Kevin O'Donovan McClory was an Irish screenwriter, film producer, and film director.
27 Facts About Kevin McClory
2.
Kevin McClory was born in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, in 1924, to noted actor Thomas John O'Donovan Kevin McClory and Winifrede, a writer, teacher and actress.
3.
Elinor Kevin McClory was the mother of Patrick Prunty who changed his name to Bronte when he emigrated from Ireland to England in 1802.
4.
The second attack occurred on 21 February 1943 when Kevin McClory was serving on the Norwegian tanker Stigstad, which was attacked by multiple U-boats when it was a part of Convy ON 166.
5.
Kevin McClory suffered severe frostbite and lost the ability to speak for more than a year after the incident.
6.
Kevin McClory served out the rest of the war in Britain's Royal Navy.
7.
Kevin McClory started a career at Shepperton Studios in Middlesex as a film boom operator and location manager, where he worked on The Cockleshell Heroes for Warwick Films.
8.
Kevin McClory was an assistant to John Huston on films including The African Queen and Moulin Rouge.
9.
Kevin McClory was an assistant director on Huston's version of Moby-Dick, and associate producer and second-unit director on Mike Todd's Around the World in 80 Days.
10.
Todd and Kevin McClory fell out over Taylor, yet they managed to complete the final cut of the film side by side.
11.
In 1957, Kevin McClory led an expedition of 25 men in an attempt to drive around the world.
12.
Kevin McClory filmed a documentary of the adventure, One Road, as well as a series of ads for his sponsor Ford Motor Company.
13.
Kevin McClory later wrote, produced and directed the 1957 film The Boy and the Bridge, with financial assistance from heiress Josephine Hartford Bryce and her husband Ivor Bryce, a friend of Ian Fleming.
14.
In 1958 Fleming approached Kevin McClory to produce the first Bond film.
15.
Kevin McClory rejected all of Fleming's books but felt that the character James Bond could be adapted for the screen.
16.
Kevin McClory, Bryce, Fleming and Jack Whittingham developed the new James Bond character through a number of treatments and screenplays.
17.
Kevin McClory, Fleming and Bryce settled on the screenplay Longitude 78 West and went into pre-production.
18.
Kevin McClory conspired with Bryce to force McClory out of the film, denying that McClory had any legal interest in the screenplays and treatments that had been written during their collaboration.
19.
In 1968 Kevin McClory announced plans to make a film about Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins, to star Richard Harris.
20.
In 1976, Kevin McClory announced he was to produce an original James Bond film to be titled either Warhead, Warhead 8, or James Bond of the Secret Service, but the project was severely hampered as a result of legal action brought by the Fleming Trustees and United Artists.
21.
Kevin McClory went on to license his rights to Jack Schwartzman.
22.
In 1989, Kevin McClory attempted to recycle the Warhead script again, retitling the project Atomic Warfare.
23.
Kevin McClory approached Pierce Brosnan who had missed out on the role of James Bond to Timothy Dalton due to his contract with NBC's Remington Steele.
24.
Kevin McClory subsequently continued to try to make other adaptations of Thunderball, including Warhead 2000 AD which was to be made by Sony.
25.
Kevin McClory was survived by two sons and two daughters.
26.
Kevin McClory later married Elizabeth O'Brien, daughter of the racehorse trainer Vincent O'Brien.
27.
Kevin McClory died on 20 November 2006, aged 82, at St Columcille's Hospital in the Dublin suburb of Loughlinstown, from a cerebral hemorrhage, four days after the British release of Casino Royale.