Ian Fleming died this day in 1964 after a heart attack
45 years ago today, Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, died of a heart attack at the age of 56.
As nearly all 007 fans are aware, Fleming’s legacy lives on today around the world through the films, books, fan events and lifestyles one attributes to ‘Bond, James Bond’.
The Guardian newspaper has dug into their archives and reprinted the 13 August 1964 report which marked the news and also bid farewell to secret agent 007…
Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming, the author and creator of James Bond, died in the Kent and Canterbury Hospital early yesterday following a heart attack. He was 56.
Leader: 007 – man or brute?
In his time, Bond was attacked by giant squid, hauled naked across razor-edged coral rocks and almost pulled apart by a rack-like apparatus. Always he survived to tell the tale; and returned, appetite undiminished, to his cars, his meals, and his girls. Yet even Bond, one imagines, can hardly survive his creator: 007 has bitten the dust at last.
But before he finally disappears he deserves at least a farewell glance. Bond was a symbol of the times. He appealed unashamedly to two powerful instincts: snobbery, and the latent sadomasochism which is present beneath the surface of all civilisations. Charged with this, his creator gave two replies. Bond’s snob-appeal he claimed as unintentional. In his first book he had given Bond a good meal—and what was wrong with that?—and the readers had clamoured for more. As for the sex, Bond was just a great, big, virile he-man whose healthy masculinity upset his critics because they lacked it themselves. These answers were, and are, unconvincing. Bond never fussed about the old school tie; and he would not have won millions of readers if he had…[continue reading]
Fleming was buried in the churchyard of the small Sevenhampton village, located in Wiltshire.
Read on for related CommanderBond.net articles centering on Ian Fleming and James Bond…
- James Bond Turns Up In The Strangest Of Places / Commemorating the centenary of Ian Fleming
- An Appreciation of Ian Fleming / Duncan Elliott examines the life of the author and the impact of his creation
- CommanderBond.net: Ian Fleming’s James Bond (1953 – 1966)
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