"Guy Hamilton, who has died aged 93, was a film director who mastered the genre blockbuster, from action-adventure to whodunnits, and found his true métier in the swaggering glamour of the James Bond series, for which he helmed four of the most famous titles. It was a successful run that opened to Shirley Bassey’s brassy Goldfinger theme in 1964 and closed a decade later with the licenced-to-kill agent dispatching a scowling Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). Along with his two intervening outings – Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Live and Let Die (1973) – they made a classic 007 quartet. Directing a film, Hamilton once claimed, demanded “a hide like a rhinoceros”. His proved particularly thick, a resilience forged – as had been the case with James Bond – by his wartime service with covert naval operations. His films, even the thrillers, were often struck through with a wry humour drawn, he explained, from his war days. “Everybody was a bit facetious,” he recalled, “and the typical English thing is to make jokes in order to pretend you’re not frightened.” Hamilton’s place in the Bond franchise saw him bridge the divergent styles of Sean Connery and Roger Moore, develop the banter with Secret Intelligence Service cohorts such as Q and M, and ratchet up the exotic locales, glamour and gadgetry. “Bond couldn’t have just any yacht,” explained Hamilton. “It had to be the biggest yacht in the world. We were creating a dream world, defining what was ‘Bondian’.” Mervyn Ian Guy Hamilton was born on September 16 1922 in Paris, where his father was the press attaché to the British Embassy. From an early age Guy was intent on a career in film (his father’s opposition to the entertainment industry changed on being charmed by Anna Neagle). At 17 Hamilton joined the accounts department of a film studio in Nice, moving to the shooting floor shortly after. As war loomed he was forced to escape France in a collier boat to North Africa – on board he discovered that another refugee was Somerset Maugham, whose butler made tea in an empty corned-beef tin. During the war Hamilton served in the Royal Navy with the 15th Motor Gunboat Flotilla, a covert unit led by Lieutenant-Commander Peter Williams, which attempted to rescue British servicemen caught in France and, in reverse, ferry agents into occupied territory. In January 1944, however, Hamilton found himself caught up in an adventure befitting the imagination of Ian Fleming, when he was the one left behind on the Breton shores. With his gunboat remaining 500 yards out, Hamilton, two crewmen and three agents pitched into a small surfboat and rowed to a nearby beach – codenamed Bonaparte. When they missed the rendezvous for their return gunship they sank the surfboat and made contact with the Resistance. “We walked through the night to get well away from the beach we’d landed at, so we wouldn’t give away the fact that it was being used for operations,” he remembered. “Then we contacted the Resistance and they took us in hand. First we stayed with a Breton family, but that got too hot for us. When the Germans came snooping round they moved us out into this deserted shepherd’s hut in the middle of a forest. The Germans knew that we were around somewhere, but we evaded them, and were picked up four weeks later. I had a month’s holiday in Brittany.” The group who helped Hamilton and his crew included the 18-year-old Maria-Therese Calvez. “Quite simply, if was not for the Resistance I would not be alive today,” said Hamilton. “I owed my life to Marie-Therese.” On one occasion the Resistance members took him to a village bar to play skittles. “I was horrified to see the Germans there, and the Resistance even bought them a round of drinks. They thought it was hilarious, but I thought it was very unfunny. Thank God that only happened once.” Hamilton was awarded a DSC for his numerous missions to France and Norway." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/04/21/guy-hamilton-film-director--obituary/
I've watched Diamonds and Goldfinger quite a lot, since I have the DVDs, and always see his name in the credits ....I always thought he was in WW2....... numerous missions to France and Norway....great background for the Bond films..... .he didn't think buying the Germans drinks funny ...! good one, as is the article ...much thanks
