Casting someone as James Bond has always posed quite a challenge for filmmakers. The man chosen for the role has to be absolutely perfect in every way, with the right mix of danger, coolness under pressure and dashing good looks, lest the film’s box office numbers go flat. The first actor to portray Bond on film was at the time a fairly unknown Scot named Sean Connery, whose only previous identifiable film had been in Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959). Connery made the role of Bond his – or, as one movie poster later put it, “Connery is Bond” – and the rest, as they say, is Hollywood history.

Connery became an international superstar and the measuring stick for every subsequent actor who has taken on the part. The five additional players to grace the role of Bond to date are: Australia’s own George Lazenby (who only portrayed him once before bowing out), Roger Moore (seven films), Timothy Dalton (two), Pierce Brosnan (five) and now Daniel Craig (one and counting). Ian Fleming once stated that Cary Grant was his ideal actor for the role (and Alfred Hitchcock was once almost the series’ first director), and initially Fleming expressed disdain at the casting of Connery. He later admitted, though, that Connery had won him over completely with his portrayal of the British agent. However, it appears that the real force behind the glamorous screen image of Bond, or “Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” as an Italian journalist once dubbed him, was the original director of the series, Terrence Young, who helmed three out of the first four films, including Dr. No (1962), From Russia With Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965).

Young took the thirty-one-year-old, rough-edged Connery (who was from a working class Scottish family) and taught him how to be more debonair-fashioned largely on Young’s own tastes and ladies’ man lifestyle. He even took Connery to his own personal tailor and suggested he actually sleep in his expensive new suit to help him get a good feel for the clothes. The internationally savvy Young, who was British but had been born in Shanghai, was also known for his “casual elegance” and a “tongue-in-cheek” sense of humor, both of which became quintessential Bond trademarks. In fact, Dr. No became the prototype for all future Bond films, and one would have to give Young much of the credit for why 007 became such an on-screen icon (which is not meant as a slight to Fleming-he did invent Bond, after all). Young just fleshed out the secret agent with a perfect blend of humor and style.