Houston Flight Control CapCom (You Only Live Twice)
MrBigglesworth
Posts: 11MI6 Agent
Anyone have any idea who this actor is? He is the Houston Flight Control CapCom in the opening scene of You Only Live Twice. He has most of the lines in the first three minutes of the film, but doesn't seem to be credited anywhere.
Comments
I don't believe this is an actor at all, but a real NASA official in a short piece of genuine footage which is repeated. The lines you mention are voiceovers, we cannot see his mouth because of the microphone.
Interesting! Now that you mention it, he does have his hand over his mouth for most of the lines, and there's not a single line that would need to synchronized. The film matches the quality of the intercut shots, though, so it's obviously not just stock footage. Did they just get permission to shoot at NASA once upon a time?
If you look at the quality of NASA stock footage from the 1960s, it is often exceptionally good, shot on good quality large format filmstock. If you have watched the 2019 documentary Apollo 11, you will know what I mean. The shots in the launch control centre, mission control etc. are all superbly shot. Having said that, I also wouldn't be entirely surprised if a small crew was sent by the production to shoot some cutaways at NASA because the last couple of Gemini missions would have still been going on while YOLT was in production.
By the way, the control room scene in the film is not the actual mission control centrein Houston. I'd say it is probably a technical backroom focused on the capsule systems, or the Launchpad blockhouse in Florida. The technicians are all wearing McDonnell logos on the back of their shirts and McDonnell built the Mercury and Gemini capsules. Also, CapCom was always a fellow astronaut. I'm pretty sure the 'CapCom' in the scene is not an astronaut because his face isn't familiar. Also, curiously they pronounce it 'Cape Com' in the film. I also wondered if it is because the footage was from Cape Canaveral, and not Houston.
One of the things that always had me scratching my head as a young space nerd watching YOLT is that they used footage of an actual Gemini launch to portray the Russian spacecraft, and footage of an unmanned Agena launch as the US 'Jupiter/Gemini' mission when the Agena more cloely resembled the Russian capsule designed for the film. Also the American astronauts helmets look more like early Russia helmets, and the Russians wear helmets that look more like the American ones.
Another dead giveaway about this being a set is that Shane Rimmer, a Canadian, in his first of three Bond roles, pronounces Houston as "HOOston." Every American knows that it is pronounced "HYOOston."
True, but Shane and Ed Bishop are not in the same shot as the man above. They're in a set, alright, but he isn't.