Lost letter sets out James Bond creator’s blueprint for 007’s look
A newly retrieved 1958 letter from Ian Fleming lifts the lid on his original James Bond blueprint — from casting notes to the look he wanted for 007.
Now here’s a bit of Bond history you don’t get every day—an original letter from Ian Fleming himself, dusted off after spending decades out of sight. It gives us a surprisingly specific look at what the man behind James Bond actually wanted his most famous creation to look like. Forget all the hindsight from Connery to Craig; this is Fleming’s own casting brief, straight from the era when Bond wasn’t even a film icon yet.
In Fleming’s own words to the comic’s artist: 'In general, I think we should avoid giving Bond an American-shaped head and a duck’s haircut.'
Bond by the Book
We have Sean McLusky—son of John McLusky, who drew the original Bond comic strips for the Daily Express—to thank for digging up these pages. Most of Fleming’s correspondence with McLusky disappeared years ago, but Sean uncovered this stash and set things right. During their exchanges back in 1958, Fleming went into granular detail, spelling out just what makes Bond, well, Bond.
According to the letter, Fleming described 007 as standing six feet tall, with black hair, blue eyes, and a thin scar on his right cheek. In two of his books, he’s even compared Bond’s looks to American crooner Hoagy Carmichael. Yet Fleming was fussy about the hairstyle—he wanted none of that pompadour nonsense, warning against both a ‘duck’s haircut’ and anything veering too ‘American’ up top. Can’t really blame him, given the decade.
Fleming wasn’t just penning novels—he oversaw the artwork too, nitpicking Bond’s on-page look so the spy matched his personal vision as closely as possible.
Why Dig This Up Now?
This letter isn’t just a curio for Bond obsessives; it pops up right as Amazon MGM is busy planning the next era for 007, with a new actor on the horizon. Anyone casting the next Bond would probably do worse than go back to Fleming’s blueprint. The correspondence also peels back the curtain on how hands-on Fleming got, right down to dictating bone structure and side-partings—proof that even then, 007 was never just a set of gadgets and tuxedos.
Over the years, Connery, Moore, Brosnan, and Craig have all stamped their mark as Bond, each rewriting the playbook in some way. But as these long-lost notes surface, they make it clear that Fleming had a rock-solid image in his mind for who and what 007 was meant to be—far more than just any old stiff in a dinner jacket.