Albert R. 'Cubby' Broccoli Centenary: 1909 – 2009

Today, 5 April 2009, marks the centenary of Albert Romolo ‘Cubby’ Broccoli, known by movie fans all around the world as one of the key guiding forces behind the phenomenally successful James Bond film series.

Broccoli founded Eon Productions and Danjac, LLC with fellow producer Harry Saltzman. Beginning with the debut of Dr. No in 1962, the pair worked together in creating what remains today one of the most iconic film series to ever grace the silver screen.

Following their parting of ways after 1974’s The Man with the Golden Gun, Broccoli pushed onwards with 007 and with the release of 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me, proved yet again that no one does it better than Bond. Stepson Michael G. Wilson and daughter Barbara Broccoli assisted Broccoli throughout the 1980’s and 90’s until the release of 1995’s GoldenEye, when they took over full production duties.

Broccoli died as a result of heart failure at the age of 87 on 27 June 1996. The following Bond film, 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies, is dedicated to his memory.

Almost 50 years since the debut of Dr. No, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson successfully carry the James Bond series–and their father’s legacy–on by following his simple and straightforward piece of advice: just don’t screw it up.

Albert R. ‘Cubby’ Broccoli
1909 – 2009

As an extravagant retrospective of Broccoli’s work on the 007 series gets underway at BFI Southbank throughout April and May, CommanderBond.net asked members on the James Bond discussion forums exactly what it was that hooked them onto this film series that has influenced an uncountable number of action and adventure films that have followed. Some grew up with Sean Connery as the British secret agent, while others were introduced to the series through Daniel Craig’s interpretation. No matter what the case, certain “Bondian” elements and traditions have shown 007 remains as popular as ever.

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1990, I was five years old and saw some guy on TV use his watch to cut the rope he was tied to and avoid being eaten by a shark. But it wasn’t until a little later when I saw Sean Connery sitting at a card table, lighting up a cigarette and introducing himself as Bond…James Bond. Right there and then was when I realised, the movie industry had given a young boy something fantastically special.

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Goldfinger. As a kid of eight or nine I had started reading my dad’s Bond books and then borrowed the rest from the library. A few years later I became aware that there was a James Bond film about to be released and begged my dad to take me and a friend (also into the books) to see it, that film was Goldfinger. On seeing it I was hooked, my dad then had to take us to the subsequent re-releases of Dr. No and From Russia with Love. By the time Thunderball arrived the cinema manager (who by then knew me) allowed me to see the film without my dad – UK Bonds were then classified “A” which technically meant that children were allowed if accompanied by an adult, I was then only 14 and quite small for my age and couldn’t have bluffed my way in.

I have been lucky enough to see every Bond film on the silver screen and although I was disappointed with some of them I still returned for each new release.

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For me, it was also Goldfinger, which my parents took me to see when I was eight years old. I noticed that Bond was traveling to many locations frequently, got out of many death-defying situations, and that he had a way with the women. Later, I saw a TV-broadcast of Dr. No and saw the casino scene where he introduces himself as Bond, James Bond. Once I made the connection between those two films, I was hooked and decided that I wanted to live a James Bond lifestyle. Well, I haven’t quite made it that far, but I’m still working on it.

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1. He always won.
2. He always seemed to know a lot, about a lot of stuff.
3. He always got the girl.

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I’m not sure what it was.

I think, being a thirteen year old girl, the thought of going on holiday without my parents appealed to me. And then these films that I saw had this guy going out to a foreign location on his own and having this great adventure where he just sorted out the bad guys and then had a few drinks on the beach… that was pretty cool to me, I think.

It was also the personal ties to the business, though, because the films that hooked me were Tomorrow Never Dies and GoldenEye (the next day). They had Paris and Alec as these sort of ‘the friend or the mission’ dilemmas. And I’ve always been fascinated by that part of the game, the emotions vs. the mind and ‘what needs to be done’.

Plus, the action. As opposed to others, I do like BrosnanBond walking around with his machinegun shooting everything that moves. The bazooka going through the car? I’m hooked.

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The blood-curdling sight of Jaws at the age of seven.

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I look at it in three phases.

I was born around the height of Bondmania in the ’60s and my uncle was a huge fan and my parents were fans. We were always going to the double and triple features when I was a kid and almost always to the newest release.

The film that really got me into Bond was Moonraker in the summer of 1979.

The film that kicked it my being a Bond fan of the highest order was seeing an ABC showing of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in winter of 1980. It was just one of those perfect nights. And I’ve been a huge fan and collector ever since.

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I’d watched the old Bond films since I when I was a kid. I didn’t really understand what they were, but I saw that they were cool. So, one Christmas, my aunt gave me four 007 VHS tapes: Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, A View to a Kill, and The World is not Enough. After those four, I started to find the other 16 (at that time) and eventually I got the Ultimate Edition DVDs for Christmas ’06. Before Christmas, though, my first viewing of a Bond film in the theatres was Casino Royale and I was very impressed.

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The first time I was ever introduced to Bond was back in 1996. I was five years old. My grandparents brought The Spy Who Loved Me back for me when they were at Blackpool. I wanted a Disney movie, but they couldn’t get it. And I remember sitting in my grandparents house, and they gave me the VHS. The cover included this image.

I was totally taken by it, the moment I went home, I watched it. I absoloutly loved it.

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When I was a kid I remember that my dad was watching The Man with the Golden Gun on TNT during one of their Bond marathons and I just found it to be so cool because of the gadgets and the suaveness of Bond, but then I started to grow away from it not because I didn’t like it, but because no one watched it as much in my family.

So in 2001, which was right before my freshman year in high school, I just got a small black and white portable television since it was the only TV I could afford and I remember looking at the TV guide at the channels that I got and seeing a movie that seemed really familiar, but I could not place it. I read the description and the last part said “The 9th James Bond film” and it came back to me that I saw this film before–The Man with the Golden Gun.

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Bond’s globetrotting around varied, exotic locations. I’ve always had an itch to travel widely, and the movies brought this to my screen. It’s admittedly increasingly tough for the film-makers to find somewhere that is off the beaten track, but they’re continuing to do a good job, and long may it continue.

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I remember back in 2000, when my older brother was celebrating his 16th birthday and got all the 19 Bond titles (at the time) on VHS.

One day I stayed at home, because I was sick, and I started to watch them, my father insisted that I should watch them chronologically. So I started with Dr. No.

Since then I was a Bond fan. And thanks to this wonderful franchise I began to be interested in movie making in general. As I was used watching the old Bond movies (I liked most of them better then the new ones), it wasn’t any problem to watch black and white movies (Casablanca is now my all time favourite) and later silent movies (like Nosferatu or Intolerance). But the Bond movies still get the most of my attention. I thank my biggest hobby to the Bond films.

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1. The bad guys
2. Roger Moore

This might come as a shocker to some, but the very first Bond film I saw was Goldfinger… and I didn’t like it! But then I watched A View To A Kill and I was hooked!

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I first got interested in the Bond films when I saw the teaser trailer for GoldenEye in the theatres. I didn’t think much of it (it was just another preview to me) until Brosnan walked out of the shadows and into the forefront of the screen and said “You were expecting someone else?”, after which the entire theater erupted into cheers and applause. At that point, I found out that what I was seeing was a trailer for a Bond film, and then went out and picked up a few films, watched them, and became a fan of the series.

I don’t remember which film was the first that I watched knowing that it was a Bond film, but after watching The Living Daylights, I remembered having seen the last half of that film on TV once, as the scene with Bond hanging onto the cargo-net on the back of the plane was something that I had remembered seeing before.

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Originally I saw a part of The World Is Not Enough and wasn’t very impressed. Brosnan was a pretty-boy who’s hair didn’t get messed up (I think I saw the caviar factory scene) and I was turned off of Bond.

Later on I saw a few of the films on TV… Live and Let Die, The Man With the Golden Gun and You Only Live Twice are the ones I remember the best. And those films got me hooked.

I loved the amazing locations, the creative gadgetry, the attractive woman, and most of all just the confident manner in which Bond conducted himself. It’s a mixture of those elements that really make the films so great to watch.

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when I was four or five in the late eighties I remember my dad renting a few Bonds from our local video shop for me–my first memory of me watching Bond. Here in the UK I think most people are just brought up with Bond

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My memory is kinda blurry, but I think it was a Pierce Bronsan Bond movie (think it was GoldenEye. Thought it was pretty cool, but unfortunately I forgot about it. It wasn’t later on until 2006, when I watched Casino Royale and afterwards I was speechless so yeah, Casino Royale was the movie that make hooked me on. Later on I started with watching all of the Bond movies, from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace.

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I’ve loved them since I saw The Spy Who Loved Me on HBO back in the day and Moonraker in the cinema. However, it was the Mr. Jones scene in Dr. No that got me hooked: “Get out. MOVE!!!!!”

Sean is the man.

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For me it was simple, as a young boy of nine, seeing The Living Daylights on TV. Att he time of seeing it, I had no idea that it was part of a series, but I was instantly hooked on the character, becuase it was different than most action stars. Bond was portrayed as a complex and rather morbid man, who in the introduction laid the ground rules “I only kill professionals”.

It was years later when GoldenEye came out and the memories of The Living Daylights came flooding back to me, I was hooked.

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Please visit FelixLeiter.com to read tributes by several cast members from the James Bond films and other members of the Bond community.