Ian Fleming began writing Bond in 1952, when he was about to marry after a lifetime as a bachelor.
An ornithologist gave James Bond his name.
Birds of the West Indies by James Bond was one of his birdwatching "bibles" in Jamaica. When the real Bond found out, Fleming apologized and promised to let the ornithologist name a horrible bird after him.
Fleming handed CBS Television the rights to adapt his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, for the 1954 anthology series Climax!, despairing of Hollywood.
Before Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli called, Ian Fleming tried to develop a Bond picture with producer Kevin McClory and writer Jack Whittingham.
Cubby Broccoli failed his first Bond film.
It's hard to fathom a world without James Bond producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli and his family.
Famous people like Bond flicks now, although they didn't earlier. Bond's first fan? According to a 1961 Life magazine article, President John F. Kennedy liked From Russia With Love.
Geoffrey Boothroyd, a firearms expert, wrote to Fleming and called Bond's 0.25 caliber Beretta handgun "a lady's gun."
Broccoli and Saltzman considered hundreds of actors for the first big-screen Bond, but they chose little-known Scottish actor Sean Connery.
Moore's performance as Simon Templar in The Saint gave him a spy franchise by 1962, the year Dr. No was published. He played Bond a decade later.
Lois Maxwell played Miss Moneypenny, M's trusty secretary who flirted with three Bond stars, in 14 James Bond films over 20 years.