A man with no acting experience landed a major role in a James Bond film and became a mega-star because of it.
In scenes reminiscent of a James Bond film, the future star would sneak past reception, crop his hair like previous 007 actor Sean Connery, and head into the audition room.
Producers were so impressed with him they decided to cast him in the film – in the title role no less.
The career of George Lazenby has this act of minor spywork to thank, with the Australian actor infiltrating the audition room and coming out with a full-blown career.
Despite not working in film before this, the complete unknown would become the surprise succesor to Connery, who had retired from the franchise following You Only Live Twice.
While Connery would return to the series with Diamonds Are Forever, Bond fans may forget Lazenby had no acting experience before taking on the role.
A post to the r/TodayILearned Reddit page shed some light on the little white lie Lazenby, a car salesman at the time, told to get himself into the audition.
The post reads: “George Lazenby had never acted before playing James Bond, but was instead a model and car salesman who lied about having acting experience.
“He showed up with a suit, Rolex, and haircut like Sean Connery’s, and slipped past a distracted receptionist to get into the audition.”
Fans of the star, who went on to feature in A Queen’s Ransom, Gettysburg, and Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E., have since praised his daring and successful attempt at bagging himself an audition.
One fan joked: “Slipping by a distracted receptionist is something James Bond would do.” Another agreed, adding: “Yeah, it’s sort of one of those where ‘f*** it, if you’ve made it this far on lies and subterfuge, you’re probably qualified.'”
But others believe a chance encounter before the audition could have played a big part in the role being given to Lazenby. One fan shared: “He apparently met Broccoli while getting a haircut and was offered a screen test. As well as offered an audition. It sounds like they knew he’d only been in a commercial before.”
Others have suggested Lazenby made up his CV before heading into the audition and managed to fool both Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman.
The fan wrote: “He completely b********ed his resume, which he made up in the taxi on the way to the audition. Claiming that he’d been in the Australian army, where he was a top shot, ‘that everything came easy to him’.
“When he finally confessed, Cubby and Saltzman just said that he’d managed to fool two of the most cynical people going. So his acting skills were superb.”
Despite being a firm favourite in the role, Lazenby would only appear as Bond once. A fan recalled: “Yes, people forget that he turned down to be in future James Bond, rather than they got rid of him. I think they actually offered him a seven film deal after the success of the Majesty’s Secret Service.”