SPECTRE is a fictional organisation featured in the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, as well as films and video games based in the same universe. Led by criminal mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld, SPECTRE first formally appeared in the novel Thunderball (1961) and in the film Dr. No (1962). The international organisation is not aligned with any nation or political ideology, enabling the later Bond books and Bond films to be regarded as somewhat apolitical. The presence of former Gestapo members in the organization can be considered as a sign of Fleming's warnings about Nazi fugitives after the Second World War, as first detailed in the novel Moonraker (1954). In the novels, SPECTRE begins as a small group of criminals, but in the films it is depicted as a vast international organisation with its own SPECTRE Island training base capable of replacing the Soviet SMERSH.
Thunderball is the ninth book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, and the eighth full-length Bond novel. It was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 27 March 1961, where the initial print run of 50,938 copies quickly sold out. The first novelisation of an unfilmed James Bond screenplay, it was born from a collaboration by five people: Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo, although the controversial shared credit of Fleming, McClory and Whittingham was the result of a courtroom decision.
A Bond girl is a character who is a love interest, female companion or (occasionally) an adversary of James Bond in a novel, film, or video game. Bond girls occasionally have names that are double entendres or sexual puns, such as Plenty O'Toole, Holly Goodhead, or Xenia Onatopp. The female leads in the films, such as Ursula Andress, Honor Blackman, or Eva Green, can also be referred to as "Bond girls". The term Bond girl may also be considered as an anachronism, with some female cast members in the films preferring the designation Bond woman.
Never Say Never Again is a 1983 spy film directed by Irvin Kershner. The film is based on the 1961 James Bond novel Thunderball by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Fleming. The novel had been previously adapted as the 1965 film Thunderball. Never Say Never Again is the second and most recent James Bond film not to be produced by Eon Productions but instead by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm, and was distributed by Warner Bros. The film was executive produced by Kevin McClory, one of the original writers of the Thunderball storyline. McClory had retained the filming rights of the novel following a long legal battle dating from the 1960s.
Emilio Largo is a fictional character and the main antagonist from the 1961 James Bond novel Thunderball. He appears in the 1965 film adaptation, again as the main antagonist, with Italian actor Adolfo Celi filling the role. Largo is also the main antagonist in the 1983 unofficial James Bond movie Never Say Never Again, a remake of Thunderball. In Never Say Never Again, the character's name, however, was changed to Maximillian Largo and he was portrayed by the Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer.
Kevin O'Donovan McClory was an Irish screenwriter, film producer, and film director. McClory was best known for producing the James Bond film Thunderball and for his legal battles with the character's creator, Ian Fleming.
Claudine Auger was a French actress best known for her role as a Bond girl, Dominique "Domino" Derval, in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965). She earned the title of Miss France Monde 1958 and went on to finish as the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest.
Luciana Paluzzi is an Italian actress. She is perhaps best known for playing SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe in the fourth James Bond film, Thunderball, but she had important roles in notable films of the 1960s and 1970s in both the Italian film industry and Hollywood, including Chuka, The Green Slime, 99 Women, Black Gunn, The Klansman and The Sensuous Nurse.
Thunderball is a 1965 spy film and the fourth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is an adaptation of the 1961 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham devised from a story conceived by Kevin McClory, Whittingham, and Fleming. It was the third and final Bond film to be directed by Terence Young, with its screenplay by Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins.
Thunderball is the soundtrack album for the fourth James Bond film Thunderball.
Major Anya Amasova is a fictional character in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, portrayed by Barbara Bach. Amasova is an agent of the KGB.
Yvonne Monlaur was a French film actress of the late 1950s and 1960s best known for her roles in the Hammer horror films.
Maria Grazia Buccella is an Italian actress, glamour model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Italia 1959 and represented her country at Miss Universe 1959.
Gloria Paul is a British retired film actress and dancer.
Charles J. Russhon was an American photographer and Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force who later became noted for his role as a technical adviser and liaison officer on the Sean Connery and Roger Moore James Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s.
Ian Fleming, the writer who created the fictional character James Bond, lived to see the success of his novels depicted on screen before he died. All fourteen books in the series created by Fleming went on to be huge successes on screen. Goldfinger, one of the most epic stories in the James Bond saga, became a fan favourite with Shirley Bassey singing the iconic song, "Goldfinger", that was played for the fiftieth anniversary of the Bond series at the Oscars in 2012. Bond was played by Sean Connery and George Lazenby in the films shot throughout the 1960s. The Bond movies were filmed all across the world and by different directors each time, with some of the old directors collaborating with the new ones. The success of each Bond film lead to bigger budget prices for the following films adapted to the big screen. Each film recovered its budget and won critically acclaimed awards the years that they came out. Of all the Bond films in cinema today, Thunderball is the most successful with the whole Bond series being the third highest grossing of all time in Hollywood cinema.
Fiona Volpe is a character in the James Bond film Thunderball, played by actress Luciana Paluzzi. Paluzzi originally auditioned for the role of Domino Vitali in the film, but was given the role of Volpe. The character does not appear in the novel, and was originally an Irish woman, but was changed to match Paluzzi's Italian ethnicity: "Volpe" is Italian for "fox".
