After Sean Connery quit playing the role of James Bond, the producers had a choice to make. 1) Stop making James Bond movies or 2) find someone else to replace him. That's when they came across George Lazenby. Originally they wanted Timothy Dalton, but Dalton turned the roll down.
Lazenby impressed them with his good looks and his aggressive tendancies. He was a former male model and the story goes that he accidentily punched the fight choreographer in the face and that impressed producer Albert Broccoli.
Much is said about Lazenby's lack of acting talent and many critics criticize him as being the worst James Bond because he was only in one movie and even Timothy Dalton had two. But to that I say you need to see On Her Magesty's Secret Service for yourself and I challenge you to view it critically. It's not the acting that made this movie so bad. It's the story. James Bond is not the kind of guy who gets married. Yet here he fell in love and got married.
While Lazenby probably doesn't deserve all the hate he gets from fans, it's clear he didn't like playing the role nor did he have the acting range to really give the character life the way Sean Connery did. Lazenby was originally offered a seven movie deal but decided to only do one and he left the project to do his own movie, Universal Soldier.
A very poor career decision in every way possible.
George Lazenby's legacy is a mixed bag. He clearly wasn't up to the task of a major blockbuster movie yet did a decent job with what he had. The story was something completely new compared to what audiences know and expect from James Bond but the death of Bond's wife is still one of the most touching and heartwarming moment in any of the movies. It was a movie relying more on physical fights than gadgets but yet still was satisfying to some. How much of the criticism Lazenby gets just for being the guy to replace Connery and how much does he deserve because he just wasn't a very good actor is a matter of opinion.
I say give the movie another chance.
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