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Harry Saltzman died on this day in 1994. Together with Cubby Broccoli he founded Eon Productions.

Harry Saltzman, who partnered with Cubby Broccoli to produce a series of films based on Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, died on 28th September 1994.

As co-owner of Danjaq and EON Productions, Saltzman received co-producer credits for the early Bond films starting with Dr No. However, financial difficulties forced him to sell his stake to United Artists after the release of The Man With The Golden Gun.

As well as the Bond films, Saltzman was also responsible for the Harry Palmer films with Michael Caine (The Ipcress File (1965), Funeral in Berlin (1966) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967), based on Len Deighton’s novels) as well as World War 2 epic Battle of Britain (1969),

Leonard Barr, who played Shady Tree in Diamonds Are Forever was born on 27th September 1903.

Leonard Barr, who played Shady Tree in Diamonds Are Forever, was born in West Virginia on 27th September 1903.

Barr was Dean Martin’s uncle, and with his help attained a degree of success as a stand-up comedian and actor towards the end of his career.

Martine Beswick played Paula in Thunderball, and previously as Zora in From Russia With Love. She was born on this day in 1941.

Martine Beswick, who played one of the two fighting gypsy girls From Russia With Love, Zora, and then Paula Caplan in Thunderball, was born in Port Antonio in Jamaica on 26th September 1941.

Goldfinger premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square on 17th September 1964.

goldfinger-poster

On 17th September 1964, the third James Bond film, Goldfinger,  premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square.

Bond fever had just taken hold and Leicester Square was packed with fans. In the ensuing chaos a set of the cinema’s glass doors was broken and the film started 10 minutes late.

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Four-time Bond director Guy Hamilton was born in France on this day in 1922.

Guy Hamilton, who directed Goldfinger (1964) and four other James Bond movies, was born in France on 16th September 1922. Although he had been approached to direct Dr No (1962), Hamilton chose to turn it down. Following his work on Goldfinger he directed two Harry Saltzman films, Funeral in Berlin (1966) and Battle of Britain (1969). He returned to the Bond series with Sean Connery’s comeback, Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and followed it up with  Roger Moore’s first two Bond films, Live And Let Die (1973) and The Man With The Golden Gun (1974).

007 screenwriter Robert Wade was born on this day in 1962.

Robert Wade, who with writing partner Neal Purvis has worked on each Bond film since The World Is Not Enough (1999, with Bruce Feirstein), was born in South Wales on 16th September 1961.

Following their work on Skyfall it was announced that the screen writing duo were retiring from the Bond films. However, they were hired to work on problems with John Logan’s script for SPECTRE in 2014.  On SPECTRE Purvis and Wade received credits for the story, along with John Logan, and screenplay, alongside both Logan and Jez Butterworth.