|
DUBLIN-BORN film producer Kevin McClory's legal battles to be credited for his co-authorship of the James Bond novel Thunderball, and his many abortive attempts, countered by more litigation, to launch an alternative James Bond franchise are the stuff of movie legend. But they left McClory, who has just died aged 80, a less than popular figure. Obituaries normally try to capture the good in a man's life. But this is how he is summed up by Jeremy Vaughn, one of his closest friends in the '50s and '60s and a neighbour of Ian Fleming's in Jamaica.
"Kevin was a smooth operator, an attractive character, but not a particularly pleasant one, certainly compared to his brother, Desmond. . . If a friend was in trouble, Desmond would always be there.
Kevin would just tell you to piss off, if you weren't any good to him. . . He's been very cruel to a number of people over the years who thought they were his friends. The overdriving thing with Kevin was that he just wanted to be a celebrity." With friends like these. . .
|
YOU ARE HERE: 19 March 2007 / tribune.ie / 2006 / 12 / 10
Terms & Conditions 
