Jack Lord
December 30, 1920 – January 21, 1998
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“For me, Jack Lord sprung to mind. I mean the shades. And outside of Miles Davis, he was the coolest cat on the planet.”
- Jeffrey Wright, current Felix Leiter
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Jack Lord was the first cinematic interpretation of Ian Fleming’s Felix Leiter in 1962′s Dr. No. He was approached for Goldfinger but had to decline due to the producers’ unwillingness to pay him an amount equal to what Sean Connery was making for the picture. Despite his greed, he is still considered one of the series’ best Felix Leiters. He had the potential to make the character truly special by giving the character continuity but unfortunately the producers had to recast thus establishing the tradition of casting a new Felix Leiter every subsequent time the character was needed in a Bond film. As you know, Jeffrey Wright has broken the trend with his appearances in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.
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Vrinda
11.27.2010 @ 8:00 pm
Saying his greed got in the way is a bit harsh. I wish he had taken the role, like a lot of us do (no disrespect to Cec Linder). I read somewhere that the producers chose to go with a different actor because they felt that Jack would overshadow Sean Connery, and another story I read was that they wanted to use a different actor because they didn’t want the character of Felix Leiter to overshadow James Bond. Whichever is true, Jack lost out on a wonderful opportunity, but if he had played Felix in Goldfinger and Thunderball, it might have led to a blossoming movie career, and there would never would have been Hawaii Five-O.
