Licence to Kill, the 16th James Bond film starring Timothy Dalton as 007, was released in the United States twenty years ago today. To celebrate the occasion, FelixLeiter.com recently caught up with David Hedisonto discuss his second outing as Felix Leiter as well as his book, The Fly at Fifty.
From 1989 until last year when Quantum of Solace was released, Mr. Hedison had the distinct honor of being the only man to play Felix Leiter in two seperate films (Live and Let Die & Licence to Kill). Today, he and Jeffrey Wright share that honor, however, Hedison is still many Bond fans’ favorite Felix Leiter.
If you don’t already own Licence to Kill on home video, I suggest buying the Ultimate Edition DVD or Blu-ray because (1) it’s one of the best James Bond films and (2) it features James Bond’s brother from Langley (although the film shows Leiter liaising with the Drug Enforcement Administration)!
Welcome to…
The David Hedison FLc Interview
Hunter Graybeal:In your extended biography located in chapter two of The Fly at Fifty, it says that you were in the theatre company for the 1951 season at Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. Being from nearby Bristol, Tennessee, I’d love to know what it was like for you to live there that summer, being a vastly different region than your native New England.
David Hedison:Barter wasn’t my first time living in the South. I spent a year in Jacksonville, Florida in 1945-46 as a seaman second class in the US Navy. I like the South. It may be different than New England, but people are people no matter where you go. I have always enjoyed Southern hospitality whenever and wherever it is offered.
HG:Also in your biography, it says that you appeared in A Month in the Country alongside your own teacher, Ms. Uta Hagen, and under the direction of Sir Michael Redgrave. As a young professional actor, what was it like to be on the stage with such heroes and heroines of the acting world?
DH: I learned a lot. It was great experience. I really could relate to the tutor, Belieav, and that came out in my performance. Hagen believed in my talent, which helped immensely. I gave that part everything I had.
Redgrave was an excellent director. It showed in the reviews we got and in the awards I won. I knew I needed to do well in this part. It was my first real break after almost a year of trying to make it on the stage in New York, so I went for it. And I ended up in Hollywood making movies, but that’s another story!
HG:If another The Fly remake were to be greenlit and produced again, would you be interested in playing a part in it?
DH:Not sure what I’d play now, but if the part was right for me, and they asked me to do it, I’d certainly say yes.
Chris Wright:July 14, 2009 will mark the 20th anniversary of Licence to Kill. Can you tell us what your fondest memory is from filming your second Bond film?
DH: I loved the Key West location. In particular, winding down beside the hotel pool in the evening after a hard day’s work, with my wife, Bridget, and Benicio del Toro, who is a lovely, warm person, nothing like Dario. Del Toro was not well known then, but I could see he had talent. There was a boat there and my wife and I would go out sailing.
CW: What did you think when you read the script and it said your character was going to get married and maimed in the film?
DH:I was coming down to the set from another job – a play called Return Engagements – and my advance script got lost in the mail. So I arrived for my first day of shooting with no script. Barbara Broccoli was kind enough to lend me hers to get me through the day, until they could get me one, so I really didn’t know what I was doing, at first.
CW:Do you wish you had been asked to do more Bond films as Felix Leiter?
DH:I certainly would have played the part if someone had asked me to, but no one did. They took Roger’s Bond in a direction that did not include Felix until his last film and then they decided “Felix” should be an Asian. I never complained about them casting me in the two films they did. Felix in the Fleming books is supposed to be blond and from Texas, and I am neither.
CW:Can you tell us about any of your current or future projects?
DH:I plan to make some personal appearances later this year, but the dates are not announced yet. They will show up on my website, DavidHedison.com, when they are set. I’m still working at the Actors Studio West and I enjoy that very much.
HG & CW:FelixLeiter.com would like to thank you for taking the time to participate in this interview.
David Hedison, two-time Felix Leiter, turns 82 years old today and all of us here at FelixLeiter.com would like to wish him a wonderful happy birthday!
Mr. Hedison appeared in 1973’s Live and Let Die and 1989’s Licence to Kill. He was the first actor to portray the cinematic Leiter twice, a record he now shares with Jeffrey Wright. Many Bond fans consider him their favorite interpretation of Felix Leiter and many wish he had been given the opportunity to play the character more. I too share this sentiment and wish he had at least returned in 1987’s The Living Daylights. I don’t dislike John Terry in that film but I think we can all agree that David Hedison IS Felix Leiter! Mr. Terry was merely filling in for him until he returned two years later in Licence to Kill as far as I’m concerned.
I had the opportunity to meet him as well as Priscilla Barnes (Della Leiter) at the first annual International Sports & Entertainment Festival in Cleveland, Ohio in June 2006. I shared my experience at this event in this article at CommanderBond.net. Mr. Hedison was the first actor from a James Bond film that I had ever met and I will always remember that experience.
Thank you for being a class act and FLc hopes you have many more happy birthdays to come!
–
FelixLeiter.com is now on Twitter. Follow us at FelixLeiterNews!
Rik Van Nutter, the third actor to play Felix Leiter, was born 79 years ago today. I recently watched Thunderball and I really enjoyed his portrayal of our favorite CIA agent. He was certainly better than his predecessor, Cec Linder, and I wish he had returned in Diamonds Are Forever instead of Norman Burton. Not just for the sake of continuity (which there had been none of in the Leiter role at the time) but because Burton wasn’t that great.
DavidHedison.com is currently having a sale on its sets of autographed photographs. The sale will last until all photos are gone so get ‘em while they last!
Sebastian Faulks, author of the latest adult James Bond novel Devil May Care, turns 56 years old today and all of us at FelixLeiter.com would like to wish him a wonderful happy birthday!
Cec Linder, the second actor to play Felix Leiter, was born 88 years ago today. He was no Jack Lord but he was still a great Felix in 1964! The following dialogue is from one of my favorite Leiter scenes in Goldfinger:
Bond: Special plane, lunch at the White House… how come?
Leiter: The President wants to thank you personally.
Bond: Oh, it was nothing, really.
Leiter: I know that, but he doesn’t.
Bond: I suppose I’ll be able to get a drink there.
Leiter: I told the stewardess liquor for three.
Bond: Who are the other two?
Leiter: Oh, there are no other two.
Watch this video to see Bond ditch his dinner plans with Linder’s Leiter for Jill Masterson. Poor Felix…
Today marks the 100th birthday of Albert Romolo “Cubby” Broccoli, the legendary producer of the James Bond films series. While he passed away in 1996 his legacy still lives on today, as we witnessed with the 2008 release of Quantum of Solace, the 22nd 007 film produced by Mr. Broccoli’s Eon Productions Ltd.
When I think of the average movie producer, I think of somebody sitting behind a desk whose sole responsibility is signing off on various things during all phases of production. If you know anything about Mr. Broccoli, you’ll know that he famously took a hands-on approach when “producing” films. He was so dedicated to every aspect of film production on the Bond film series that he only produced two non-Bond films (1963’s Call Me Bwana and 1968’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) during his thirty-four years as co-owner (and later sole owner) of Eon Productions!
As his step-son Michael G. Wilson and daughter Barbara Broccoli gear up for production on the 23rd James Bond film, FelixLeiter.com celebrates the life and career of a man that was loved and admired by not only his friends and family but by everybody he ever worked with as well as every Bond fan and film buff familiar with his work.
I encourage you to take some time to read through the tributes written by the authors below. If you’re a 007 fan and/or involved in the online James Bond fan community, you will recognize most of these names. This select group of people includes actors that worked with Mr. Broccoli over the years on the Bond films as well as well-known members of the James Bond fan community.
Editor Hunter Graybeal and are confident that you will enjoy reading the tributes. Not only do they contain anecdotes that you may not have heard or read about before but altogether, they paint a portrait of the man that changed the film industry forever. Because of Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, you have seen at least one film starring “Bond. James Bond” in your lifetime and if you haven’t, well then perhaps after reading these tributes you’ll decide to rent one of the 22 Bond films available from your local video rental store.
–
Chris Wright
Managing Editor, FelixLeiter.com
Click on each author’s name to read his/her tribute to Albert R. Broccoli:
