When Sean Connery announced he was walking away from James Bond after 1967’s You Only Live Twice, EON and producer Albert Broccoli came calling, with Eastwood high on their list to replicate their leading man’s tough physicality and animal magnetism.
The actor revealed: “I was also offered pretty good money to do James Bond if I would take on the role. This was after Sean Connery left. My lawyer represented the Broccolis and he came and said, ‘They would love to have you.'”
Eastwood said he didn’t turn out down through fear of typecasting this time, or because it wasn’t his type of film: “To me, well, that was somebody else’s gig. That’s Sean’s deal. It didn’t feel right for me to be doing it.”
In the end, notoriously, George Lazenby stepped in for one film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, before shockingly quitting, partly through fear of typecasting and an inflated sense of his own career prospects.
