George Lazenby , the Australian actor best known for playing James Bond in the 1969 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service , has announced his retirement from acting. The 84-year-old said in a statement that his career has been a “fun ride but getting older is no fun”. “This hasn’t been an easy decision but it’s time to announce my retirement from work.
Therefore, I won’t be doing any more acting or making public appearances, doing any more interviews or signing any more autographs as of today,” he said. Lazenby, who also played Civil War General J Johnson Pettigrew in the 1993 film Gettysburg , said he will be concentrating on spending time with his family in Los Angeles. “I would like to thank my manager and friend, Anders Frejdh, for helping me since 2013 - the best representative I ever had,” he said.
“My sincere gratitude to everyone out there for your love and support over the years. It has meant a lot to me.” He was the second actor – and only Australian so far – to play British MI6 agent 007 in the James Bond movie franchise, replacing Sean Connery after five films .
But unlike his Bond colleagues – Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig – Lazenby played Bond only once. He has the shortest Bond tenure in the franchise’s history. According to Lanzeby, and the 2017 documentary Becoming Bond , Lanzeby turned down a million-dollar contract proposed by the studio after shooting his first Bond.
The documentary explored how a young Lanzeby, who was a model with no acting experience, sweet-talked his way into the audition room by pretending to be a seasoned actor and nailed the part. Speaking to The Guardian in 2017 about why he turned down continuing with Bond, he said: “I had advice that James Bond was over anyway. It was Sean Connery’s gig and, being in the 60s, it was love, not war.
You know, hippy time. And I bought into that.” “They also said there’s a guy called Clint Eastwood doing movies in Italy, getting 500 grand for a month, for doing a western.
They said, you could do that. So I didn’t feel like I was losing the million dollars.” He said that he decided to take part in the documentary Becoming Bond because he felt as though the industry had branded him a one-hit-wonder, but wanted to tell his own story.
“Word got around that I was difficult to handle. They said that was the reason I didn’t do another Bond, but that wasn’t the truth,” he said. More recently, his work has included a voice role in the DC Batman animated series, Batman Beyond and as Jim Jefferies’ father in the 2004 film Legit .
In March, Lazenby showed his support for the potential casting of Nowhere Boy actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who is rumoured to be the next James Bond, taking over from Daniel Craig. Lazenby said he believes that the 33-year-old “can handle the stunts, and all the ladies who love a man in a tux”..
