In pictures: 50 years since Desmond Llewelyn's Bond movie debut
- Published
The character of Q, made famous by Welsh actor Desmond Llewelyn, has become an established part of the James Bond legend, appearing in all but three ‘official’ movies - Live and Let Die, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. It is 50 years since Llewelyn, who died in 1999, made his debut as Q
However MI6's fictional quartermaster did not appear, and was only occasionally referred to, in Ian Fleming’s original James Bond novels. In the first Bond movie, Dr No (1962), actor Peter Burton took the part of armourer 'Major Boothroyd', named after Geoffrey Boothroyd, a firearms expert and adviser to the author
'Q', in the form of Llewelyn, made his bow in From Russia With Love, which premiered on 10 October 1963 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London. In his first film he handed Bond (Sean Connery) a booby-trapped briefcase and a tin of talcum powder containing tear gas
Rada-trained Llewelyn (left) was born in Newport in 1914 and made his screen debut in the 1939 drama Campbell of Kilmhor. The following year, as a lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, he was captured in France by the Germans and spent five years in prisoner of war camps including Colditz
Q’s gadgets have included the heavily-armed autogyro, Little Nellie, in You Only Live Twice (1967), a decapitating tea tray in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), a man-eating sofa in The Living Daylights (1987), and flame-throwing bagpipes in The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Over the course of 36 years Llewelyn played opposite five Bonds: Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore (centre), Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, and three 'M's: Bernard Lee, Robert Brown and Dame Judi Dench. No-one has appeared in more Bond movies.
In contrast to his screen persona Llewelyn, who was married with two sons, revealed in interviews that he was hopeless with gadgets and out of his depth with modern technology
He reportedly ignored director Terence Young's advice to play Q with a Welsh accent, saying: "My interpretation of the character was that of a toffee-nosed Englishman. At the risk of losing the part and with silent apologies to my native land, I launched into Q's lines using the worst Welsh accent, followed by the same in English."
Llewelyn, seen here in 1995 with GoldenEye special effects technician Nicholas Finlayson, was succeeded as Q by John Cleese in Die Another Day (2002) and Ben Whishaw in Skyfall (2012)
In November 1999, aged 85, Llewelyn attended the European premiere of his 17th and last Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough. The following month he died after a car crash on the A27 near Firle, East Sussex, while returning from a book signing event