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Kevin McClory | |
|---|---|
 McClory in 1959 | |
| Born | (1924-06-08)8 June 1924 |
| Died | 20 November 2006(2006-11-20) (aged 82) |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, film producer, film director |
Kevin O'Donovan McClory (8 June 1924[1] – 20 November 2006) was an Irish screenwriter, film producer, and film director. McClory was best known for producing theJames Bond filmThunderball and for his legal battles with the character's creator,Ian Fleming (laterUnited Artists,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures andEon Productions).[2]
McClory was born inDún Laoghaire,County Dublin, in 1924,[1] to noted actor Thomas John O'Donovan McClory (stage name Desmond O'Donovan) and Winifrede (née Doran), a writer, teacher and actress. He suffered fromdyslexia. McClory's ancestry goes back to the famous Brontë family. Elinor McClory was the mother of Patrick Prunty who changed his name to Bronte when he emigrated from Ireland to England in 1802. Patrick was the father ofEmily, Anne, Charlotte, and Branwell Brontë. McClory's parents were actors and theatre producers in Ireland.[3]
As a teenaged radio officer in theBritish Merchant Navy, McClory endured attacks by German U-boats on two different occasions. The first attack occurred on 20 September 1942[4] while he was serving aboardThe Mathilda. A U-Boat surfaced and attacked the ship with heavy machine gun fire. The crew of the ship fired back, and the U-Boat retreated. The second attack occurred on 21 February 1943 when McClory was serving on the Norwegian tankerStigstad, which was attacked by multiple U-boats when it was a part of Convoy ON 166. The ship sank, and McClory and the other survivors made it to a life raft. They survived in terrible conditions for two weeks and travelled more than 600 miles before being rescued off the coast of Ireland.[5] Two seaman died on the raft, and a third died soon after they were rescued. McClory suffered severe frostbite and lost the ability to speak for more than a year after the incident. When he recovered his voice, he was left with a pronounced stammer. He served out the rest of the war in Britain'sRoyal Navy.[6][7]
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McClory started a career atShepperton Studios in Middlesex as a filmboom operator andlocation manager, where he worked onThe Cockleshell Heroes forWarwick Films. He was an assistant toJohn Huston on films includingThe African Queen (1951) andMoulin Rouge (1952). He was an assistant director on Huston's version ofMoby-Dick (1956), and associate producer and second-unit director onMike Todd'sAround the World in 80 Days (also 1956).
McClory was romantically involved withElizabeth Taylor. Although he and Taylor reportedly had plans to marry, she eventually left him for her future husband Mike Todd. Todd and McClory fell out over Taylor, yet they managed to complete the final cut of the film side by side. The trio would eventually reconcile, and they remained friends until Todd's untimely death in 1958.[8][9]
In 1957, McClory led an expedition of 25 men in an attempt to drive around the world. He filmed a documentary of the adventure,One Road, as well as a series of ads for his sponsorFord Motor Company. The team completed the journey in 104 days. He later wrote, produced and directed the 1957 filmThe Boy and the Bridge, with financial assistance from heiress Josephine Hartford Bryce (sister ofHuntington Hartford) and her husbandIvor Bryce, a friend of Ian Fleming.[10]
In 1958 Fleming approached McClory to produce the first Bond film. McClory rejected all of Fleming's books but felt that the character James Bond could be adapted for the screen. McClory, Bryce, Fleming andJack Whittingham developed the character through a number of treatments and screenplays. McClory, Fleming and Bryce settled on a screenplay,Longitude 78 West (later renamedThunderball), and went into pre-production. Fleming novelised the draft screenplay as his ninth novel,Thunderball, in 1961 and initially did not credit McClory or Whittingham. McClory and Whittingham engaged libel lawyerPeter Carter-Ruck and sued Fleming shortly after the 1961 publication of theThunderball novel, claiming he based it upon the screenplay the trio had earlier written.[11][12]
The trial opened in theHigh Court in London on 20 November 1963. After nine days, the case was settled out of court. Fleming paid McClory damages of £35,000 and McClory's court costs of £52,000, and future versions of the novel were credited as "based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming" – in that order. Fleming conveyed to McClory the worldwide film rights to the novelThunderball and McClory retained certain screen rights to the novel's story, plot, and characters. Harry Saltzman's and Albert R. Broccoli's production companyEon Productions later made a deal with McClory forThunderball to be made into a film in 1965, with McClory producing.[2] Under the deal, Eon licensed McClory's rights for a period of ten years and in return they assigned to McClory any rights they had in the scripts and treatments. McClory made an uncredited cameo in the film.[13] By then, Bond was a box-office success, and series producers Broccoli and Saltzman feared a rival McClory film beyond their control; they agreed to McClory's producer's credit of a cinematicThunderball, with them as executive producers.[14]
In 1968 McClory announced plans to make a film about Irish revolutionary leaderMichael Collins, to starRichard Harris.[citation needed] The film was to have been shot atArdmore Studios in 1969 but was never made.[why?][citation needed]
In 1975, McClory andRichard Harris took out a full-page ad inThe Nassau Tribune "demanding an end tointernment without trial" inNorthern Ireland. Conservative opposition leaderEdward Heath who was visiting Nassau at the time called a press conference and advised "Harris and McClory to 'ask their friends to stop murdering people.'"[citation needed]
In 1976, McClory announced he was to produce a second adaptation ofThunderball, to be titled eitherWarhead,Warhead 8,[2] orJames Bond of the Secret Service.[15] The script ran into difficulties, after accusations fromDanjaq andUnited Artists that the project had gone beyond copyright restrictions, which confined McClory to a film based only on the novelThunderball; once again, the project was delayed.[15] The project returned to the original nuclear terrorism plot of the originalThunderball, in order to avoid another lawsuit from Danjaq, and after McClory sawJimmy Carter mention the issue in a1980 presidential debate withRonald Reagan.[16] A final attempt by Fleming's trustees to block the film was made in the High Court in London in the spring of 1983, but this was thrown out by the court and the film, now titledNever Say Never Again, was permitted to proceed.[17] Lord Justices Waller, Fox and May affirmed McClory's right to make James Bond films andenjoined the plaintiffs from taking similar legal action against McClory in the future. McClory went on to license his rights toJack Schwartzman.
In 1988, he attempted an animated TV cartoon in partnership with a Dutch company,James Bond vs. S.P.E.C.T.R.E., but this never came to fruition, andJames Bond Jr. was created as EON's counterattack to the aborted McClory animated attempt.[18]
In 1989, McClory attempted to recycle theWarhead script again, retitling the projectAtomic Warfare. He approachedPierce Brosnan who had missed out on the role of James Bond toTimothy Dalton due to his contract withNBC'sRemington Steele.[19] The film was supposed to be mainly set in Australia.[20]
McClory subsequently continued attempts to make other adaptations ofThunderball, includingWarhead 2000 A.D. which was to be made bySony.[2]MGM/UA took legal action against Sony and McClory in the United States to prevent the film going into production.MGM/UA abandoned the claim after settling withSony. His rights were untouched. In 2004, Sony acquired 20% of MGM; however, the production and authority over everything involving the film version of James Bond is controlled by Eon Productions (Albert R. Broccoli's production company) and its parent companyDanjaq, LLC.[citation needed] In 1992, McClory had to license the rights to producerAlbert S. Ruddy for a proposedJames Bond television program, but EON Productions blocked it, ending any hopes of a Bond TV show.[21]
Prior to the settlement with MGM in 1999, Sony filed a lawsuit against MGM claiming McClory was the co-author of the cinematic 007 and was owed fees from Danjaq and MGM for all past films. This lawsuit was dismissed in 2000 on the ground that McClory had waited too long with his claims. TheNinth Circuit Court of Appeals later affirmed this decision in 2001.[2][22]
On 15 November 2013, MGM and Danjaq LLC announced they had acquired all rights and interests of McClory's estate. MGM, Danjaq, and the McClory estate issued a statement saying that they had brought to an "amicable conclusion the legal and business disputes that have arisen periodically for over 50 years."[23]
McClory was married twice. He was survived by two sons and two daughters. His first wife was Frederica Ann "Bobo" Sigrist, daughter ofFred Sigrist. He later married Elizabeth O'Brien, daughter of the racehorse trainerVincent O'Brien.[24] They lived atBaltyboys House inBlessington,County Wicklow.
McClory died on 20 November 2006, aged 82, atSt. Columcille's Hospital in the Dublin suburb ofLoughlinstown, from a cerebral hemorrhage, four days after the British release ofCasino Royale.[1]
| Bond Movie Producer | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous: Harry Saltzman Albert R. Broccoli Goldfinger | Thunderball 1965 | Next: Charles K. Feldman Jerry Bresler Casino Royale |
| Previous: Albert R. Broccoli Octopussy | Never Say Never Again 1983 With:Jack Schwartzman | Next: Albert R. Broccoli A View to a Kill |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
