After six official outings across 12 years, Roger Moore starred in his final James Bond movie in 1985.
Named after Ian Fleming’s short story From a View to a Kill, the 57-year-old 007 starred opposite Christopher Walken’s Max Zorin.
The Bond villain’s dastardly plan saw him plotting to destroy his company’s competition in Silicon Valley by triggering a massive earthquake in the San Andreas Fault and causing a flood.
Originally, Walken’s Bond villain was actually set to be played by David Bowie, who was announced as Zorin during early publicity for A View to a Kill in 1984.
Having initially accepted the role, he later turned it down despite the script being written with a pop star in mind.
The Ziggy Stardust singer told NME in 1984: “Yes, I was offered that. I think for an actor it’s probably an interesting thing to do. But I think that for somebody from rock it’s more of a clown performance. And I didn’t want to spend five months watching my double fall off mountains.”
Nevertheless, Bowie’s contemporary pop star Grace Jones was cast as Bond girl May Day. She later shared in her autobiography how both Sting and Mick Jagger were offered Zorin too, but turned down the villain, so the role finally went to Walken.
If that wasn’t enough, Elvis’ ex-wife Priscilla Presley was originally set to play Bond girl Stacey Sutton. However, the mother of Lisa Marie Presley couldn’t get around her contract for the TV show Dallas and so the role went to Tanya Roberts. Additionally, A View to a Kill’s script saw The Spy Who Loved Me Bond girl Barbara Bach reprising her role as Major Anya Amasova. However, Sir Ringo Starr’s wife decided not to return, so the part was rewritten for the new character, Pola Ivanova, played by Fiona Fullerton.
