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Bond & Beyond
Interviewer: Jon Auty Photography: David Williams
JA: Your involvement with Bond started in 1966 at Pinewood Studio’s during You Only Live Twice. What do you remember about your time on the picture?
DR: The one thing I remember clearly is being shot in the arse by Vic Armstrong.
We were hanging from ropes, that were dangling from the ceiling and the assistant director had come across a problem so we were waiting around for quite some time.
Anyway Vic was behind me and his finger must have slipped onto the trigger. Sure enough his gun went off. Bloody good job we were using blanks! Mind you I think Vic was more scared than I was, needless to say it didn’t happen again.
JA: You also worked on A View to A Kill didn’t you?
A View To A Kill
DR: Yes, I had a few jobs on that picture. I had a fight with Roger Moore and Tanya Roberts and Roger shoots at me with ‘Rock Salt’ and I fall down the stairs.
On the first take my feet went from under me and I hit the first step with my head!
Only on the second take did I manage to take out the banister, which was my intention. The floor was really slippery and we spent most of our time falling over.
Then during the fight Tim Condren and myself exchange blows with Roger and Tanya.
I had to throw her to the floor, but I didn’t want to hurt her so I kept placing her on the floor. Anyway it wasn’t working so I said "Look I’m going to have to really throw you down", and she agreed! So I did and I tell you something she’s made of strong stuff. Other actors would have had a double for that, but not her.
JA: What about the action inside the mine?
A View To A Kill
DR: Yes, I was involved in that. Martin Grace had asked me to do a fall through water into a box rig. Water was pouring over the edge of this crater and I had to go with it and drop out of camera shot.
Part of the rig was wet, but the hydraulic action of this ‘waterfall’ meant that the camera crew who were standing 75ft away were getting wet too!
Anyway I did the fall and it turned out to be a very nice job to do. Difficult but rewarding when you see it on screen.
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Many thanks to Doug for his kind help and co-operation.
Read the full interview in the next edition of STUNTS magazine, Issue 002 available soon.
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