While George Lazenby has acted in a variety of movies and TV shows over the years, he’s still best know for his sole contribution to the James Bond movies canon, having played 007 in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Recently, the actor appeared in The Music of James Bond event while it was in Melbourne, Australia. However, Lazenby has been axed from the show after allegedly making comments about “sexual conquests” and more, for which the actor has issued an apology.
The Music of James Bond has been playing at the Perth Concert Hall, and George Lazenby appeared as a guest during the event this past Saturday. Someone who called into The Catch-Up with Mark Gibson (via 6PR 882) the following day described Lazenby’s appearance as being “creepy,” “horrific” and “disgusting, there’s no two ways about it.” Starting off, this caller mentioned that rather than discussing his James Bond history, Lazenby instead dedicated his speaking time on the following topics:
He spent all of the interview just talking basically about his sexual conquests, he was homophobic, he swore, he certainly wasn’t talking about his Bond movies, he downplayed the Queen, a day after she died.
Even though he only starred in one James Bond movie, George Lazenby occupies a notable position in this franchise’s history, so for him to take part in The Music of James Bond served as an extra treat for audiences already seated to hear tunes from this 60-year-old film series performed by an orchestra. Alas, instead of talking about his experience as a James Bond actor, Lazenby instead went through the digressions, and the aforementioned caller also brought up a more specific example of what came out of his mouth:
At one point he named an Australian cricketer whose daughter he was chasing and he said he dragged the daughter out of the pub and put her in the car in London, which is horrific … he named women he had slept with, and there were children in the audience, and a lot families who had brought their kids probably to their first classical music concert.
Following this showing of The Music of James Bond, Concertworks, the company behind the musical event, announced on Facebook that it was “extremely saddened and disappointed by George Lazenby’s language, comments and recollections,” denounced his “conduct” and said that the actor would not appear in the show’s final Melbourne concert. Lazenby himself has since gone on Twitter to apologize for what happened, saying:
I am sorry and saddened to hear that my stories in Perth on Saturday might have offended some people. It was never my intention to make hurtful or homophobic comments and I am truly sorry if my stories that I have shared many times were taken that way. I only ever wish to share some stories and hopefully entertain some people. I personally have friends within my close circle who are gay and I would never wish to offend anyone. Having been surrounded by strong women all my life, I have always admired and respected women and their wishes. I figure my real achievements in my life are my kids: when my daughter Melanie recently got married, I was so proud. As I am of my other kids, Jennifer - who has made me a great granddad. My younger kids are doing well: George Jnr and my twins, Samuel and Kaitlin. Now in my 80s, family and friends are naturally what's most important to me. Love George xx
George Lazenby was the second actor to play James Bond in the official film series, following after Sean Connery’s appearance in 1967’s You Only Live Twice, and Connery returned to the role after Lazenby’s outing with 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever. This incident at The Music of James Bond follows six months after Lazenby was left out of the Oscars’ James Bond tribute. On the subject of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, No Time to Die director Cary Funkunaga said he was “blown away” by it while he was doing research for his James Bond entry, and the 1969 movie actually pairs quite nicely with No Time to Die, particularly when it comes to music.
Following No Time to Die’s release almost a year ago, the next James Bond movie isn’t expected to begin filming until 2024 at the earliest, so it will be a while until we learn who the next actor will be to don the tuxedo. For now, you can keep track of movies coming out sooner than that with our 2022 release schedule and 2023 release schedule.
