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de Vries, Hans de Vries. Almost.

In 1967 THE James Bond (Sean Connery) decided to step away from the world of James Bond films. EOS studios thus had to find a replacement. It came down to 5 men. 2 Brits, an American, a Australian, and a Dutchman. John Richardson, Anthony Rogers, Robert Campbell, George Lazenby, and Hans de Vries.

None of those names ring a bell? George Lazenby won the part for the 6th Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. A movie that has been lauded both as the worst and one of the best Bond films in the franchise. If you haven't seen it, you should. It was the Bond film that 'Breaks the Fourth Wall', Bond gets married, wears a kilt, and goes skiing. But the reason for this post is instead of this;
(Yes, THAT is James Bond)

We could of had this.

Improvement? Probably not. He looks a wee bit angry. Plus, no one watches OHMSS anyway. So, did de Vries have a movie career after Bond? Ha, no. The only notable movie rolls I can find for him were pre bond. And that was as a Cyberman in the British show Dr. Who and a 'control room technician' in the Bond film 'You Only Live Twice'. I tried to look him up on Wikipedia but found nothing. Interestingly though, I found out that de Vries is one of the more common Dutch surnames which means The Frisian. 

Regardless, Mr. Lazenby was replaced after OHMSS by Sean Connery in "Diamonds Are Forever" after his agent convinced him that playing James Bond during the 70s would typecast him and not be worth his time and trouble. Whoops.  

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