mentioned as a possible Bond enough, and he was blond. Not sure why Caine's Jewishness is always overlooked and Sellers' generally wasn't. Anyway, I digress. Sellers was good at doing the posh RAF type, it was a role he put on on the Parkinson show and when hanging out with the Royals. But it was an act, and I'm not sure he could inject the sly humour that Connery and Moore were adept at, it was one or the other with him.

He could have done more leading man stuff in that vein, but he did seem a bit wooden or something doing that posh act. It wasn't totally him.

Lazenbyfan

No.

Mr_Osato

I watched the Pink Panther again last night. What a great film it remains and how much I love the sixties. So much style, class and talent from the actors. the clothes. All amazing. Peter Sellers naturally is totally brilliant in his role. However a james Bond, no, impossible. David Niven would have been a better choice, but he was already getting too old in 1963 (year of the pink panther.)

Charmed & Dangerous

The 1960s was an age concerned with the Cold War and thrillers were relatively more serious, so Connery's Bond could flourish. In the 1970s the threat had receded and there was more concern about the economy, and audiences wanted to watch lighter films, so Roger Moore's Bond was appropriate at he time.

So Peter Sellers as Bond could possibly have worked in the 70s but not in the 60s, IMO, but m till not sure he had what it takes to be a credible Bond.

HowardB

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Sellers was Jewish, so was Michael Caine and he gets mentioned as a possible Bond enough, and he was blond. Not sure why Caine's Jewishness is always overlooked and Sellers' generally wasn't. Anyway, I digress. Sellers was good at doing the posh RAF type, it was a role he put on on the Parkinson show and when hanging out with the Royals. But it was an act, and I'm not sure he could inject the sly humour that Connery and Moore were adept at, it was one or the other with him.

He could have done more leading man stuff in that vein, but he did seem a bit wooden or something doing that posh act. It wasn't totally him.

Michael Caine is not Jewish. He was raised Church of England Protestant (one parent Catholic the other Church of England).
Caine did grow up in a neighborhood that had a large Jewish population, attended a Jewish Day School for a time and learned to speak Yiddish....so it could lead one to believe Caine is Jewish.

Ironically, Sellers, who was Jewish, attended a Catholic School. According to his bio, Sellers was such a talented mimic that he could recite Mass in Latin as good as the Priests.

As far as playing Bond, apparently it was an obsession of Sellers. He used to tool around in a silver DB5 while acting as if he were really Bond. The problem that Sellers had was even when he wasn't trying to be funny.....he was funny. Truly brilliant actor/performer though. Some believe he had very little personality of his own or just wasn't very comfortable in his own skin which is why he was so adept at taking on other personas.

Mr_Osato

Interesting, I never knew Sellers was such a Bond fanatic. My respect for him grows even more. No wonder he married a Bond girl at some stage