We’ve been chased by police and terrorised by stalkers because we’re called James Bond – having this name is a curse
IT’S a name that conjures up suave sex appeal and dashing daredevil skills.
But for the real men named after Britain’s most famous spy, being called James Bond is both a blessing and a curse.
From one man who was jailed for 60 days when police did not believe his name, to those that groan after hearing the same joke every day, the life of a real 007 is not easy.
And new documentary The Other Fellow, out today, reveals just how tough it can be.
Director Matthew Bauer told The Sun: “I thought it would just be Aston Martin jokes and ‘Shaken not stirred’, but there’s a lot more to it.
“They told me stories of being on the run from the police, crazy James Bond fans and stalkers.”
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Among the 14 men featured is Gunnar James Bond Schafer.
He lives like his spy hero and changed his name, fittingly, in 2-007.
The 65-year-old, who sells car parts and runs a 007 museum in Sweden, has millions of pounds worth of Bond memorabilia, from the Lotus Esprit S3 Turbo used in 1981’s For Your Eyes Only to Bond Girl bikinis.
Every day, he styles his hair like Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, only drinks James’s favourite Bollinger Champagne and refuses to marry — to be more like Bond.
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Gunnar told us: “Everything in my life is to do with James Bond.
“We are similar in our love of martinis, Champagne, the clothes, Omega watches and everything.
“A lot of ladies send me messages and I know what they want. I can read between the lines, but generally women are a mystery to me.
"Fortunately, no one has ever wanted to fight me because of James Bond.
"If they did, I’m a good runner so would be better off doing that than trying to kill people.
“Living like James Bond is a legacy and I’m honoured to be part of the story, it’s helped me through some bad times.”
His obsession with Bond followed the disappearance of his father Johannes, who went missing while visiting family in Germany in 1959, when Gunnar was two years old.
Johannes fought in the German navy during World War Two, but deserted his post and escaped to Sweden, where he became a citizen.
Gunnar said: “I always wondered what happened to my dad and when I saw my first Bond movie, Goldfinger, it reminded me of his story.
“He and Bond have so much in common, but were on opposite sides, one good and one bad.
“James Bond could have had the same experiences as my dad and he became someone I looked up to, who helps me through the day.
“I learned everything my missing father would have taught me from James Bond.”
Gunnar vowed never to tie the knot after seeing 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, fearing a similar fate to 007’s wife Tracy Di Vicenzo, who was murdered shortly after she and the spy wed.
He joked: “James Bond married once and she was killed in one hour.
"I’ve already lost my dad and my wife could die. So I don’t see why I should risk losing a wife too.”
Gunnar’s fixation has seen him amass more than 25,000 pieces of 007 memorabilia.
He started off with a toy version of James Bond’s Aston Martin in 1965 before progressing to the real deal.
He now owns 14 vehicles used by 007.
They include the BMW Z3 from 1995’s Golden Eye, Jaguar E-Type from the original Casino Royale in 1967 and a BMW R 1200 motorbike that plays a big part in a chase scene in 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies.
He also has a tuk-tuk taxi from 1983’s Octopussy, the gondola from 1979’s Moonraker and a hovercraft and snowmobile from 2002’s Die Another Day.
He said: “Of course, I would love to be James Bond. It would be the crowning moment for everything and the legacy of my life.”
Here, we take a look some of the other men called James Bond.
- The Other Fellow is in cinemas now and available on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, iTunes and Sky Store.
Preacher Bond, 70
AMERICAN James Neal Bond wasn’t allowed to watch 007 movies as a kid in Austin, Texas, because he came from a strict Christian family – but he sneaked into cinemas to see them anyway.
“It was forbidden,” he says.
Pals nicknamed him “double O”, but his moniker has never helped him with the ladies.
The retired preacher says: “To be honest with you, I was such a dork. The girls didn’t flock to me anyway.”
There are four James Bonds in his family but he points out that “none of us are Juniors” because they all have a different middle name.
Lawyer Bond, 55
EVERY time a new Bond film comes out, life becomes “crazy” for this James.
He says strangers “don’t actually believe you” when they ask his name and often he is stuck in long conversations about the movies when “All I really wanted was to have my credit card problem fixed,” adds James, who lives in Vancouver, Canada.
His parents believed “people would forget about” him sharing a name with the spy, but they were wrong.
James, who has a husband, says: “The name carries with it a lot of sense of hyper-masculinity, martinis and womanising. While I love martinis, the womanising I’m not in for.”
The original Bond
EVER wondered how Ian Fleming, came up with the name for his hero?
He said he “stole it” from a bird specialist who published a book he liked.
The man in question, who died aged 89 in 1989, wasn’t impressed due to being “very different from the womanising spy”.
James’s wife Mary threatened to sue until the author wrote to her and offered “unlimited use of” his name “for any purpose you may think fit”.
He added: “Perhaps he will discover some particularly horrible species of bird which he can name after me?”
He later gave them a copy of You Only Live Twice, signed: “To the real James Bond, from the thief of his identity.”
Old Bond, 87
THE retired oilman, from Llano, Texas, had the spy’s name since before the films were released.
He also pre-dates Ian Fleming’s 007 books, the first of which was published in 1953.
The American says he has never been a fan of either, adding: “I just never did care for James Bond from his movies, it just wasn’t my prototype.”
However, it still hasn’t left him immune to mockery.
He adds: “Every chance they get, they go, ‘This is James Bond before there ever was a James Bond’.”
Computer whizz Bond, 33
PROGRAMMER James says the name is “outstanding” for chatting up ladies when you “can’t come up with a line of your own”.
Once, however, a police officer didn’t believe he was called James Bond and pulled a gun on him.
James, from New Braunfels, Texas, explains: “He grabbed me by my shirt and said, ‘You f***ed with the wrong guy on the wrong day’.”
James pleaded with the officer but he drew his weapon and told him: “Yeah, right, and I’m Donald f***ing Duck. Get on the ground!”
He adds: “I go to every James Bond movie, and I never have to pay. I named my son James too because I’m a cheap b*****d.”
Inmate Bond, 42
FOR this James Bond, his name has been a “curse” after leading to multiple run-ins with the police, including once being jailed for identifying himself.
He recalls: “I just said my name and I had to do 60 days in a county jail for that.”
James, from South Bend, Indiana, prefers to be known as another film character “The Dark Knight” rather than his real name.
In 2012 he was wrongly accused of murdering Ramon Hamilton, who was found dead on the street with a gun in his hand. It led to him being labelled “the devil James Bond”.
He was later found not guilty.
Brit Bond, 51
LONDONER James hated being associated with 007 so he changed his last name to Hart.
The furniture maker says it came with “a lot of baggage” and fake people who “wanted me to be around them because I was ‘James Bond’.”
Despite his struggles, James “excuses” his parents and says: “How could they possibly imagine where we would be in 20, 30, 40 years time with this snowballing eternal franchise?”
While his daughter, Esme Bond, finds her dad’s name “cool”, James says he is “definitely much happier” since becoming a Hart.
To any parents thinking of naming their child James Bond, he has a simple response: “Don’t!”
Gun-toting Bond, 48
WHEELCHAIR salesman James, who proudly sports a Make America Great Again hat, says there’s “nothing in my life I’ve ever done because James Bond does it”.
In 2012 he came under fire after Inmate Bond, left, was arrested for murder and people confused their identity.
He explains: “I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding’. I didn’t know there were other James Bonds in South Bend, Indiana. That’s where the name was not an advantage.”
It risked his job taking disabled children on turkey hunts because parents didn’t want them out in the woods with “James Bond with a gun”.
The other Bond was eventually cleared.
Undercover Bond
ONE mother, from London, whose identity is hidden for her safety, changed her son’s name to James Bond to escape an abusive ex-husband.
After she fled, she moved between different cities in the UK.
But he always tracked them down and once showed up at their son’s school.
The police advised her to change their names to “something very popular…like Smith or Jones”.
But she says: “I wanted a name that if somebody searched for it, they would have to spend hours looking through so much stuff.
“I mean, what person in their right mind would call their son James Bond? It seemed like the craziest, sanest idea I had.”
Theatrical Bond, 52
“WHEN is it going to stop?” asks the theatre director, from New York, after his life has been plagued by “the same damn film for like every other damn year of my life”.
James says he has very little in common with 007, explaining that he is gay and that Daniel Craig “has a six pack” while he has “a keg”.
He says: “It’s a pain in the ass. My father was a James Bond fan and in the house that I grew up in, the phone numbers were 007.”
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Since making the film, he adds: “I am much less annoyed by it now.
"I’m friendly with another half dozen James Bonds that I would not have known. There’s kind of a support group, if you will.”