Why has there never been a biography of Richard Maibaum written?
Silhouette Man
The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
I've been wondering about this over the last while. Given Richard Maibaum's importance as a scriptwriter on the James Bond films between 1962 and 1989 isn't it exceedingly odd that there's never been an official or even unofficial biography written about the man who adapted and wrote screenplays for many of the earlier James Bond films?
I suppose that his contributions to scripts are covered in books like Charles Helfenstein's ones on OHMSS and TLD and Some Kind of Hero (2015) probably goes in-depth on this too, but I still think it would be great if we had a biography of the late, great man himself - Richard Maibaum.
I suppose that his contributions to scripts are covered in books like Charles Helfenstein's ones on OHMSS and TLD and Some Kind of Hero (2015) probably goes in-depth on this too, but I still think it would be great if we had a biography of the late, great man himself - Richard Maibaum.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Comments
"Better make that two."
I have to confess all I know about Richard Maibaum is what has been shown in the John Cork featurettes and of course what's in the books about the film series, but my only takeaway is that he was a New York-based writer, which in itself evokes so much about that business associated with that geography in a particular time (I think of Mario Puzo, Kurt Vonnegut and Neil Simon). Maibaum's role was pivotal in the creation and establishment of the series, but it seems his later participation was less pronounced of course because of availability, but there was also the introduction of other writers and "new ideas" that the producers constantly wanted to infuse because of the changing times.
Similarly with Ken Adams, he had a prolific body of work outside of the Bond series, but his involvement in the series isn't actually as wide as it generally seems, so to a Bond fan there would only be that handful of Bond movies to serve as tentpoles in a narrative about his life and career.
Other books of Bond personalities I'm interested in reading are Cubby's and Christopher Wood's, of which reviews I've read were interesting enough even though Woods' role in the Bond world is pretty limited.
Yes, I bought that excellent little book back in November 2001. It's a great read and resource and I highly recommend it to readers here.