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James Bond, Declassified: 50 Things You Didn’t Know About 007

On Oct. 5, 1962, the first Bond film, Dr. No, hit theaters. Five decades and 22 films later, the spy has been immortalized as a legendary screen hero. TIME has compiled the most interesting stories, anecdotes and tidbits from the franchise

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Roald Dahl and Kingsley Amis Both Wrote for Bond

By Sept. 21, 2012
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Roald Dahl

Ian Fleming is without a doubt the writer who lays claim to James Bond. Fleming invented him, after all. But that doesn’t mean other famous writers haven’t had a hand in crafting the character over the years. Fleming died in 1964, just a few months before The Man with the Golden Gun was published. Kingsley Amis, under the pseudonymn Robert Markham, stepped in to write the first non-Fleming Bond book, 1968’s Colonel Sun. Roald Dahl, of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fame, wrote the script for You Only Live Twice — though he ignored the plot of the Fleming novel of the same name.

Next Moonraker Was Made Because of Star Wars

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