What happened to George Lazenby, the actor who gave life to James Bond in a single film and who ended up making erotic films, martial arts and parodies of agent 007.
George Lazenby is an Australian actor that you will surely know for having been the second man in film history to play James Bond, in the film 007 on Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969.
The story of how George Lazenby managed to bring James Bond to life is curious, and here you will discover how he got the most memorable role of his careera, but also what happened to this actor before and after being agent 007.
George Lazenby, the shortest James Bond in history
George Robert Lazenby was born in Australia in 1939 and the dream of being an actor would not awaken in him until many years later. He served for a time in the Australian Army, and later was a car salesman and mechanic, but he could also be seen playing in a band and being a ski instructor.
One day, while selling cars, he was discovered by a headhunter who managed to make George Lazenby the highest paid model in the worldcausing him to collaborate with brands such as Marlboro o Fry’s Chocolate Cream.
Sean Connery was the first james bond and brought him to life in seven films, but he finally abandoned the saga and then entered the scene George Robert Lazenby. She had never starred in a feature film before and yet the producer Albert R. Broccoli fixed on him.
To pass the casting for the role of agent 007George Lazenby dressed himself as he did Sean Connery and came as close as he could to the interpretation of the antiguo James Bond. Finally, he ended up convincing the team that he was the optimal candidate when he accidentally punched the film’s stunt coordinator.
George Lazenby played James Bond in 007 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, of Peter Huntand that was the first and last time we saw him on screen as secret agent 007despite having considered his return for The man with the golden gun (1974) -which ended up starring Roger Moore-, and six more.
Although he did not incarnate James Bond more than in a movie, the Australian actor Yes, he continued giving life to the same type of character in some of his following projects, making unofficial parodies of the british secret agent.
We can highlight among them the television film The return of the CIPOL agent (1983) from Ray Austinthe episode Diamonds are not forever (1989) from Alfred Hitchcock Presentaor the video game turned into a movie Fox Hunt (1996) from Michael Berns.
What Happened to George Lazenby
After On Her Majesty’s Secret Servicethe second most successful film in George Lazenby’s career was The Kentucky Fried Movie (Made in USA) (1977) from John Landisbut his other projects did not enjoy a similar impact.
His career could have taken off again when negotiations began for him to appear in the next Bruce Lee film, but the actor died suddenly and George Lazenby could not appear with him on screen.
Of course, he came to participate in the feature films: Stoner: Agent Very Special (1974), by Wong Fung, the dragon flies high (1975), by Brian Trenchard-Smith y Wang Yuy A Queen’s Ransom (1976), by Ting Shan-hsiin which he had planned to act together with Bruce Lee.
Although we remember it as a ephemeral james bondGeorge Lazenby appeared many more times in the french erotic movies of Emmanuelleled by Francis Leroi. Former James Bond actor was once again a Casanova, but this time conquering the characters of Marcela Walerstein y Sylvia Kristel.
Emmanuelle’s charm, Emmanuelle’s Secret, Perfume by Emmanuelle, Emmanuelle’s Revenge, Emmanuelle’s love, Eternamente Emmanuelle y Emmanuelle in Venice make up the seven erotic movies of the saga in which he starred the old agent 007 in the nineties.
After finishing Emmanuelle, George Lazenby practically abandoned the world of actingand in the following years we saw him almost exclusively participating in documentaries, many of them about James Bond, and another about Bruce Lee.
George Lazenby today
In recent years, George Robert Lazenby returned punctually to fiction with a handful of B-movies that no one remembers: death on demand (2000), de Paul Rahman, the spider trap (2001), by Paul Levine, Dance Angels (2016) by James Black, and Z Dead End (2021), by Robert Resto.
They say that since the beginning of the two thousand George Lazenby dedicated himself to the real estate market, creating various mansions for himself in different territories such as: Hawaii, California, Australia or Hong Kong. For now, at 83, she has no new film projects in mind.
Now that you know what what happened to george lazenbywe invite you to discover other celebrities such as Elizabeth Berkley, the actress who ruined her career for a Paul Verhoeven film, or David Hasselhoff, the star of Fantastic Car and Baywatch.
Every week we will publish new stories of other mythical actresses and actors whose lives also took an unexpected turn, as in the case of George Lazenby, the most unknown James Bond of all.
