PATCHETT, MAURICE

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

London instructor for double-decker bus drivers who was hired by Eon Productions in 1972 to be a stunt driver in Live and Let Die. With five weeks leave from his job and double pay, Patchett and a Leyland RT double-decker bus, fresh off London’s route 19 from Battersea, were transported to Jamaica, where they performed in the hair-raising chase between Bond (Roger Moore) and drug smuggler Kananga’s henchmen riding in cars and motorcycles.

Patchett expertly skidded the bus on a small rural highway, forcing the motorcycles and cars off the road. He also drove the double-decker under a trestle bridge, shearing off its precut top deck. The fact that he bore a slight resemblance to Roger Moore helped Patchett win the job over twenty-four other instructors.

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