CommanderBond.net takes a look at some of the birthdays and past events of the James Bond series that have taken place during the month of July… Note: This article was originally posted on 1 July 2005.

4 July

• 1966: Principal photography on You Only Live Twice, the fifth “official” James Bond film, began with the teaser sequence depicting Bond’s assassination in a Hong Kong apartment.

5 July

• 1973: Live And Let Die, the eighth “official” James Bond film, premiered at the Odeon Cinema, Leicester Square in London.

6 July

• 1963: While taking off to scout locations around Kilmichall for the boat chase scene in From Russia With Love, the second “official” James Bond film, Terence Young’s helicopter crashed into the sea. John Stears and crew rushed to help, but found that Terence had broken the dome window of the helicopter out and was swimming to the surface. Within thirty minutes Terance Young continued filming as if nothing had happened.

7 July

• 1977: On 007/007/1977, The Spy Who Loved Me, the tenth “official” James Bond film, premiered at the Odeon Cinema, Leicester Square in London.

11 July

• 1964: Principal photography on Goldfinger, the third “official” James Bond film, was completed.

14 July

• 1989: Licence To Kill, the sixteenth “official” James Bond film, was released in the United States.


• 1997: B.J. Worth spent the next eleven days in the Florida Keys finishing up the HALO jump stunt scenes for Tomorrow Never Dies, the seventeenth “official” James Bond film. When it was all said and done, Worth had done over eighty jumps at speeds ranging from 120mph to 200mph.

16 July

• 1966: In a front page article titled Bond And Bonn, East Germany’s Communist youth newspaper accused West Germany of using Agent 007 to sway public opinion in preparation for a covert military action against their country.

17 July

• 1963: On the way to the set for an early morning shoot for From Russia With Love, Daniela Bianchi’s driver fell asleep. The car rolled off into a gorge. Sean Connery, who was following behind in his car, was there to assist in pulling the two from the wreckage. Due to a swollen face, Daniela was unable to film for two weeks.


• 1997: Filming of Tomorrow Never Dies haulted when Pierce Brosnan suffered a 1 1/4 inch cut to his face while shooting a fight sequence in the cockpit of a L29.

18 July

• 1984: After weeks of rehearsal the stunt team for A View To A Kill, the fourteenth “official” James Bond film, led by Rèmy Juliene, performed the final test jumps of the Renault landing on a double-decker bus.

27 July

• 1966: After Sean Connery announced You Only Live Twice would be his last Bond film, The Manchester Evening News ran a story that asked the question if it would be the end of 007.

31 July

• 1966: The crew of You Only Live Twice flew to Akime, Japan to film the fishing village scenes.


• 1974: The Man With The Golden Gun, the ninth “official” James Bond film, advance one-sheet posters were distributed to cinemas across the United States by United Artists.


• 1987: The Living Daylights, the fifteenth “official” James Bond film, opened in the United States where it went on to make $11,051,284 in its opening weekend. At the time it was the largest opening Eon Productions had ever had for a film.

• 3rd - 1959, Andreas Wisniewski (Necros, The Living Daylights)
• 4th - 1900, Louis Armstrong (Singer of “We Have All The Time In The World,” On Her Majesty’s Secret Service)
• 5th - 1922, Tetsuro Tamba (Tiger Tanaka, You Only Live Twice)
• 5th - 1933, Terence Cooper (Cooper/007, 1967’s Casino Royale)
• 5th - 1980, Eva Green (Vesper Lynd, 2006’s Casino Royale)
• 8th - 1933, Jeff Nuttall (Dr. Arkov, The World Is Not Enough)
• 18th - 1930, Bert Kwouk (Mr. Ling, Goldfinger / Chinese General, 1967’s Casino Royale & SPECTRE #3, You Only Live Twice)
• 20th - 1938, Diana Rigg (Tracy de Vicenzo, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service)
• 20th - 1964, Chris Cornell (Title Song Performer, 2006’s Casino Royale)
• 22nd - 1932, Jack Schwartzman (Producer, Never Say Never Again)
• 22nd - 1974, Claudio Santamaria (Carlos, 2006’s Casino Royale)
• 23rd - 1921, Robert Brown (‘M’, Various)
• 24th - 1947, David & Anthony Meyer (Mischka & Grishka, Octopussy)
• 27th - 1922, Adolfo Celi (Emilio Largo, Thunderball)
• 31st - 1916, Sydney Tafler (Liparus Captain, The Spy Who Loved Me)

• 4th - 1972, Jack Whittingham (Screenwriter, Thunderball & Never Say Never Again)
• 15th - 1987, Alfie Bass (Venice Coffin Spotter, Moonraker)
• 17th - 2004, Pat Roach (Lippe, Never Say Never Again)
• 23rd - 1984, Anthony Sharp (Lord Ambrose, Never Say Never Again)
• 24th - 1980, Peter Sellers (Evelyn Tremble/007, 1967’s Casino Royale)
• 29th - 1982, Harold Sakata (Oddjob, Goldfinger)
• 29th - 1983, David Niven (Sir James Bond, 1967’s Casino Royale)