Felix Leiter has been a frequent presence in the Miss Moneypenny (who should get a spin-off) have been relatively consistent in their on-screen representations, Leiter has been recast for nearly every film in the franchise. Indeed, seven different actors have played the CIA agent and friend to 007 in Eon Productions Bond films, while more still have lent the character their visage on television or in non-Eon productions. The question arises: why was this character so often recast while other actors became mainstays of their respective recurring roles? The answer, in large part, is found not in the narrative, but throughout the production history of the franchise.
Ian Fleming originally imagined Leiter as an ally to James Bond and something of an American counterpart to the debonair British operative. Possibly the most under-rated Bond character, Leiter was a former Marine who often came to the aid of 007, and in so doing represented the so-called "Special Relationship," as coined by Winston Churchill to describe the political cooperation between the United States and United Kingdom in the 20th and 21st centuries. First introduced in Fleming's novel Casino Royale, Leiter repeatedly helped Bond until he lost an arm and a leg in a shark attack in the novel Live and Let Die and thereafter worked with the Pinkerton Detective Agency. This timeline is altered slightly in the Eon film series, but elements remain true to the original text.
As with other Dr No (1962). Jack Lord was chosen as the inaugural actor, though the producers added the Leiter character to the film despite his being absent from its novel counterpart. When Leiter was to be brought back for Goldfinger (1964), Lord's demand of co-star billing led the producers to recast the role with Cec Linder. Rik Van Nutter was offered the role without an audition in the next Bond film Thunderball (1965), leveraging a connection to Eon though his wife Anita Ekberg, who had recently appeared in another Eon production. At this point, a precedent for recasting Leiter for each movie had been set, and Norman Burton was selected for the 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever.
When Wright will be breaking a Bond franchise record.
The story of Felix Leiter's many faces is a journey through the production history of the Bond franchise. While the character made his screen debut in an episode of the anthology mystery series Climax! in 1954, bringing the Leiter total to nine actors when combined also with the singular non-Eon film Never Say Never Again (1983), his multifaceted journey goes from actor ambition to industry connections to aged reprisals and back again. No actor has yet to appear in three films as Felix Leiter, and with the newest James Bond film set to finally come to audiences in 2021, it'll be making history.
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