Born as John Bernard Lee on 10th January 1908, in either County Cork, Ireland or Brentford in London (depending on which source you take), the tall but stockily built character actor Bernard Lee appeared in over one hundred film and TV shows. Adept at playing policemen, members of the military or similar authority figures he is best recalled for his role as M in eleven James Bond films.
His
father, Edmund James Lee, was also an actor and the young Bernard made his
first appearance on stage in 1914, when he was six years old, at the Oxford
Music Hall in London. He was educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
(RADA) whilst working part time as a fruit porter to pay his way. On graduating
he went into repertory theatre in Rusholme, Manchester and Cardiff and
eventually worked in the West End of London theatres in comedic roles opposite
Arthur Askey or in thrillers such as Blind
Man’s Bluff.
Lee would have a lifelong struggle with alcohol consumption which began to
manifest itself during the early part of the 1960s. The Daily Mirror newspaper published Tuesday 14th
November 1961[1]
revealed that Lee was banned from driving for a year at West London Court after
he admitted to drink driving. Lee, who commented that it was the first time he
had been in trouble in thirty years of driving, was also found fifteen pounds
with five guineas costs. Just
over eighteen months later Lee made a further appearance in court charged with
drink driving. The Daily Mirror [2]
reported on the case which was actually found in the favour of Lee. He was
awarded one hundred guineas costs after he was found not guilty of driving his
car in an unfit state. The case was overturned following being declared fit to
drive by a doctor following his arrest.
The year 1972 would prove to be an extremely difficult one for the actor
following the death of his first wife, Gladys, when she perished in a fire
which gutted their Kent cottage in January 1972. Lee was admitted to hospital
for a short while suffering from smoke inhalation and shock. During March 1972 Lee was beaten
up and robbed. The Daily Mirror [3]
featured an interview with the actor following the incident. Lee was
frequenting the West End and on his way to his Mayfair club when he was
attacked by two men who took £15. Lee stated “They didn’t search any other pockets – which is just as well. They
missed another £110 which I had in a breast pocket.[4]”
Following the mugging Lee spent the night in Charing Cross Hospital where
he was treated for bruising, cuts and a black eye. He also lost two teeth in
the attack. The two assailants were traced and tried at the Old Bailey were
they pleaded not guilty.
After both losing his wife and being mugged Lee entered a depressive state and
began to drink even more heavily. These days he would now be termed a
functioning alcoholic, able to keep his job and drinking separate from his
profession and not mixing the two whilst on set. Actor David Simeon, who
appeared alongside Lee in Murrain,
recalls that Lee was always the consummate professional whilst filming and
never touched any booze. After filming had wrapped for the day it was a
different matter. When I interviewed David he commented on Lee that “When we first met and were on location he said “I promise
you I’m not going to have a drink at all” and off course eventually he did and
so we ended up in the pub after filming one day. Needless to say he got very
drunk[5]”
Lee began to build up debts and struggled to find enough work to stay afloat.
Things looked grim, but he bumped into fellow actor Richard Burton one day in a
pub. He told Burton of his troubles. The actor responded by writing Lee a
cheque to enable him to clear his debts. Following this Lee was able to
overcome his depression and get his life and career back on track, but he would
always “enjoy a drink”. Shortly after this Lee fell in love with director’s
assistant Ursula McHale and after a whirlwind romance the couple married on
Monday 27th January 1975. However the issues with alcohol abuse
continued and in September
1978 Lee was once more banned from driving following failing to pass a breath
test.
Off screen Lee had been something of a hellraiser and at least one anecdote
describes Lee drinking Richard Harris “under the table.” He was a hard drinker,
but unlike other actors with a taste for a drop of the hard stuff he did not
mix his drinking with working. He was also sober and work focussed when acting.
However, his hard living did eventually catch up with him when he was admitted
to hospital in November 1980 suffering from stomach cancer. He never left the
hospital and died there, six days after his 73rd birthday, on 16th
January 1981. He was due to play M once more in the Bond film For Your Eyes Only, the script had been
written but Lee passed away before the scenes could be filmed. His role in the
film was not recast and his scenes were divided between the characters Bill
Tanner and the Minster for Defence.
David Simeon noted that “When
I discovered he had died I wrote his wife a long letter and she replied with a
wonderful letter back talking about exactly how Bernard was. He was wonderful
with people. He was an extraordinary person.[6]”
His acting legacy continues to this
day with his role as M granting his an enduring fan base with James Bond
aficionados. The actor Jonny Lee Miller, who appeared as Sick Boy in the film Trainspotting (1996), is his grandson.
FILM
CAREER
Lee made his film debut in the British comedy The Double Event (1934) followed by The River House Mystery (1935).
The year after he could be seen playing the role of Cartwright in the biopic Rhodes of Africa (1936). He was also cast
as William of Orange in the historical drama The Black Tulip (1937) based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas and received
second billing in the The Terror
(1938), a quota quickie based on a Edgar Wallace crime thriller play, which
also featured Alistair Sim in a small role.
During the Second World War Lee undertook active service in the Royal Sussex Regiment between 1940 and 1946, though he had already made several appearances in films which were already completed and later released between 1939 and 1943. These included Murder in Soho (1939) and The Frozen Limits (1939) which featured The Crazy Gang. He then featured in a couple of George Formby comedies; Let George Do It AKA To Hell With Hitler (1940) and Spare A Copper (1940) which had Formby taking on Nazi saboteurs in a pair of movies designed to raise the spirits of wartime audiences. The final film to be held over for release was the short supporting movie The New Lot (1943). Directed by Carol Reed the film featured Lee as one of five recruits who have recently joined the army. The film was later remade as the more well known The Way Ahead (1944), also directed by Carol Reed.
On his
demob in 1946 Lee was able to return to his successful stage career and balance
this with a developing film career. His first post-War film was a small
supporting role in the comedy This Man Is
Mine (1946) and the following year he was cast in what was to become the most successful British film since the end
of the Second World War, The Courtneys of
Curzon Street (1947). The movie, directed by Herbert Wilcox, was a lavish
and star studded production which told the story of a British family over forty
five years and three generations. Lee’s final on screen credit for the year was
playing tugboat skipper Captain Ford in the five-part children’s film serial Dusty Bates (1947) which saw the film
debut of Anthony Newley.
The Fallen Idol (1948) reunited Lee with the director Carol Reed and had an excellent ensemble of British character actors including Ralph Richardson, Jack Hawkins, Dandy Nichols and Geoffrey Keen. Lee portrayed Inspector Hart in an interesting film noir that was nominated for a best director Oscar and won the Best Picture of the Year BAFTA. Quartet (1948) was an anthology film with four stories, each based on the work of W Somerset Maugham, who introduced each segment. Lee had a role in the third story, The Kite, which also featured George Cole in the cast. His next film, Elizabeth of Ladymead (1948), possibly inspired by The Courtneys of Curzon Street, told another generation spanning tale of a British family. Anna Neagle played four generations of women who live in a Georgian mansion, Ladymead, whilst their husbands are away fighting wars. Lee plays one of the husbands, all called John Beresford, in the story set in 1903. Neagle’s character also has iterations of the same name in the different eras – Beth in 1854, Elizabeth in 1903, Betty in 1919 and Liz in 1946. The Third Man (1949) was Lee’s third film with director Carol Reed. Lee played one of the military policemen, Sergeant Paine, who is famously shot and killed by Harry Lime. The film was the biggest box office success of the year in the UK and is now considered a true classic of cinema.
1950 would see Lee became a popular fixture of British film playing a mixture of authority figures; a policeman in the movies The Blue Lamp and Last Holiday, a naval officer in Morning Departure[7] and another policeman in Cage of Gold. He had a rare role as a villain, Colonel Webson, the secret leader of a London crime syndicate in Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951). His only film of 1952 was Gift Horse AKA Glory At Sea. Lee was Able Seaman Stripey Wood, part of the crew[8] of a ship sent on a one way mission to destroy a dry dock in France during World War Two.
Lee’s first film of 1953 would be controversial. Lee was back in uniform, this time as PC Chapman, in The Yellow Balloon which was one of the first films to be given the then brand new X certificate by The British Board of Film Censors[9] which forbid anyone under the age of sixteen from being allowed into the cinema to view the film. The censors felt that the climatic chase through a bomb damaged London Underground station would be too distressing for young viewers and therefore awarded the film the strongest certificate it could. Andrew Ray, the child actor playing the character being chased through the station, was only fourteen and so was unable to go into a cinema and see the film. Film exhibitors were also concerned that the certificate was preventing the family audience the film was aimed at from being able to see the film. There were losing money so the exhibitors complained to the British Board of Film Censors who eventually backed down and granted the film an A certificate in October 1953. This allowed children under sixteen to see the film if they were accompanied by an adult.
Lee’s next appearance was in Beat The Devil (1953), directed by Hollywood legend John Huston and with a very classy line up of actors including Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Jennifer Jones and Gina Lollobrigida. Lee had a small role towards the end of the film as Inspector Jack Clayton[10]. Lee’s cinema work lead him to Ealing Studios for a role as a Customs Officer in the Out of Clouds (1955) which was a portmanteau film detailing the lives of passengers and crew at Heathrow Airport. Largely forgotten and rarely seen the film does offer a unique look at how Heathrow looked before it became the transport hub it now is. Lee stayed with Ealing for his next role and probably didn’t bother to change his uniform as he was another customs officer in The Ship That Died of Shame (1955) AKA PT Raiders.
High Flight[11] (1957) featured Lee as Flight Sergeant Harris
alongside Ray Milland as his commanding officer who oversees the training of a
group of flight cadets which includes boffin Anthony Newley who is trying to
make his own flying saucer. The film was made with the full co-operation of the
RAF and it shows as around forty minutes of its ninety minute running time is devoted
to flying sequences and aerial shots. The
Key (1958) saw Lee cast as Wadlow, the commander of a salvage unit of tug
boats who were responsible for rescuing ships crippled by U-boat attacks in
English waters. Carol Reed once again directed. Nowhere To Go (1958) was a tight British crime
thriller that featured Lee as a prisoner, Victor Sloane, who helps one of his
peers to escape. The film was the debut of director Seth Holt famed for his
later Hammer films, Taste of Fear
(1961), The Nanny (1965) and Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971).
Lee was back in military uniform for his first role of 1959, Danger Within AKA Breakout, a British war film set in a prisoner of war camp in Italy. Lee was Lieutenant Colonel Huxley who masterminds an escape attempt under cover of a production of Hamlet in the camp’s theatre hut. Lee was then back on the police beat for the thriller The Secret Partner (1961) which saw him cast as Detective Superintendent Frank Hanbury investigating a case involving dentists and blackmail. This was followed by the classic British drama Whistle down the Wind (1961). Lee appears as Mr Bostock, the father of Hayley Mill’s Kathy. She is the eldest of three children who discover a convict on the run in a barn. Thinking he is Jesus the children attempt to hide him from capture until Mr Bostock learns of the man in his barn. The film, directed by Bryan Forbes and produced by Richard Attenborough, was a respectable hit and earned four BAFTA nominations.
Lee then took on the role that he would become most established with in the public’s view. Lee would portray M in eleven films and Dr No (1962) was the very first in the long running Bond franchise. Further Bond films quickly followed with From Russia with Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964). Lee’s first cinema release of 1965 was the Amicus portmanteau horror film Dr Terror’s House of Horrors which opened in February 1965 in the UK. Lee appeared as a scientist called Hopkins investigating a malevolent plant in the second story in the film, Creeping Vine. Lee becomes another victim of the plant when it strangles him to death. He rounded off the year with his fourth appearance as M in the Bond film Thunderball (1965).
1967 would see Lee appearing in two
Bond films, one with James, and one with his lesser known brother Sean. OK Connery was an Italian cash in
version of the spy franchise which featured James Bond’s brother Neil (played
by the then current Bond Sean Connery’s brother Neil) as the secret agent. Both
Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell from the official Bond film franchise appeared
though in slightly different roles – Lee was Commander Cunningham, the head of
the secret service. Lee then returned to the official Bond franchise with You Only Live Twice (1967), the fifth of
the films, which saw M active in the field for once, on board a submarine, and sending
Bond to Japan. The film saw the debut of Ernest Blofeld, played exquisitely by
Donald Pleasance.
Lee’s next movie appearances were as
Uncle Bob, a supporting role, in The
Raging Moon (1971) AKA Long Ago
Tomorrow and in the short film Danger
Point (1971) as a Captain. With the rapid contraction of the British film
industry in the 1970s it was inevitable that Lee would eventually appear in
movies based in the few genres that were still making money. Gone were the days
of the British war film, instead it was horror and sex comedies that made money.
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
(1974) was Lee’s first appearance in a horror film since Dr Terror’s House of Horrors
in 1965. Lee played Tarmut in the final film of legendary British horror
film director Terence Fisher. It is possibly Hammer’s goriest film.
Lee’s appearance in Percy’s Progress (1974) AKA It’s Not The Size That Counts was at
least in a sex comedy with better than average credentials; Directed by Ralph
Thomas, who apart from directing many a Carry
On film also had a long career in quality British comedy cinema and scripted
by Harry Corbett, Sid Colin and Ian La Frenais. Casting was also better than
usual with Lee onscreen with the likes of Denholm Elliott, Harry H Corbett,
Vincent Price and T P McKenna.
Bon Baisers de Hong Kong (AKA From Hong Kong With Love) was a 1975 French film which parodied the James Bond films. Bernard Lee and Bond movies colleague Lois Maxwell both appeared playing their Bond alter egos, M and Miss Moneypenny. I’ve never seen the film, but it has probably the weirdest acting credit seen alongside Bernard Lee’s name – Queen Elizabeth II is played by a Huguette Funfrock! This was Lee’s only cinema appearance of the year. The actor’s final two film appearances were in the role he has become forever associated with, M, in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).
Part two of this profile will look at Lee's television work.
[1]
Actor Bernard Lee Banned, The Daily Mirror, Tuesday 14th November
1961, page 22
[2]
Actor Cleared – Gets £105, The Daily Mirror, Friday 8th March 1963,
page 2
[3]
007 Boss Beaten Up, The Daily Mirror, Monday 27th March 1972, p 5
[4]
ibid
[5]
Interview with David Simeon by the author, 24th February 2019
[6]
Interview with David Simeon by the author, 24th February 2019
[7]
The film is known as Operation Disaster
in the USA
[8] A
crew seemingly made up entirely of British character actors including Trevor
Howard, Richard Attenborough, Glyn Houston, Sid James, William Russell and many
more
[9] The Quatermass Xperiment, the Hammer
Films version of the Nigel Kneale TV series, was also given an early X
certification. Ever canny to a bit of exploitation Hammer immediately dropped
the E in experiment in the title to capitalise on this.
[10]
Lee’s character is named after the film’s associate producer, Jack Clayton, who
later became a highly regarded film director with credits such as Room at the Top (1959), The Innocents (1961) and The Great Gatsby (1974).
[11] High Flight is named after the poem of the same name by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr, who flew for the Royal Canadian Air Force and lost his life in 1941 near RAF Cranwell. Many of the locations and air sequences for the film were shot at the RAF base.