September 5: Happy Birthday George Lazenby

https://lebeauleblog.com/2018/09/05/september-5-happy-birthday-bob-newhart-and-george-lazenby/

George Lazenby turns 79 today. Lazenby worked as a car salesman, both in his native Australia and then in England, before being recruited to become a model. He was a few years into a successful modeling career when he had a chance meeting with film producer Albert R. Broccoli. At the time, Broccoli was looking for someone to replace Sean Connery as the star of a tiny little series of action/espionage films. Lazenby was given a screen test, and in 1969, he made his film debut in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service:

At this blog, we have a serious interest in the Bond films, so you can find discussion of Lazenby’s performance in comparison to other Bonds, and of why he only made a single Bond film. He did not completely disappear after his one outing as Bond. He starred in a couple of largely forgotten early 1970s films, and later had smaller roles in films like Saint Jack and Gettysburg. Lazenby also made a number of guest appearances on American television; fans of The Pretender may recall his recurring role as Major Charles, Jarod’s father. Last year, Lazenby appeared as himself in the Hulu docudrama Becoming Bond.