The Double-O Dispatches

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March 20, 1911: Actor, director & producer Samuel Sperber aka Milo Sperber is born in Zablotow, Sniatyn, Poland. Among his many credits he played Mr Grossman on BBC's "Are You Being Served?" but he's best remembered by Bond fans as Prof. Markovitz in "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977)

March 20, 1974: Ian Ball forcibly stopped Princess Anne's limo in a failed kidnapping. Her bodyguard's Walther PPK jammed during the incident, causing the British Police Service to stop using them. John Gardner included the event in his 1st Bond novel "Licensed Renewed" (1981).

@SancastleAir Maybe he was just trying to meet up with Gorbachev at Pizza Hut!🤦‍♀️😊

@DoubleODispatch Oh him and Billy really got on well. That night in Washington in his underwear. Stuff of legend abc.net.au/news/2009-09-2…

March 18, 2004: Russian actor Richard Marner dies at 82 in Perth, Scotland. He's best remembered by Bond fans as a Soviet flight controller in "You Only Live Twice" (1967).

@darylc395 Still...a quarter of a million dollars seems a bit excessive when you realize the top was just a cotton shell she and a seamstress from Kingston stitched over one of her bras! The costume dept hadn't gotten its act together when she landed in Jamaica so they had to scramble!

@DoubleODispatch Wow that's one expensive bikini and knife! But the most famous in cinema history! 👍

March 19, 1936: Actress Ursula Andres is born in Ostermundigen, Switzerland. She went on to play the first Eon Bond Girl with her iconic role as Honey Ryder in "Dr. No" (1962). She's officially 90 today, so Happy Birthday, Honey! 😊 🎉🎂

@RogerThornh It's a lot of fun! Looking for Michael Wilson in Bond films has become a bit like looking for Hitchcock cameos in my household!😊

@DoubleODispatch Thanks for all the information. Very interesting....! Could probably go on for hours with all characters in all the movies.

March 18, 1923: British sound engineer Gordon Everett is born in Epsom, Surrey, UK. He worked on the sound for "The Man w/ The Golden Gun" (1974, where he also played British solar energy scientist/inventor Gibson who developed the Solex Agitator) & "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977)

@tudortemper Admittedly, not his finest hour...🤦‍♀️

@DoubleODispatch He lost Tiffany Case in the Circus!

March 19, 1935: Actor, producer, screenwriter & director Burton Denis Metcalfe aka Burt Metcalfe is born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. As well as producing & directing the hit TV series "M.A.S.H." he also played C.I.A. agent Maxwell in "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971).

@montpellierpro1 You really can...she had a classic fairytale beauty that made her look like something magical stepping out of the ocean. Such an iconic actress!

@DoubleODispatch Can immediately see why Cubbie cast her

@thestationchief Me too...so dapper!

Love that Tux!

@montpellierpro1 I figured for her birthday she deserved something a little more special than her usual bikini photo! You're only 90 once!

@DoubleODispatch Nice shot - never seen that before the Bond

@Quizzmaster1 @Thievesbook I bet you she's got some amazing stories to tell!

@Thievesbook @DoubleODispatch Around 96 supposedly as she has no exact DOB.

March 17: St Patrick's Day!🍀 County Wicklow was the birthplace of Irish screenwriter Joanna Harwood, who lent her considerable talents to help adapt "Dr No" & "From Russia With Love" into screenplays! She's in her 90's now and living in Monaco. rte.ie/culture/2025/0…

@Quizzmaster1 Oh, neat! That's nice to know she found a place where her work was appreciated because I heard she didn't get along with Terence Young.

@DoubleODispatch She worked for Harry Saltzman initially as a secretary when he founded Woodfall Films which made some landmark British films such as Look Back In Anger from the late 1950s. I hadn't realised Saltzman had been a co-founder of Woodfall until now.

@martinwylie90 Controversial opinion...but this film gets far more hate than it deserves! You're right...there were plenty of edge-of-your-seat thrills and it was a fun movie! I also liked seeing them bring Maud Adams back

@DoubleODispatch Dermot Crowley was hilarious as the mad priest in the Father Ted episode Rock A Hula Ted, who smashes up Ted's possessions. Back to topic, the scene where Dermot's character shows Kamal and Gobinda how to use the bomb, with the John Barry score, edge of your seat stuff!

March 19, 1947: Actor Sermon Crowley is born in Cork, Ireland. He boasts a long string film & TV appearances including as General Crix Madine in "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" (1983), but Bond fans know him best as Lieutenant Kamp in "Octopussy" (1983).

@Quizzmaster1 @Thievesbook I don't know that! I'll have to look at the dates...be interesting to see if he continued using Peter Hunt after "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" because Eon sort of let Hunt take the fall for that film and didn't hire him back as a director.

@DoubleODispatch @Thievesbook Harry Saltzman commissioned the Len Deighton stories for the big screen as an antedote to the excesses of James Bond, with some of the Bond production team such as Ken Adam, John Barry, Peter Hunt, Peter Murton and Norman Wanstall being seconded.

@BruceD16659 You just earned yourself a GoldenEye Award courtesy of my big thumbs!😊

@DoubleODispatch Dermot Crowley then too indeed?

@monsieurmaybach It might not be the most sensible Bond film, but it certainly is a lot of fun! After all...who doesn't love the circus?

@DoubleODispatch "Be at least 20 miles away when it goes off" + the Barry score in this scene - always has my hair standing on end, as comedic as the rest of the film is

@Quizzmaster1 @Thievesbook How bizarre that the one person he wanted to immortalize left an impact on him because they bored him!🤣

@DoubleODispatch @Thievesbook I love the Harry Palmer films and books. In the books, the hero had no name. He remained anonymous and it was Michael Caine who thought up the name Harry from Harry Saltzman and Palmer from the surname of a boy he had known from school who was boring.

@Quizzmaster1 They're everywhere, aren't they?😯

@DoubleODispatch Another one of those Canadian actors doing good business as Americans in British pictures.

@DoubleODispatch Bond on his most coolest and most suave

March 19, 1964: Sean Connery reports for duty to Studio D at Pinewood Studios for the first day of filming for Goldfinger, which included shooting the El Scorpio club scene featured in the opening sequence.

@IvanaTucak Who would have thought that panicking about his future would be the very thing that secured it? I've heard one reason he was so freaked out was Anne was well off & his mother kept the purse strings on his inheritance tight. He needed money fast as their son Casper was on the way.

@DoubleODispatch Stress + creativity = one of the most enduring spy franchises ever.

March 18, 1952: Ian Fleming finishes the first draft of "Casino Royale" at his estate Goldeneye in Jamaica, less than a week before his wedding. He was driven to write the book to assuage his nerves over his upcoming nuptials.

@IvanaTucak Very true...but it was still a pretty good chunk of change for a script. Joanna Harwood got about 1/10 of that for her contribution, but to be fair, she was hired to simply deliver a treatment that was probably only a few dozen pages and nowhere near as detailed.

@DoubleODispatch A reminder: the first check is rarely the biggest number in the story.

March 18, 1963: Richard Maibaum delivers the screenplay for "From Russia With Love," based on Johanna Harwood's first draft submitted the previous August. He was paid £6,875 (or £187,000 adjusted for inflation).