HAMILTON, GUY

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

(September 16, 1922–April 20, 2016): British director who helmed Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun. Hamilton deserves much credit for Goldfinger’s perfect balance of comic and serious elements; the deadly earnestness of Dr. No and From Russia with Love was gone, but the broad comedy of the future Bond films was still in check. Hamilton would later direct Sean Connery’s return to the role of 007 in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, as well as Roger Moore’s debut as Bond in 1973’s Live and Let Die.

Born in Paris, where his father was a British diplomat, Guy Hamilton made his feature film debut as an uncredited assistant director on director Alberto Cavalcanti’s crime drama I Became a Criminal (1947), which featured future Bond player Michael Brennan. He then graduated to assistant director assignments on major films such as The Third Man (1949) and The African Queen (1951). He later made his directing debut on another crime drama, The Ringer (1952).

Hamilton’s additional feature film directing credits include The Colditz Story (1955); The Devil’s Disciple (1959); The Best of Enemies (1961); Funeral in Berlin (1966), for Bond producer Harry Saltzman, with Bond veteran Guy Doleman; Battle of Britain (1969), again for producer Harry Saltzman, this time featuring Bond players Robert Shaw, Curt Jurgens, Edward Fox, and Nikki Van der Zyl (who dubbed voices for Saltzman’s movie just as she did for many of the early Bond films); and Force 10 from Navarone (1978), with Bond players Robert Shaw, Edward Fox, Barbara Bach, and Richard Kiel.

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